Water bills stir a fierce feud at City Council
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
Questions about Darlington City Council’s 2020 decision to raise water/sewer rates 40 percent sparked a brief but intense flare-up last week between the mayor, a council member and a Darlington resident.
Before it was over, councilwoman Sheila Baccus had called Mayor Curtis Boyd a “racist” who has “lost your mind”; Boyd had admonished a city resident to “quit whining” about issues the city is already addressing; and the resident, John Lewis, had told Boyd, “You’re not gonna sit there and accuse me of ‘whining!’”
The incident at council’s March 1 regular meeting began when Lewis signed up to speak to council about the city’s reluctant 2020 decision to raise water/sewer rates 40 percent to bail out a system that was collapsing financially.
Boyd had spoken about the rate hike in detail at council’s February meeting, producing figures that showed the city’s water system was “flat broke” and that the city had no option but to raise rates significantly. Boyd’s figures showed that for fiscal 2020 alone, the system lost $784,000.
Lewis said he had a “discussion” with Boyd after last month’s meeting about several things. He told council last week that water/sewer rates should not have been raised during the pandemic. “People had lost jobs. They were hurting. Inflation was going up. … On top of it, we raised their (water) rates.”
“Those rates, if we were going to have to raise them, didn’t have to be raised that high,” Lewis told council. And he said the city could have dropped water/sewer late-payment fees “for a period of time, simply because we know this town is hurting.” He also said sewer leaks from the city’s old lines are endangering children and conceivably could cause cholera.
Council member Baccus, who voted against the 2020 rate hike, told Lewis there were problems with late fees. “Even the structure of the fees need to be addressed. They definitely hurt the citizens of Darlington.” She also said the city’s more recent decision to have property owners register and pay fees on vacant commercial and residential properties was doing damage.
“Just one last thing, Mr. Mayor,” Lewis said. “This is a prime example of what I was talking about. I bring up about the sewage and everything else. What are we gonna do? Nothing. We’re gonna sit up there just like we have for the last 20 years.”
“My turn to talk, OK?” Boyd said. “Mr. Lewis, you want us to fix everything so that there’s no (sewage) out on the street. But then you want to say that we shouldn’t raise (rates).” Boyd said that there have “always” been late fees and that fewer people “got their water turned off than the year before.”
Boyd said that for the past eight years or so, the city’s water/sewer system had “been in the hole” financially. As a result of the 2020 rate hike, “We finally got it to where it’s not in the hole, and we start trying to get things fixed. … You can’t have (it) both ways, OK?”
“And that’s why I raised my hand,” Boyd continued. “If you don’t want to vote me in, don’t vote me in. But please, quit coming to my council and whining about stuff when we’re trying to get things done, OK? We’re getting things done, all right? And we’re letting people know what’s happening. I’m as clear and transparent as everybody can possibly be.”
“We let everybody know the water bill is raised, OK?” Boyd added. “The water bill got raised. We got out of the hole. We’re getting things fixed, OK? We’ve been in the hole for years. Stuff has to be fixed. It’s a business.”
“I do not have anything to hide, Mr. Lewis,” the mayor said. “ … Please do not insinuate that I have anything to hide. … I raised the water bills. I did not force anybody to raise the water bills. Everybody voted for it, the ones that wanted to vote for it. That’s the way things work. Mr. Boyd does not make things happen. Mr. Boyd works to try to get things changed. That’s what the rest of the council are here for.
“So please, quit coming up to my council – this is my room, this is my council, this is the only thing that I have control over – so please – I’m allowing you to speak … you’re allowed to speak – please do not come up and badger us about that. Anytime you’d like to talk afterward, we’ll have a complete discussion. …”
Lewis then told Boyd sharply, “You’re not gonna sit there and accuse me of ‘whining!’”
Baccus then tried to enter the debate. “The discussion’s over,” Boyd told her.
“You don’t own me!” Baccus told the mayor. “ … You do not own me on this council. Let me educate you on that right now. ‘My council.’ ‘My city.’ ‘My this.’ That’s your racist problem right there. … You don’t own nobody right here. This ain’t no dictatorship. You done lost your mind in here.”
In other business March 1, City Council:
— Approved giving the Greater Darlington Chamber of Commerce $14,500 to help stage this summer’s Freedom Fest; most of that will finance the fireworks display.
— Heard a request from Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority director Don Strickland to lease a piece of property from the city on West Broad Street to store several PDRTA buses when they’re not in use. The PDRTA would be responsible for paving the area and putting up a fence.