Opinion: Community Owes Debt of Gratitude to Local Public Servants
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:36AM Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
Next week is public service recognition week, offering an opportunity to thank those who have chosen to serve our community, in ways which are often overlooked and rarely applauded.
For most of the towns and cities in Anderson County, 2021 is an election year. The City of Belton, City of Easley, and towns of Honea-Path, Iva, Pelzer, Pendleton and West Pelzer all have general elections in November. A special election for the Anderson County Council Dist. 2 seat is set for June 1 and a special election for mayor of the City of Belton scheduled June 22.
Every election cycle, the question of "who would want to run for office?" is followed by jokes or worse about “politicians.”
The word has been defined as "one actively engaged in conducting the business of a government" for much of the past 400-odd years. Yet throughout all this time it has simultaneously been used in a contemptuous fashion as well.
And there are certainly stories of individuals who have abused the public trust, and we all remember local names and incidents of such abuse.
But the overwhelming majority of men and women serving the cities, towns and county in Anderson are doing their part to move an exceeding large wheel in an exceedingly fine fashion.
If you haven’t been to a city, county or town hall meeting lately, it might be time for a visit. It is your best opportunity to participate in the process of local government. Over the decades I have found it interesting to observe wild criticisms of local government “wasting” money by those who never show up for a single council meeting or committee meeting during the budgeting process. I have also found it interesting that citizen participation at meetings has also steadily dropped over the past two decades.
It’s not likely you’ll be wildly entertained by the local government proceedings, and I can almost assure you that some of what is discussed will leave you as much confused as informed. A long discussion on equipment needs for wastewater treatment facilities, to give one example, will likely trigger at least a small yawn in most citizens.
But it is in these complicated details that the men and women who serve in our local governments serve us best. Most are not elected officials, they are employees who grind away at the bureaucracy and minutia that are required to keep our infrastructure in place, our water running, toilets flushing, law enforcement and fire departments ready, elections running and efficient, roads repaired, bring in new jobs, protect us from those who have less than honest intentions and numerous other small public services that most would likely go unnoticed unless they were neglected.
Anderson owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have chosen such public service jobs. Many of these folks could make more money in the private sector, especially with the bloom of hundreds of new jobs in our community thanks to other public servants devoted to economic recruitment and development.
Most of our elected officials serving the cities, county and towns are part time – including all of the mayors in the county. These are positions which require often overwhelming hours of research, committee meetings and constituent services outside the scheduled public meetings.
For example, Anderson County Council members are the lowest paid in the state for counties over 200,000 citizens, with a salary of $8,930.10 per year. This leads to a council whose members must be either self-employed or have great flexibility in work schedule. (For comparison, Greenville County Council members are paid $29,633 annually – with the council chairman being paid $35,560, York County $18,947-$26,526, Lexington County $18,040, Berkeley County $12,484 and Spartanburg County $12,500.) The salaries for our county are set by the Anderson County Legislative Delegation, and in serious need of any update to better reflect other county council salaries.
Over the decades, my discussions with newly elected council members found both a new respect for the position as well as a stunning realization of the number of hours the job involves. Most admit, without any regret, it costs them more to serve on county council than they are paid.
Those who choose to serve as mayors as well as on city and town councils, generally face even smaller compensation for their service. They are all aptly called public servants.
Again, this also rings true of those who are in charge of finding ways, especially in times of challenging budgets, to keep our roads safe, water running, trash and recycling efforts on track, keep us safe on a daily basis and during emergencies and provide the other day-to-day services we all take for granted.
May 2-7 is a national week set aside to recognize the efforts of those who have chosen to give back to their community through public service. It’s also a good excuse to say thank you to those you know or come in contact on a regular basis who make life easier for us all.
To thank local elected officials, here are the sites offering contact information:
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