On today's show: 1. Council members, Cogswell butt heads on Charleston’s path - https://charlestoncitypaper.com/2024/10/09/council-members-cogswell-butt-heads-on-charlestons-path/ 2. South Carolina AG Alan Wilson announces suit against TikTok - https://abcnews4.com/news/local/south-carolina-ag-announces-suit-against-tiktok-social-media-teens-kids-children-young-youths-viral-scrolling This episode's music is by Tyler Boone (tylerboonemusic.com). The episode was produced by LMC Soundsystem.
Holy City Sinner Radio
Episode 301 - Trouble Brewing Between City Council and Mayor Cogswell? - (10/11/24)
Holy City Center radio is episode 301 and I am your host Christian Sanger today is Friday October 11th, 20, 24. Friday is here. I hope you have an amazing weekend ahead of you. If you need plans, go to holycitycenter.com/calendar. You'll be able to find what's going on this weekend and beyond. So far when I'm recording this, it looks like the Charleston area we got out without really anything at all happening. Thankfully with Hurricane Milton, I know that there was some talk of potentially somewhat significant flooding, particularly in places that tend to flood, but we didn't even get any rain. It's a nice beautiful day when I'm recording this. Hopefully, I haven't seen any big reports about flooding, but hopefully if you had any flooding in your area, it wasn't too bad. More importantly, obviously Florida was just hammered by this storm. And although reports are still coming out and we'll learn more in the days ahead, you know, it certainly seems like there's a lot of damage that was done. Hopefully the death toll will not keep growing. We've seen with Hurricane Helene that that, you know, continues, that trend continues several days after the storm. You know, so hopefully it's not as bad as it looked like it may be. You know, a couple days out, it was looking like this could be a huge, huge problem. Don't get me wrong. You know, any amount of damage, any loss of life is too much, but it could have been a lot worse. So, but we'll learn more. Hopefully, if you have any friends or family that were in that area, they are okay and are doing well. I'll be getting the news. Just a quick personal update. I won't go on and on about it. You know, for a couple of reasons, one of which is I'll probably get upset and there's no need for that on this podcast, but just wanted to mention it because I know everybody goes through these kinds of things, you know, sometimes many times throughout your life, if you're a pet lover. They have two dogs, one little bit older, 15, and then they just got another puppy who's under a year and their last visit here to Charleston. I got to see the dogs together for the first time and, you know, the old girl test was, you know, she was obviously 15. You know, not getting around like she used to struggling with a few things, but still a happy, happy dog always wanting to be around her family, particularly my mom and dad because, you know, that's those are her people. Although, you know, she loves love really anybody that she met, although she got a little crankier in her older age. But unfortunately, you can see where this is going. We lost tests this week, which is certainly sad, you know, heartbreaking for my family. And it extends beyond my parents, you know, my brother, his family, including his kids, you know, this is a test was a dog that we had in our life for, you know, for the adults, 15 years for the kids their entire life, you know. And she truly was the best dog. I know everybody always says that, but just one of the most well behaved and sweetest dogs that you would ever encounter. My parents were walking her here in Charleston and, you know, back home in Connecticut for that matter. People are always stopping them talking about, Oh, what kind of dog is that? Oh, she's so pretty or, you know, whatever. Because she was just kind of a unique looking dog and he was a mutton, you know, so we never really knew they did like a DNA test, but she just a mutt. She was the best mutt. And so just wanted to mention that, you know, I'm bummed out about it, of course, and so is my family, but kind of saw this was coming, you know, with their advanced age and, you know, little things happening here and there. But, you know, just wanted to touch on it because I know a lot of people, you know, go through this stuff and it sucks and it's a part of life. You know, I always say when you, when you adopt a pet, you're signing up for guaranteed heartbreak at some point, you know, you know that there's going to be a day where you're going to be devastated by their loss, because we have very limited time with them. But, you know, but you also know that it's well worth it to have them in your life for however many years for that small window in comparison where you're, you know, really sad and heartbroken. So, very thankful we had all that time with her. And if any of you lose a pet or have lost one recently, you know, I know it sucks and just wanted to put that out there but everything's fine we're okay. Like I said, got 15 really awesome years with this dog and I'm glad I got to