Since the seat was created with the implementation of 4-2-1, E.W. Cromartie has floated solo on his inflatable as the “Dean of District 2″ with the comfort and leisure of not having to share the waters with anyone.

While there have been plenty who have stood restlessly in the sweltering heat by the poolside, E.W. has surely mumbled a thousand time, “Who cares?”

But just the other month, out of the blue, The Dean was forced to get out from the pool and ordered not to return. The poolside weary rejoiced.

For The Pulse “Fun and Laughs” Department, this imagery could go on for days… if only this story wasn’t so important.

Today District 2 voters are being called to come and vote… yet again… to fill the float that E.W. Cromartie has left behind.

Eight opportunists have jumped into the waters… all fighting for the same inner tube. Grant you, there is nothing wrong with seeing an opportunity and seizing it. The question is… can any of those who’ve been standing by the pool for so long actually swim… with the sharks that await them?

District 2 is and will be a mess for years, because it’s been politically manhandled by one man for so long. The new representative of District 2 has some big shoes to fill (literally) and is going to have to work hard to establish leadership in a community that where some believe that “The Dean” is simply going on vacation.

By now, most of Columbia is abuzz about the induction of a new mayor and all of the fanfare inherent with this pomp-and-circumstance occasion.

Keeping in step, Steve Benjamin has branded this week as “ONE Columbia”… a time of celebration for a city that lies in wait for change… and all the slogans yet to be named.

“ONE” is ambitious at best for a city that has yet to emerge from the shadows of its past.

Entertaining the idea of “ONE Columbia” makes us believe that Mr. Benjamin has a plan unlike one ever imaged before. And if he actually pulls it off, our new mayor will certainly confirm the “rainmaker” title so many have touted him to be.

At best, “ONE Columbia” is a very clever campaign that soothes the citizens ripe in anticipation of a change long overdue. To suggest that we are going to move this city forward… “together”… leads us to a bit of curious speculation.

Let’s remember that it was not that long ago that the City seemed to sweep their budget woes under the rug.

It’s not been that long since the Innovista initiative fell on its face… yet again.

Still the saga of Bull Street languishes with yet another “For Sale” sign in front of an abandoned mental health facility. Imagine that.

And the last time we called the councilman for District 2, the phone was disconnected.

But there’s hope on the horizon… CiCi Pizza’s arrival on the North Main Street strip was nearly met with a ticker tape parade. (Welcome to CiCi’s!!!)

What is the point in all of this? Are we just being doubtful cynics? No… just realists.

The city has been in the depths of ongoing problems, and while the “ONE” concept is clever, the entire history of this city shows that we’ve never really been ONE about anything.

We need to move beyond slogans to a place where we actually resolve the ills this city has created, inherited and maintained. Mr. Benjamin certainly has more than ONE problem on his front door step.

SOLUTION

Realistically, there is not ONE solution. Whoever thinks that all of us will come together and live in a perpetual “We Are the World” moment for the next four years needs to take an oil bath.

The strength to make this city work is dependent upon our leadership cornering the market on talented and committed citizens who see beyond the pains of yesterday and are willing to call for… and work for.. real accountability.

Perhaps “ONE” should really be “WE.” It worked in the Declaration of Independence… and “WE” leaves the connotation that, regardless of what doubters and nay-sayers suggest, “WE” will always prevail.

This is really the tone this new administration must take in order to realistically bring a real change to this Capital City.

ONE is a slogan. ONE is a great calorie. ONE is not the only solution, but WE can be.

Besides, as the tune goes, “One is the loneliest number.”

We’ve been apt to say on more than a few occasions, “There’s politics, and then there’s South Carolina politics… and it’s a completely different beast.”

Guess we should add one more line to this one now… so here goes…

“There’s politics. There’s South Carolina politics. And then there’s Capital City politics… and it’s just a beast.”

As we watched now-former Police Chief Tandy Carter’s news conference yesterday, one thing became perfectly clear: Tandy Carter is anything but politically astute.

