Daily Archives: August 21, 2023

August 2023, City Government

Teddy Milner on the Issues: 12 Questions, 12 Answers

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The Schofield Community Association (SCA) recently hosted a Meet-and-Greet/Mayoral Forum for Teddy Milner(R) and Rick Osbon(R), the two candidates in tomorrow’s Republican primary runoff. The SCA provided both candidates with twelve questions in advance of the meeting. Teddy Milner’s answers to these questions, provided in written form, are viewable on the Teddy Milner for Mayor of Aiken Facebook page and also below, in screenshots, for the benefit of local citizens who were unable to attend Thursday’s meeting.

NOTE: Click on each screenshot for a full-size view.

First, a few words from Teddy’s page….

Question One

Question Two

Question Three

Question Four

Question Five

Question Six

Question Seven

Question Eight

Question Nine

Question Ten

Question Eleven

Question Twelve

August 2023, City Government, Editorials

The Campaign Flyer 

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“ It’s Not Mine.” Mayor Osbon Denies His Own Campaign Flyer While Supporters Shout Down A District One Citizen.

by Don Moniak*
August 21, 2023

Updated August 21 to add video clip of meeting

There were several intriguing and prominent moments at the Schofield Community Association’s (SCA) Mayoral Candidate Forum held at the Smith Hazel Center this past Thursday evening. But one exchange stood out above the rest.

The forum was held just five days prior to the runoff election between Teddy Milner (R) and incumbent Mayor Rick Osbon (R), to be held Tuesday August 22nd.  All registered City of Aiken voters can cast their ballot.

Candidates first answered twelve questions prepared by SCA and submitted in advance to the candidates. Candidate Milner (R) was prepared for the meeting with written, researched answers, while Candidate Osbon (R) improvised.

Following the answers to SCA’s questions, the forum turned to the audience question-and-answer portion of the meeting.

“That’s not my flyer.”

The Campaign Flyer: It Was Not His Until it Was His. 

The first question was directed to Mayor Rick Osbon and regarded a campaign flyer featuring his image, phone number, the signature “Rick,” his home address on the return stamp, and the required “Paid For by Rick Osbon for Mayor Committee.”

There was no reason to believe it was not his campaign’s flyer. 

Mayor Osbon examined the flyer. His subsequent statements included; 

  • “That is not mine.” 
  • “ I’m telling you that’s not my flyer,” 
  • “Look at how blurry it is.”
  • “I’m telling you that’s not me” 
  • “I’m telling you I didn’t send it out.”

Amidst his answers one of his supporters shouted “It’s a scam.”

Mayor Osbon supporters continued to shout over the proceedings, repeating “It’s not his.”

According to an Aiken Standard report, after the meeting Mayor Osbon privately admitted to “an Aiken Standard reporter” that the literature was from his campaign.  The admission was reported on Page Five, two paragraphs from the bottom of the report (below).

Meeting Dynamics: If you see Something, Say Something. 

City Council members Gail Diggs (D) and Ed Girardeau (R) were in the audience seated two chairs apart, with an Osbon supporter in between. 

Earlier in the week Mr. Osbon had identified Mr. Girardeau as one of “twenty conservative Republicans” who had endorsed his reelection.

On August 17th, Ms. Diggs encouraged citizens to vote while posting a different Mayor Osbon campaign flyer on her Facebook page.

Both Councilmembers remained silent throughout the ruckus, which would have warranted a police summons at a Council meeting. 

Gail Diggs said three times at City Council’s August 14th meeting: “If you see something, say something.“

Democrat Gail Diggs sat silently as the Republican Mayor tolerated his supporters shouting down a resident of her district. 

Neither Ms. Diggs nor Mr. Girardeau appeared to examine the flyer as it passed a few rows in front of them; even after a citizen sitting two rows ahead stated “It says Osbon for Mayor.”

I wrote to Ms. Diggs via email the next day. I asked if Mayor Osbon had been asked to issue an apology to the audience and to a citizen from her district who had been misled and harangued by the Mayor’s supporters. I also wrote that, in this case, “Silence is Complicity.”

To her credit, Ms. Diggs replied. She wrote that she could not speak for the Mayor, but that she had apologized to her constituent. 

