by Don Moniak
November 8, 2023

Yesterday, Ms Teddy Milner (R) was elected as Mayor of the City of Aiken by more than a two to one margin, becoming the first woman Mayor of Aiken and ending her long-shot bid to defeat incumbent Mayor Rick Osbon.

Milner was the only Mayoral candidate on the ballot, but was challenged by a strong, stealth write-in campaign on behalf of defeated Mayor Rick Osbon. Mr. Osbon, who lost to by only 14 votes to Milner in the August 22nd Republican Primary runoff election, denied any involvement in the write-in effort, and chose not to publicly discourage it.

Gail Diggs (D, District 1) and Kay Brohl (R, District 3) were easily reelected. Ms. Brohl was unopposed throughout the election cycle.

The results for competitive races were:

City of Aiken Mayor

Teddy Milner (R): 2,748 (70%)
Write In: 1,162. (30%)
(names currently unknown)

Aiken City Council District 1.

Incumbent Gail Diggs (D): 233 (75%)
DeMarcus Sullivan. (R): 78 (25%)

No Party at Democratic Party Headquarters

The most overlooked but second biggest news of the night was the absence of an opposition party, also known as the Democrats. At 7 p.m., the Aiken County Democratic Party headquarters stood silent and dark, with opaque shades covering second-floor windows, and a singular campaign sign for Ms. Diggs plopped in front of the porch.(Figure 1).

For the second time in four years, Democrats failed to put forth a Mayoral candidate, not even a low-budget candidate for the sake of debate. Dems also failed to mount a challenge to District 3 Councilwoman Kay Brohl.

Only 233 voters turned out for incumbent Democrat Councilwoman Gail Diggs, a decline of 157 votes from 2019, when she handily defeated Jeremy Stevens (R) by a margin of 390 (87%) to 59 (13%).

While only 19 more voters opted for Republican DeMarcus Sullivan in 2023 over Mr. Stevens’s anemic showing in 2018, the party can take solace in the fact it gained twelve percentage points in one of the only two Democratic strongholds in the City of Aiken.

(To her credit, Ms. Diggs took the time to answer a long series of questions posed by the Aiken Chronicles, becoming the first member of Aiken City Council to recognize the existence of this information outlet.)

Transparency, Transparent, and Brown Water

Between the Primary election and the Primary runoff, the Osbon for Mayor campaign promised “government transparency” on its “Outsiders and Special Interests Continue to Attack Mayor Osbon” campaign flyer that an unknown number of Aiken voters found in their mailboxes.

Likewise, the Milner for Mayor campaign promised transparency, in addition to accountability and integrity, to voters.

In comparison, the stealth Osbon for Mayor write-in campaign opted to describe Mr. Osbon with the more ambiguous term “transparent,” which arguably is the most symbolic word for this Mayoral election cycle.(Figure 3)

This is because “brown water” problems, referred to as “discolored water” in the city’s categorization of water system complaints, was at or near the top of many voters’ minds this year. Drinking water customers lodged 31 official discolored water complaints to the City in July; and brown water complaints were one of the top issues raised at City Council meetings this past year during public comment periods.

Brown water, or any other shade of discolored water, can range from moderately transparent to opaque, depending upon the level of turbidity—a measurement how well light passes through a liquid. (Figure 4)

Mayoral candidates addressed the brown water problem in different ways:

• Candidate Kathryn Wade, who was narrowly defeated for second place by Ms. Milner in the Primary, made the brown water issue one of the centerpieces of her campaign.  
• Ms. Milner acknowledged after the runoff that brown water was the top concern among constituents she met.  
• Mr. Osbon touted the planned new Shaw Creek water treatment plant north of the city as the solution to the water quality problem.  

Long-time Aiken resident Dr. Robert Leishear has contended to City Council and staff for several years that the decline of water quality is a direct function of the high rate of water main breaks across the city. Leishear is a former research scientist at Savannah River National Laboratory, has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, is a registered professional engineer, and now works as a private consultant.

He describes the problem as:

“Incorporating decades of scientific research, and multi-million-dollar cost savings from the prevention of piping failures, I conclude that the Aiken City government chooses to destroy our water system. Water main breaks can be stopped, or the onslaught of Aiken water main breaks slams forward into our future . (http://www.leishearengineeringllc.com/).

Accordingly, my hometown water system will be needlessly, expensively, and completely destroyed. As this destruction progresses, rusting of pipes will needlessly accelerate to discolor our drinking water, and intestinal illnesses will occur as well. These problems are preventable, but the city fails to act successfully.”

In his comments to Aiken City Council on January 9, 2023, he described telling city staff several years prior that the city’s $13 million program to fix water main breaks would not work, and that “if they keep doing what they are doing, they are going to break all the water mains in Aiken.”

While there were some gestures at the meeting by Mayor Osbon to invite him to assist the city, two months later Dr. Leishear expressed deep frustration with the Mayor’s actual post-meeting response in a letter to the Aiken Standard, stating in part:

”I sent the following email to Rick Osbon, the mayor of Aiken. He and his staff have chosen to let the Aiken water main breaks continue. We could have stopped Aiken water main breaks; Aiken chooses to have water main breaks….

Four years ago, I met with the Aiken city manager and the Aiken director of engineering to discuss my recommendations to prevent Aiken water main breaks. The engineering director for Aiken stated that he would wait and see. We have waited. We have seen. Aiken projects failed to stop water main breaks. During this year alone, boil water advisories were reported on Jan. 13, Jan. 23, Jan. 31, Feb. 6 and Feb. 17. Since I have seen water main beaks that do not appear on the city’s website, there are certainly other water main breaks in Aiken as well.

Following a January City Council meeting and follow-up meeting with Aiken staff, I offered to work with Aiken staff to stop water main breaks. I even offered to apply for a U.S. grant to defray costs  to fix most water main breaks. I have received no response from the mayor’s office.”

Newly elected Mayor Teddy Milner has stated that, if elected, water quality will be her top quality. While she will have only one vote on City Council, she can request an information gathering public hearing(s) to hear the extent of water issues and better understand them; and also request that city staff begin to work with volunteer experts like Dr. Leishear to address the problem. Any resistance from other council members would appear to be inexplicable to most citizens.