“Tell me what I have done in the Benjamin/Rubens case that is unlawful. Have I broken any federal, state or municipal laws? I think you will find that I have not.”

So, instead of playing nicely and building a report with the very people who controlled his department’s purse strings, he simply bucked the system.

Then again, it could just be that Tandy Carter come from a completely different fundamental mindset. Read his Personal Code of Ethical Conduct, and it reads like a civics textbooks, with one minor exception…

“I believe that I am accountable to the citizens I serve, who are the source of my authority.”

That’s the rub Tandy Carter had with City Council. Carter saw his source of authority coming from the citizenry… not the City of Columbia which hired him. He was police chief, a public servant, and a city employee. That placed the full source of his authority in the hands of city government, lead by City Manager Steve Gantt… who serves at the pleasure of City Council.

Like him or not, Tandy Carter’s  departure is yet another reminder of the state of affairs in the City of Columbia.

Talk of consolidation of services with the county is looming over the horizon. Are there brighter days ahead? We’ll see.

We find it ironic that the one that has been trained to tote a gun is the very one about to get shot by the folks who buy the bullets.

In the days since the fateful collision of Mayor-elect Steve Benjamin and long-time Clarion waitress Deborah Reubens, Chief Tandy Carter’s actions… or lack there of… have been reminiscent of Alexander Haig in the shadows of the Reagan assassination attempt. Remember the “I am in charge” declaration?

Carter must have been taking notes, because he is still screaming the same words.

He has resisted common sense and has shown a complete lack of respect… dare we even say contempt… for city leaders.

Why is it that Chief Carter is holding the incident report in his holster, unwilling to collaborate with any other law enforcement agency? Could it be that the incident procedure was poorly executed at best? Perhaps.

Think of it… Steve Benjamin has just emerged as the new mayor-elect. Celebration is in the air. In the wee hours of the following morning, the mayor-elect is involved in a horrid accident… and no one even thinks of a sobriety test. No one thinks of protocol.

No one even considers the potential semblance of impropriety when the public-safety-endorsed candidate is being investigated by the very folks who endorsed him.

We have been told from the inside that it was Carter who refused to turn over the investigation to the highway patrol when the facts of who was involved came to light.

And now, he’s bypassing his immediate superior, Steve Gantt, and Gantt’ bosses, City Council, by calling… of all people, the Attorney General… for permission to snub the boss.

Why is the leadership of this city turning to Henry McMaster at every turn to ask what to do?

We at The Pulse had a chance to talk with Carter just after he began his tenure with the City, and he made it very clear at the time that his police force wasn’t going to get mixed up in city politics.

Paraphrasing the Chief, “I don’t tell the politicians how run this city. They don’t need to tell me how to run the police department.”

Carter might want to call Dean Crisp and Charles Austin for some advice. He’s likely going to need their experience… in searching for a new job.

The irony in all of this is the fact that Carter is a military-trained individual… a Marine at that.

Chief, is it not true that when your commanding officer gives you orders to stand down, you do it?

Obviously, Carter has forgotten his training and has simply gone rogue.

The under-rumblings of this political battlefield is a fact very few Columbians realize. This Capital city operates under a weak mayor system.

If you understand the semantics of this form of government, you come to see that it’s the city manager who ultimately leads the troops. There is no authority higher in the city for day-to-day matters. The major difference between the city manager and the city council is the fact that the manager has no vote.

He does, however, have the power to hire, fire, and maintain the agenda as it pertains to the best interest of the citizens. Look for him to start executing that power very clearly, very soon.

Chief Carter either does not understand his marching orders or is simply ignoring them. This is the typical, dangerous fallout of a weak mayor system, and once again, our city is left vulnerable.

Bucking the system has absolutely no place in this situation. Carter is simply flexing his insubordination.