I also emailed Mr. Osbon with questions about the flyer, prior to knowing he had privately admitted the flyer was his. He has not responded.

* Disclosure: Don Moniak is a member of the Schofield Community Association, which is open to all Aiken County residents. He does not represent the association nor write on its behalf.




August 2023, Editorials, Elections

More Letters of Support: Teddy Milner for Mayor of Aiken

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Whose voices will be heard in this election? Below are more letters received from Aiken City residents hoping their voices — their votes — will be the ones heard in tomorrow’s mayoral runoff.

Updated 8/21/23 at 11:42 a.m. to add a fourth letter.

Jack Wetzel: Why I am Voting for Teddy Milner on August 22

It is no surprise that Aiken’s Association of Realtors endorsed Mayor Rick Osbon for re-election. Under his leadership, Aiken has seen flurries of developments approved, choking major roads and streets cutting across our burgeoning city. Realtors can hardly be expected to vote against the hand that feeds them their commissions.

The city infrastructure is increasingly unable to handle the growing lines of vehicles that accompany new housing construction, but Rick Osbon’s leadership has not resulted in solutions to the predictable traffic congestion. The Powderhouse feeder has slipped schedule and exploded in cost. The agonizing traffic disruption at the intersection of Silver Bluff Road and 118 bypass is another example.

At one point, work ceased there because of yet another contract given out by the Osbon administration to a company that did not deliver what their contract called for (shades of the trees destroyed along Williamsburg Street and behind the farmers market.) The Dougherty Road and Parker’s Kitchens are also examples of Osbon administration poor leadership.

It is not surprising that clusters of local, state and national politicians endorse Osbon’s re-election. Birds of a feather flock together.

For decades, Aiken has taken pride in and enjoyed its heritage of Winter Colony homes mixed with quaint cottages, a charming downtown ambiance, and a Southern lifestyle of quality along streets cut by wide green parkways.

Mayor Osbon has approved plan after plan that would change all that and convert our downtown into a metropolis of slick new buildings and organizations with no interest in what the taxpayers and residents want. Planning meetings discouraged public input. As an example, the Pascalis project would have demolished charming downtown historic structures and replace them with a large apartment building requiring an equally large parking facility and alteration of Newberry street where many of Aiken’s unique events are attended by thousands of residents and visitors to the city. That failed plan left the city with a debt exceeding $9 million.

Osbon also endorsed building a Savannah River National Laboratory downtown, again replacing old historic structures which add to the area’s leisurely ambiance. It would also result in traffic congestion nightmares. He has been a strong proponent of additional programs at the Savannah River Site which provides a portion of jobs in the city, but also places everyone in and around Aiken with health and safety risks.

In recent years, SRS cleanup of deadly radioactive waste, housed and leaking since the 1950s, was a Department of Energy priority. Incomplete, the cleanup priority moved aside for a dangerous program making Aiken a major target for any nuclear attack on the U.S. (pit production, or triggers for nuclear warheads). Aiken could be incinerated beyond the speed of Hiroshima. Mayor Osbon has not objected.

Teddy Milner opposes all that and supports growth stemming from public input and concerns; a community where progress and people are compatible. I am voting for Teddy Milner on Aug. 22.

Jack Wetzel
Aiken

________________

Bill Reichardt: Aiken Evolving Toward “Anytown, USA”

Do you see Aiken as a special place and want to halt its headlong march toward mediocrity? If so, please vote for Teddy Milner. 

Ms. Milner sees Aiken as a community where the distinctive qualities of the City merit respect. She appears to believe that all of the City’s neighborhoods have standing and deserve recognition and not just the immediate downtown area. She favors a moratorium on selected developments so that the City can take a long-overdue reassessment of its future as a place for all of Aiken’s constituents – in contrast to indiscriminate, nonstop, commercial sprawl. 

Mr. Osbon, an obvious favorite of Aiken’s realtors, appears to favor virtually unchecked commercial growth, with Aiken’s character and future shaped largely by developers – rather than by the community.

In recent years, Aiken has been evolving toward “Anytown, USA”. During the April 24, 2023, City Council meeting Mayor Osbon said, in essence, that the City does not determine which developments take place and where; it is up to developers. At the first Republican mayoral candidates forum in July, Mayor Osbon rejected any notion that there should be a moratorium on development at the south end of Aiken – a truly reckless stance.

