Local Government 101

In this week's episode of Frogmore Stew, Katelyn Brewer fills in for Grace to explore the world of municipal governance and its profound impact on community life. Special guest Clay Middleton, a seasoned public service professional with a rich background in military service, politics, and community service, shares insightful perspectives on engaging with municipal governments, overcoming voter apathy, and the significance of direct communication between citizens and their local representatives. The conversation underlines the critical need for civic education, accountability, and visionary leadership to address community issues and long-term planning for future generations.

00:00 Introduction to Municipal Governance

00:32 Evolution of Municipal Governance

01:28 Importance of Local Government Engagement

02:14 Interview with Clay Middleton

03:48 Understanding Municipal Government

15:29 The Role of Neighborhood Associations

18:00 Politicization of Local Government

22:10 The Future of Municipal Governance

24:03 Conclusion and Acknowledgements

Copyright 2024 Grace Cowan

• The Poets of Rhythm - "South Carolina

Hi everyone, this is Caitlyn Brewer and I'm in for Grace on this week's episode of Frogmore Stew. Today, we're going to take a moment to explore what exactly does municipal governance entail? Municipal governance might not always grab the headlines like national politics, but the reality is it is truly the machinery that keeps our communities running smoothly.

At its core, municipal governance is modeled similarly to the federal level. The checks and balances outlined in our Constitution influence the way our cities and towns are managed and regulated across the country. Over the last century, however, the landscape of municipal governance has evolved significantly.

What once may have been a small town council making decisions in a smoke filled room has transformed into a more transparent and participatory process, and because of that, there's often a higher level of trust in local government than there is at the state and federal level. Advancements in technology and shifts in societal values have placed a greater emphasis on accountability and citizen engagement.

Local governments now utilize tools like online platforms and social media to communicate with residents, gather feedback, making the process both more inclusive and responsive to community needs. Individuals are paying attention to mayoral and school board races with a new fervor, but it's still not enough.

And that was never more clear than in Charleston County during the outing of not one, but two superintendents. So today, the question is not necessarily why you should pay attention, why you should as an individual resident know what's going on in your local government. The answer to that question is simple.

It is the form of government that directly impacts your life. From the condition of your neighborhood streets, to the quality of your child's education. Municipal governance influences countless aspects of our lives. It determines how our tax dollars are spent, the safety of our communities, and the overall quality of life in our cities and towns.

Today, we're going to discover the how. How can one person integrate themselves into local governance in a way that is meaningful and productive? Who are the resources that they should be calling? I'm thrilled to be joined today by Clay Middleton. A native Charlestonian, a graduate of Burke High School, a graduate of the Citadel, and an all around good guy.

Clay is currently a lieutenant colonel serving as a battalion commander, in addition to his combat and operational experiences during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Jumpstart, and Operation Atlantic Resolve, and served on the SC National Guard Association Executive Council. Clay is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal.

He's also served as a longtime aide to Congressman Jim Clyburn, and previously former Senator Fritz Hollins and former Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum. He also worked on the Biden Harris transition team for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Cory Booker. In 2017, Clay became the Director of Business Services for the City of Charleston, where he led the Business and Neighborhood Services Division.

He's currently a managing director at Mercury Public Affairs, which is a global public strategic affairs firm. A true believer in giving back, Clay, along with his wife, Nicole, established a Clay and Nicole Middleton Family Fund at the Coastal Community Foundation to provide graduating high school students with needs based scholarships to further their education.

It's an honor to have you here today, Clay. How are you?

I'm doing well yourself.

I'm doing really well. Thank you. So I want to jump right in today and talk about the basics. What is municipal government and why should people every day be engaged with what's going on in their town or city?

All politics are local and at the local level is where Most changes could be felt and seen immediately, whether it is issues of potholes, speed bumps, being in traffic, whether it is affordability, getting a permit to do business or do work.

It's truly at the local level where you could affect change quickly, but you could also receive and feel the benefits of it very quickly, especially when you have a strong mayor form of government.

And why do you think people aren't as connected with their municipal governments?

Cause they're lazy.