Before November, the strong form of government is slated for city council’s agenda. If Carter can hold on until then, and if he waits for this form of new government to be installed, the one he let get away, might very well be the one showing him the door.

Enough already. It’s time for someone to bring this fiasco of a PR nightmare to an end.

We at The Pulse debated this one for far too long among ourselves before we finally realized that it’s not that we’ve heard too much. It’s more like we’ve NOT heard enough!!!

It’s been 16 days since Mayor-elect Steve Benjamin and waitress Deborah Rubens had their ill-fated meeting at the corner of Pickens and Gervais. Less than 12 hours after the polls closed on a monumental moment in our city’s history, the political honeymoon was over.

At that moment, leadership should have stepped in and reared its boisterous head, brought things under control, and gotten to the bottom of a very precarious situation.

Instead, it’s been nothing short of official silence.

Two days after the wreck had been cleared off the street, Police Chief Tandy Carter held a press conference telling us that his team was trained and capable of handling this investigation. We haven’t heard from him since.

If, as Councilman Sam Davis put it, the Columbia Police Department called in the Highway Patrol when he was involved in a simple fender bender a while back, why in the world weren’t they called in when the Mayor-elect was pleading for help as he stood over the broken body of a woman in the wreckage of her own car… a car that he had slammed into?

We’ve heard from a few of our city leaders, who have at least had the schmaltz enough to ask for outside help. Unfortunately, their requests have come too little too late. Just Thursday, the director of the Highway Patrol said too much time had passed since the accident for his team to lead any investigation. You think? It’s not like the cars are still blocking traffic!!!!

That leaves us with the one person who can explain everything.

Mayor-elect Steve, you’re the soon-to-be new leader of Columbia. It’s time to talk!!

Since  5:40 am  on April 21st, accusations and innuendos have surfaced suggesting carelessness, willful neglect, even serious improprieties by our newest elected official.

We’ve heard from dozens of folks who’ve expressed opinions and supporting evidence ranging from “There is absolutely nothing to any of this.” to “He’s done!” So, which is it?????

For his part, Mayor-elect Steve has done nothing to minimize the potential damage from the accident and the rumors that are flying everywhere.

The afternoon of the accident, was he visiting Mrs. Rubens and her family at the hospital? No. Mayor-elect Steve was reportedly meeting with political advisers at the Hilton planning a response… from which their best comment was to refer to the critically injured driver as “that lady.”

Has there been a detailed version of the accounts leading up to the accident? Not that we’ve heard.  Perhaps Mayor-elect Steve has been “lawyered up” on this one.

Has there been any refuting rumors that Mayor-elect Steve was drinking at his election party and out as late as 5 am that fateful morning? Not yet.

Have we heard whether Mayor-elect Steve’s headlights in his Mercedes SUV were on or not… or that he might have been speeding…or on the phone…or texting? No… no statement whatsoever.

So, that brings us back to the investigation… the one lead by the City of Columbia that continues oh, so slowly! Is anyone else screaming “CONFLICT OF INTEREST!!!”???

It looks like the government of “One Columbia”… of transparency and openness… is “Dead on Arrival”, and the government of “conceal, deny, and delay” is still firmly rooted all around us.

Disappointing? You bet.

Too late?  No, it is never too late. Mayor-elect Steve, make a statement. Tell us it was an accident. Tell us you are sorry… that you wish you could reverse time… that you should have called Mrs. Rubens by her real name… something!!!

Just tell us what happened and try to repair your chance to be the mayor of “One Columbia” before it is too late.

Just tell us the TRUTH.

The Benjamin for Mayor camp is evidently still trying to educate the public as the hours tick down to the end of this runoff race. Benjamin campaign workers have been passing out sample ballots at precincts across the City of Columbia pointing voters to both “Steve Benjamin” for Mayor of Columbia and “Tony Mizzell” for City Council District 4.

Ironically, they even gave copies to Councilman Finlay and his mother as they entered their precinct earlier today.