Given the dangerous Whiskey/Powderhouse/Stratford intersection (including numerous Whiskey Road problems cited by City staff twenty years ago), Mr. Osbon’s view of Aiken’s future is worrisome at the very least.

Certainly, Aiken must grow. It’s a matter of how.

Bill Reichardt
Aiken, SC

________________

Jean Greenwald: It’s Time for New Leadership in Aiken

I voted for Teddy Milner because Aiken officials have gone off the rails — rails that they just earmarked $900K for, instead of spending that money on something more essential like, for instance, clean tap-water for city residents.  The train-wreck of failed Project Pascalis has cost taxpayers millions. There has been no accountability for killing public trust and no accountability for killing the Farmers Market trees. 

My first city council meeting under the leadership of Mayor Osbon was when, despite three neighborhoods of opposition, they approved a car wash in my backyard. They did not give notice to the public in accordance with their own rules, nor did they acknowledge the conditions that the parcel was zoned with, which included no car washes. Until recently it appears this council had become quite accustomed to running roughshod over their citizenry. I have attended many meetings since they saddled us with Lulu’s Car Wash, and I have seen other citizens cry out for things as simple as clean water, or for the police to show up when called, which appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

The current push to expand the city limits is really just a nice name for costly and often ugly sprawl, yet it appears the Mayor has not been successful in taking care of the city’s current backyard. He was successful at becoming the government landlord of his only downtown competitor’s business which is poor form at best.

It’s time for new leadership in Aiken.

Jean Greenwald
Aiken, SC

________________

Lee S. Thornton: Towards a better city for all with renewed energy and collaboration

On the eve of tomorrow’s Mayoral election for the city of Aiken, I find I am increasingly feeling the need to make a plea to those able to vote that they realize the importance of their vote.

Hanging in the balance, teetering precariously, is a city under siege from within. While I am not sure exactly when this began I know that it is time for a new mayor, and thankfully Teddy Milner is up to the task and has the support of a great many of us who believe the incumbent is no longer working on behalf of the citizens to be a worthy custodian and steward of all of Aiken. 

These concerned people include small business owners whose livelihoods depend on the city not allowing nearly an entire city block to become a lab/office for a government agency that could build elsewhere in town. Citizens, as well as tourists, who visit Aiken to experience the unique shops and restaurants, and who appreciate the overarching entrepreneurial spirit will be met with a town forever lost if the current mayor continues to be at the helm. His administration’s $9 million investment, which intended to demolish half a block of downtown buildings, now lies virtually idle, with surrounding rents continuing to become inflated, driving out more of what makes Aiken unique and possessive of the “best small southern downtown” distinction. 

The drive to partner with SRNL and give the green light to an office/lab would move forward despite much objection. Gone would be the ambiance of a tree-lined, cared-for cityscape with a parkway and free on-street parking (rather than building a huge, unneeded parking garage). The cascade of dominoes would have the city folk wondering what happened. Joni Mitchell’s words would ring true, and it would then be too late. 

This is what just happened at the Farmer’s Market. Plans were made behind closed doors to pave over and destroy all but a few trees. Barely any shade remains because nobody was given notice, and opposition could only happen after the fact, when it was too late. The city and current mayor lied by saying the contractor got the wrong set of plans, when there was only ever one set! 

The current mayor is approving sewer extension to the outskirts north of Aiken and past Wire Rd to appease developers, when inside of Aiken proper the water is brown and reportedly making residents sick. The bridges remain in disrepair, and the hotel Aiken remains vacant and crumbling. 

The list goes on, but thankfully Teddy Milner, a small business owner who has raised her family and helped to cultivate community with her restaurant on Hayne Avenue has stepped up to the plate to help at this critical time. If elected mayor she will open the doors again for dialogue, discussion, inclusion and renewed revitalization of Aiken to move into the next stage of her growth while maintaining the qualities that drew many of us to make it our hometown. 

Tomorrow we have the opportunity to make the change and I stand strongly in favor of Teddy to help us turn the tide towards a better city for all with renewed energy and collaboration.

Respectfully submitted,
Lee S Thornton
Aiken, SC