Okay. Tell us about ourselves, Clay.

You have a lot of voter apathy. It's only until there, there's truly a problem that is affecting you and your everyday livelihood and how you or someone in your immediate family feels about something is when we get involved at the local level, if there's a disaster, if there's some, some kind of, of issue that's affecting your neighborhood, whether it's a development project, whether it It is a matter of, of crime, like it has to truly hit your household in order to get involved.

And it, it amazes me because again, I'm all in, in the politics at, at every level. And I tell folks, the national level is very important, but if you really want to change something in your community, then do it at the local level, whether that be. A city hall, uh, even county government or school board.

I could not agree more that people are quote unquote lazy when it comes to municipal government.

But don't you also think that there's a level of disinterest due to the fact that we just are not taught about city government in the same way we're taught about federal and state government even as kids. All I heard about was George Washington and the founding fathers and three branches of government.

We never got down to the fact that city government was what I really should be paying attention to in terms of what influences me every day.

Yeah, it's overlooked because you don't really think about it. There's always something going on nationally and that's not the case locally, unless there is a problem.

When I worked for the city of Charleston, I was a director of. Business services. And not only did the small businesses come under my division, but also all of the neighborhood associations. So one of the things that I did in that role was do more outreach to those who do not show up at a neighborhood association meeting.

We had a series called I'm a resident now what? And we brought in Various department heads and real people point of contacts based on the issues that my office Always, uh were receiving so whether it be who do I call for x? Not only did we provide that point of contact the person We also provided a a very comprehensive list of who to call and this is before Uh, we have the system that exists now of the citizen hotline.

So that allowed citizens to come together and have a dialogue, but more importantly, we then took it a step further to look at the budget because we got to balance the budget at, at the local level. Now, how would you prioritize this? How would you prioritize the funding was coming in what goes out? And that really opened the eyes of a lot of folks because they-

For the first time really saw it's like Sim City, you see how you can build a city, but also how these things work and why it is so important for people to be heard, whether it's citizen participation time for city council, or whether it's just being involved in a particular committee. Of council are going to city hall, just putting all those pieces together, because again, I really believe that you could be active and engage even when there isn't a problem.

So I think people get caught up in the fact that they possibly just don't understand how does city governance work?

So in the city of Charleston, the form of government we have is a strong mayor. We counsel means that the mayor. Is full time now, Columbia does not Columbia has a strong council form of government.

That means those cities have the city manager, and then you also have council districts and the city of Charleston has council districts, Columbia, just as an example, they have their own individual council districts, but they also have. An at large council member. So that's really understanding the form of government that one has in their municipality.

So I think knowing your council member is very important, as well as what their priorities and issues are as well.

And so when you have an at large city council, talk to me then about what that means in terms of engagement with your city council member.

I think for Charleston in particular, since we do not have an at large council member is more direct. My council member is someone I can go to directly if I have a problem or need some resolution on an issue that requires an ordinance and sometimes requires a member of council calling a department head to have a call returned to have an issue looked at. etc.

You can also go straight to the mayor's office to address a lot of these issues as well. Sometimes member of council may refer a constituent to the mayor's office because a member of council does not have staff. It's not full time.

And yet you think about it, they're responsible for the inner workings of the city every single day.

And so the fact that we don't have full time city council members who are staffed with budgets and priorities, it's just mind blowing. Because there's, all you have to do is drive around Charleston for five minutes to figure out that we've needed to pave our roads for the better part of a decade.

That's true. But again, because these individuals. Are, are not full time. And even if they were, you have a lot of folks that are elected that shouldn't be elected. They get on the job training, but the fact remains that you hope that they have something to offer those that they want to serve. That is why they're in it.

They're not in it to make money because frankly, you don't make a whole bunch of money. You don't get rich off of being elected, especially if you're doing it right. Should you get elected, then you decide how you will set up, uh, your constituent service. So everyone does it differently. I've, I've just been a firm believer in constituent service at all levels.

Because someone has a problem, they're calling you to help them. When I worked for Congressman Jim Clyburn as a caseworker, people would call the office and they'd call their congressman for help. And I can tell them, that's not a congressional matter, that's not a federal issue. This is an issue that could be dealt with by calling somebody else's office.