Problem with this “educational effort” is that no one in the Benjamin camp apparently asked Tony Mizzell if he wanted to be included.

To that end, Mizzell was just recently spotted at one precinct in District 4 picking up sample ballots from voters standing outside the door and tossing them in the trash can.

Meanwhile, over in the Rosewood community, some firefighters have been greeting voters as they make their way into the polling places notifying them to vote for Benjamin, because they “may not be able to respond to fire quickly if Finlay is elected mayor.”

That’s kind of ironic, saying that Assistant City Manager for Public Safety Mike King informed his boss, City Manager Steve Gantt, today…

The FY 2010/2011 budget request for CFD, reflects and supports the full funding of all fire suppression and prevention responsibilities, to include fully restoring both Engine 8 and Engine 9 to service. The funding requested will provide for full staffing levels of Firefighters. Any reduction in staffing/funding amounts will focused at the Executive/Administrative levels; example – not funding a Assistant Chief’s Position, Part time Computer Operator Position, and the elimination/transfer of an Executive Assistant’s position to the ACM of Public Safety’s Office.

Seems that City Hall knows something that the firefighters in Rosewood don’t. Hopefully, they’ll get that information out sooner than later today.

Sources close to the indictment and investigation of former City Councilman E.W. Cromartie are telling The Pulse to be expecting an announcement of up to 12 additional charges by week’s end against “The Dean of District II.”

More as this story develops.

The earthquake that was Operation Lost Trust shook the very foundations of South Carolina politics to the core back in the early 90′s. Corruption, greed and vote buying ushered in sweeping ethics reforms that demanded better of our elected officials and those running for office.

But in these last days of the Columbia mayoral runoff, a recent video has left us scratching our heads wondering if, yet again, history is doomed to repeat itself.

Last Thursday, former mayoral candidate Aaron Johnson had a group of student voters interviewed for his new online show “This Is Columbia.” The video of Benedict College students being driven to the Richland County election office to vote absentee, tells quite a story.

As Johnson put it…

The team that shot the footage at the voter registration office was dispatched when we heard that Benedict students were organizing to vote absentee on Thursday, April 15th. We were originally doing a story on student and young people participating in the election and the runoff, but when we found out incentives were being offered and students were being taken to cast absentee ballots by candidate Steve Benjamin’s staff members we decided to release the footage.

The footage was captured with the permission of all interviewees. The woman interviewed in the released interview provided her name as Aja Wright. We have interviews with several other students who were participating in Benjamin campaign’s voter transportation and incentive program.

Driving people to the polls, in and of itself, is not wrong; but from what the student in the interview, Aja Wright, said, there was more than just free rides to the election office. ”The young man, he’s on the campaign for Steve Benjamin, and he has ‘incentatives’ to get the students out there to vote. You know, you have the ‘Party Bus’, and he’s giving people food and drinks and everything to come out, you know, to come out and vote. We’ve also been registering people to vote too, as well.”

The Pulse also received word on Friday from an eyewitness at Benedict College that Benjamin personnel and former City Manager/Police Chief Charles Austin had held a luncheon open to students who either were voting or had voted absentee.

In response to the YouTube video, Free Times is reporting…

Benjamin’s campaign said Monday that they don’t have much to say about the video, other than to note that the person speaking is never identified.

“We have been offering rides to anyone” using a variety of vehicles, said Benjamin’s campaign spokesman Michael Wukela. “And we have not been saying ‘Vote Benjamin.’ We’ve been saying ‘Vote.’”

The video in question was released on Friday, and now has 1000+ views on YouTube.

In response, former Chairman of the State Election Commission, William DePass, said, “I conducted the largest voter registration drive that had ever taken place and recruited Billy Webster as my co-chairman…and they wouldn’t even let us give new registrants a free cup of coffee at Bojangle’s (which the Websters owned at the time) because it violated the law.”

There is a place and time for voter registration.

There is a place and time for encouraging people to vote.

