October 8, 2023

I read back in July 2023 where Bill Danielson announced his plans to run for mayor, again, since his 2019 plans to run for mayor against me got postponed. If he would have came and spoke to me then, I may have not ran and supported him since I was talking to others about them running for mayor instead of me. They neither wanted to get involved in such a nasty environment or didn’t want to get elected and have to serve with the creator of that strife. I wanted to make sure I covered his announcement as I had covered Barry’s previously as well.

First let me say, I am planning to vote for Bill. Yes, you guessed it, I will not be voting for Barry. Never did, never will, since we ran in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Yes, he was my opponent but so were others. I didn’t vote for any of my opponents, it’s not smart to do so. But as Barry lied to me in 2004 after that election in regards to a promise he made to me in presence of a witness, and didn’t keep it; I don’t respect him, won’t vote for him. It is one thing hearing and reading about a lie, it is another being lied to. So with that disclosure done and out of the way, let’s talk about Bill Danielson’s announcement.

Yes, Bill got two in a local paper, some got one, some got none. But maybe they sent none in, or only one in. Danielson says “I want to continue to make Irmo a great place to live and do business for everyone”. Which is a good goal, better than Walker’s goal “to make Irmo the most desireable place to live, work, and raise your family … ”, since in my opinion it already is. 

Starting the Irmo Growth Fund was a good idea, being involved in it (as an elected official giving out money to one-day-possible-campaign supporters), was not a good idea.

If Council as a whole didn’t want to decide on who gets how much money because of politics and the appearance of favoritism, the same applies to the way it was done. And yes I do believe, some of the people, businesses that got the funds have closer relationships with Bill than may be known. I will request those names of those recipients, not just the business names that I can’t find in articles and photo ops in a local paper. Then I will match those names to Bill’s financial supporters from 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023. Will do an article to cover that story. But since some of the campaign disclosures at the StateEthics.gov site lists corporations, business names, instead of individual names, then this may be a long process. Maybe even after the election is over, maybe not. Another article, another day.

Moving the building permitting back to Irmo from Lexington County may be a good idea as well, but according to other possible “new” business prospects, working with contractor that was hired to do it for the Town, as opposed to the “contractor” we had with Lexington County has been frustrating. Was for me as well, when I called them years ago to get information about moving my business and what I may need to do depending on which building. I couldn’t get a clear answer, except, set up an appointment for a fee, and we will come see what needs to be done, at each building that I was only semi interested in. Not offered anything I could see or read to let me know in advance what may need to be done, to any particular site I was considering, so that I and the landlord could decide what may need to be done before moving in. It wasn’t the same as calling Lexington County Permitting and getting answers.

Every politician talks about cutting waste, but not sure there is any way in Irmo town budget, and since he was elected in 2020, he has been part of the 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 budget, waste should be eliminated by now.

Irmo Law Enforcement, as I mentioned in my analysis of Barry’s campaign announcement, has always been the priority, always.

And as far as first responders, fire, EMS, those are not funded by the Town of Irmo, but by Lexington County since Irmo Fire District is a part of Lexington County Fire Department. The Town of Irmo has no fire department under our jurisdiction, we contract out with Irmo Fire District to provide fire and ems services to all of the Town of Irmo, including the Richland County side. It has been that way for years, we pass through all tax dollars we get from Lexington and Richland County taxes paid by citizens of those respective counties for fire services. 1) so we didn’t duplicate services; and 2) have one fire department covering the entire town, not two (one covering Lexington portion, one covering Richland portion). Less confusion, no duplication.

How can one say he will support small business, new business growth, and say he supports impact fees on new businesses (large and small)? Impact fees cost businesses (large, small, especially new) money. It may make it impossible for some even to open, but great news, Irmo can’t do impact fees in the first place. Impact fees can be charged by municipalities to offset costs associated with upgrading etc. sewer systems, which the Town doesn’t provide, road improvements (the Town doesn’t own the roads nor maintain them), that is the counties or SCDOT. School improvements due to new growth which the Town doesn’t control. The counties, school boards, and some municipalities can charge impact fees for those things that they are responsible for and that they cover. This very issue was discussed years ago while Barry ran for office last time, and he was told and found out we cannot charge impact fees for those issues. If Bill Danielson was running for Mayor in 2019, I would have to presume that he was listening to these discussions and should be aware of it. So again, not a doable idea and contradicts helping new business growth.

“And to reduce traffic” this was mentioned years ago in one of Bill’s campaign flyers. Has traffic been reduced in Irmo? We all know that answer. And yes, all past Councils have worked “with State and Local government” to improve our roads. However, Irmo is not any higher on any county or state list than any other county or state road than any other municipality across the state or any county in the state. Nor has Irmo had any help from our State elected officials to push Irmo’s needs over other road improvement needs. Maybe Bill and other council members can build better “relationships” with State Senators and State and County Council Representatives. Maybe the new Council can get the public behind making calls to those State and County elected officials to be the loud voice that doesn’t go away. Without the larger area constituents calling those officials, pushing, emailing, knocking on their home doors if necessary, Irmo will not get the support to change our roads in or around the Irmo area without citizens calling someone other than Irmo Town Council members.

Yes, we do “need a committed mayor who will put our citizens first”, the current one doesn’t,“and will continue to listen to Irmo residents everyday that I am privileged to serve in Office” says Danielson.

This statement alone is enough for me to sorta, kinda, overlook the above concerns with his announcement and political rhetoric, and give him my vote and prayers. Yet, will do what I can in the future, to snip at his heels and take him up on the “listen to Irmo residents”, starting with this resident before election day. We will see?