They didn't want to hear that. And really the mandate from the congressman was always, if someone called the office, you do everything you can to help them. And I try to do that even now.

That example alone, the fact that people would call Representative Clyburn's office for something that's more of a municipal issue, and they don't want to hear the fact that they need to be Transferred somewhere else to deal with their problem.

How do we change that? How do we rebuild one belief in the municipal government with disenfranchised people? But two, how do we get to a place where we have an educated electorate that knows that you're supposed to be calling your local officials?

I think it's all about communication. There are a lot of elected official that shouldn't be elected, uh, because they do not provide the right level of constituent service, maybe because they don't know, or they don't care either way, it's a failure of being an effective elected official. I would say it takes. Those that do understand, those that are interested in truly public service that are elected to set the example of how they communicate with their constituents in and out of season of campaigning.

How do they engage with them about the results of a meeting or even informing them and say, I need you all to show up to a meeting because things are going to be discussed. They, you need to hear about it. They, you need to have your voices heard. I could speak for you, no doubt about it. I'm with you on this issue, but having your presence there speaks volumes compared to the person that's elected, uh, being the quote unquote spokesperson.

So it was all about that personal. Interaction and engagement that election official would have again with their constituency. And frankly, you have other organizations when there's a problem, they're right there. So for me, it's all about accountability partners. And I think whether you are elected or appointed or in a position to help, it's all about.

Having those accountability partners to help you navigate, but more importantly, help you communicate with people in order to solve problems and create opportunities.

Dig more into this accountability partner component. What did that look like for you?

I've just been ingrained in doing that, even my service in, in the military of just, again, one of the greatest thing about leadership, and this is from Colin Powell, the day soldiers Stop coming to you with their problems is the day they realize you can't help them or you don't care either way It's a failure of leadership, and I never wanted that to be what someone would say of Clay Middleton So it is simply going the extra step when someone will call the office about an issue that was not federal related It wasn't about a VA claim.

It wasn't about the IRS. It wasn't about HUD. They would just call an office just like, I have no idea. They don't, again, they don't want to hear that. You just get as much information as you can and then begin to do your homework. Who you could call at the local level, even at the state level. There was oftentimes I would call people in other levels of government.

To say, Hey, I got a constituent calling about this and I think you're the right person. So just by doing that, you build relationships with people and you also learn about where you can go to get an answer. And it also builds on your listening skills as well. When someone is asking you a question or going over a problem, that you really get into what they're really asking for.

They may be saying one thing, but that's really not what they may need at that time.

I'm going to switch gears here for a second. I want to go back to neighborhood associations. You were talking about how part of your connection, um, when you worked for the city was the work that the neighborhood associations were doing, but also reaching out to people who weren't attending neighborhood association meetings.

Now, I have to tell you, I think that the people I associate with, Um, here in Charleston are incredibly politically active. They care a lot about what happens in their communities. But I don't think one of them has ever gone to a neighborhood association meeting. I think the general perception of neighborhood association meetings is not positive or productive.

And so I'm wondering, how do you think that we need to rebrand neighborhood associations in order to get more people involved with changes at the grassroots level?

I look at it in in two ways. One, associations have a legal function. For instance, if there's a development that's going to take place, then that developer needs to go to the neighborhood association in order to get their support or not have their support.

Now, that's not to say it's not gonna happen. But it is to say there's some organized consensus of an issue. That's one way. The other is to keep in mind that not everyone is going to go to a neighborhood association meeting because of life. Because they have other things to do the day and times that the association meets.

Now, there's an issue that's going on in that neighborhood. Or you best believe more people will come out. To get information about what's going on, but I just think elected officials do not spend enough time communicating with their constituents until they're asking for them to vote for them. I just think that's a fundamental mistake.

I think you always communicate, even if you're saying the same thing, one day, someone may finally look at it and say, man, I needed this. But at the end of the day, we all have a voice. We all have one vote. And because we do not teach civics in high school, that is a problem. Now, there is this thing called Citizens Academy, where people get a great overview of local government 101.