And there is no better place and time than tomorrow’s mayoral runoff election for the people of Columbia to say, “This type of political manipulation is enough!”

“He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.
That’s the Chicago way!” — Al Capone

The political machine of the Windy City has blown into Columbia, and it’s making a mess to say the least.

This shouldn’t be surprising, especially with Steve Benjamin’s Obama campaign staffers working hand-in-hand with the “Dean of District II”… the soon to be imprisoned E.W. Cromartie.

The Pulse has learned that Cromartie henchmen, working in conjunction with the Benjamin campaign, have been diving into financial and tax records of Kirkman Finlay for the past few weeks, trying to find anything and everything they can for a last-minute shot against their opponent.

Benjamin denies claims that his campaign leaked word of tax discrepancies from one of Finlay’s companies, but keep in mind it was Benjamin who sat quietly in a back room at E.W. Cromartie’s office the day that The Dean’s indictment news hit the media. As reporters surrounded The Cromartie Law Firm on Harden Street, The Dean made a hasty exit to drive around town for a few minutes, providing a quick and quiet “all clear” for Benjamin to avoid media scrutiny.

Now, it appears that Benjamin and The Dean are pulling Richland County Treasurer David Adams into the political maelstrom.

Adams went on the airwaves with WIS-TV yesterday with word that Finlay owes back taxes from 2006 on two of his now-closed Rising High stores. Finlay says Rising High’s attorney met with Richland County officials on four different occasions to clear up any outstanding tax issues… with the company even receiving a $72.52 rebate check earlier this year. Meanwhile, Adams told WIS-TV, “In October of 2006 there were five locations of Rising High that received tax bills through an accounting firm, and those bills were attempted to be paid at the end of January of 2007. They came in the wrong amount, so we had to return that check to the business. Three of these were subsequently paid and two of them somehow have never been paid.”

It seems Adams, who comfortably makes $92,000 a year as county treasurer and who has donated to the Benjamin campaign, would have addressed any outstanding issues with Finlay or his company’s attorney well before the last Friday before the run-off election for mayor.

One neighborhood leader, in a message provided to The Pulse this morning, expressed complete disdain for the political thuggery…

Watching WISTV this morning really got to me! David Adams, Treasurer of Richland County, having a news conference about unpaid taxes – at this time: P….. ME OFF! I have known David a few years, not that well, but enough to have supported him in the past. NO MORE! PURE POLITICS! DEMOCRATIC POLITICS! OVER LESS THAN $4,000.

Finlay, in a statement yesterday, made it clear that if his company does owe any back taxes, he’s more than willing to pay.

When this election cycle kicked off, all of the candidates for mayor signed a Fair Campaign Practices Pledge. Guess that got thrown out the window.

One political operative told The Pulse, he’d spoken with Finlay about doing some “opposition research”… political digging so to speak… on all of the candidates for mayor. Finlay said, “No!” If he’s going to be known politically as the “Island of No!”, at least Finlay is consistent.

Political thugs are political thugs, and they use whatever tactics they deem worthy to accomplish their goals. For them, the ends justify the means. That’s the Chicago Way.

Back in the 70′s, The Steve Miller Band put out a Top-40 hit “Fly Like an Eagle”. You remember the chorus, don’t you?

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future.

OK… now that you’ll be humming that one all day… you’ll be joining the chorus with Columbia’s illustrious former city councilman E.W. Cromartie.

Initially, the Big Boss of District 2 was to stand before U.S. District Judge David Norton on April 20th for sentencing on his tax evasion charges. But as of this afternoon, Cromartie’s “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.”

He’ll now face the judge at 11am on April 26th, and The Pulse has received word that this change of date may be due less to a scheduling issue and more to a prosecution issue.

Evidently, there are additional charges pending for Cromartie that could extend his “extended vacation” beyond a year and a day. Word has it from sources close to the case that the 64 year-old Cromartie may be looking at a double-digit stay in the federal pen.

There’s more to come!