What level are they taught at, Clay, Citizen Academy? For high school kids, or is this college kids take it?

Any citizen could take it. You can have it at the city level, you can have it at the county level. Charleston County has a Citizen's Academy, and they go over, again, various departments, the roles, etc.

You would think that people would flock to municipal government because it is not as polarized as our federal and state politics are. Technically, it's nonpartisan races, the mayor, the city council, school board. And yet, all we've seen recently is the politicization of these roles. Do you think that is helpful or is it harmful to what we're trying to accomplish?

Not everybody know about politics. Some people, they play it well and you don't know or you think they're, they're one way and they more the other way. But I know at the local level. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican, when you need your trash picked up, when you need this pothole filled, when you need a stop sign, when you need a speed bump, I don't think it is a Republican or Democratic issue when you look at how do you provide a service, public service and public dollars.

Now, our values should be aligned on those things. We may differ on the how because of who's in office, but if the resources are there and the will to serve is there, then it shouldn't matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, independent, young, old, white, black, bingy, all come here. It should not matter.

When it comes to some of those basic services of I dial 911, I'm only going to respond to someone that voted for you. No, you're going to respond because someone's calling 911. You're not asking them who did you vote for in the last election.

But what about when the service isn't as basic? And I say this, people need different types of health care, and that could mean shutting down a clinic based on a state or a federal law that takes away health care for women in particular. What about these cities that have had mayors proclaim that they are sanctuary cities for immigrants? What happens when we start to talk about national politics at the local level?

At least here in South Carolina. That's a bit taboo, right? But I do agree that when you're talking about sanctuary cities, when you're talking about health care, again, really anywhere in our state, there's not a local department of health and human services, just like the school district is not controlled by the mayor.

is in other cities. So it is, I think, an opportunity for one to exert leadership saying this is what we stand for our values as a city. So The mayor may not provide any funding to the school district. The mayor can say there would not be any low performing schools in my city. And here's how we make sure that all kids not only have that access, but all families have that access and would not be in a failing school because we are going to provide the wraparound services that are needed 365 days of the year.

That's a leadership to do. Or if you're dealing with health care, the same thing. While they may not be a city Department of Health, there is a health and wellness committee that does not prevent that mayor to get those health care providers together and say, we need to provide. Better health and access to affordable health care for our most vulnerable population.

That takes leadership, which is why you need people of conscience to be on council. And you need people of conscience to be neighborhood association presidents. But you also need a conscious citizenry. People that are leaders in their profession to say, we can do better and here's how we do it. We don't like the brave partisan politics in this stuff.

Even though they sometimes they are and then we act surprised when someone do so. Well, hell, what do you expect?

Clay I learned from you every time we have a conversation and I am just wondering is there something that is on your mind about Municipal government that you want people to walk away with

we do not have a long view in mind when I think about The largest city in the state, a growing city, a growing region.

We do not think about 50 years from now. We don't at all. I don't care how much studies we do. We have to ask ourselves not so much about our own kids, but what does this region look like in the year? 2100 when you look at how we identify schools being built based on population, how prisons are being built based on one's reading level of the third grade, then we shouldn't be able to say when it comes to our infrastructure or transportation of water of housing.

These basic services, city centers, how are we going to pay for these things? How could we better plan and backwards plan to make sure that we are solving problems that are truly 50 years down the line? I don't think we, we have those conversations with the end in mind. My great grandkids should not be saying if they even come here, why do they do that?

That made zero sense to have that role there, but it takes, again, the citizens to demand more and to truly want to affect change, not to raise hell just to raise hell. You got nothing else better to do or, or to be a social media warrior, but to truly say, here's some problems that I want to help solve.

And that's why local government is so important, uh, because you could affect change right now. It takes sometimes one person or to have seven votes.

Thank you so much for joining me today. It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you as always. That's all the stew for today. Today's Frogmore stew was written and hosted by Katelyn Brewer with special guest, Clay Middleton, editing and IT support by Eric Johnson, produced and directed by TJ Phillips with the podcast solutions network.