see her pretty recently. And I know that, you know, my parents other dog Piper the puppy is going to bring just as much joy going forward but I'm sure she's bummed that you know that she, her sister's gone but yeah so anyway, I just wanted to talk about it for a minute just because it's on my mind. But again, everything's okay just a little bummed out right now and I'm sure everyone listening gets what it's like to lose a pet it's no fun. So other than that, I haven't been, you know, not too much going on just doing a lot of work. Riverfront revival is this weekend, which is the festival put on by Darius Rucker it actually begins today. Houdini and the blowfish will be playing amongst many other bands. And I believe I will be going both days for at least a portion of it. You know, there's a few bands I definitely want to see others less so, but should be a lot of fun. Hopefully the weather will kind of be what it's been lately, which is just a little bit cooler but not cold by any means. So looking forward to that. Again, if you need weekend plans, holy city center dot com slash calendar, you can see what's going on. All right, enough about all of that. Let's get into the latest news. Is there trouble brewing with the Charleston City Council and mayor William Cogswell. Looks like there may be now how much of a problem will this be yet to be seen, but multiple outlets were reporting this. I'm going to specifically pull from the Charleston City papers reporting. Three city council members this past Tuesday during their normal meeting. Voice concerns about a lack of communication from mayor Cogswell on many decisions, including some bigger ones. And they say that they feel, you know, the city council itself and normal city processes are being ignored. So the majority of the discussion at the meeting revolved around something that may not seem major, but I can see where there in some ways it is a big decision in the, you know, the scope of a city, which is that the mayor rolled out. A new brand mark for the city, you know, you know, like the city seal updated it, rolled it out kind of quietly. There was no big announcement about it, but a couple of media outlets picked up on it and city council says that that's when they found out about this. We basically rebranding, although Cogswell pushed back on the term rebranding. And just saying that they learned this from the media and it's not the first time they're hearing about things that the city has changed or implemented. You know, that they're hearing from the media first versus, you know, from the mayor or being involved in this, let alone being involved in any discussions. So that that rollout happened back in August and council members at the time. As I said, this came out as a big surprise. And it's not just one or two city council members, it's multiple and it's on both sides. You know how city council has some, you know, more left leaning members and has some more right leaning members. Well, both sides are an agreement over this that they think there needs to be some changes. So this isn't one of those like that, that's one of those things that we're going to be doing. And the other question is upset at another. They seem to be rallying around each other. So council member William Dudley Gregory said decisions that are being made by the mayor's office without the input a council has been part of an ongoing problem with city leadership. He said, quote, I think it is very important for us to be honest with ourselves. Gregory also pointed out in addition to that brand rollout that the mayor's new organizational flow chart is a major point of disagreement with city council, the new chart, which basically rolls out how authority and power flows throughout, you know, the city's government has put the mayor on the same level as council and Gregory said that isn't how it's supposed to run. He said, quote, the administration has a reporting requirement to this body, the administration reports to council and quote. So, Charleston for those unfamiliar has basically been a strong mayor form of government in which the mayor directly oversees several branches of city operations. But under this new chart, the mayor directly oversees only three people, including his chief of staff, who oversees several offices that previously reported directly to the mayor and council members are saying this is, you know, part of the problem. So while the chart shows a shift of authority from the mayor towards a chief of staff, Gregory said in practice it seemed that the mayor has pulled more power into his office and away from city council. He said, quote, I have been told by city staff that process is not important results are, I found that insulting and quote. So, certainly some trouble brewing. Like I said, a rebranding, even though Mayor Cox well said that's not what it is, but I don't really know what else to call it, where they change the seal to something different, a little bit more modern looking. Might not seem like a big deal on the surface. But, you know, it's indicative of, you know, a larger problem is what city council is saying that these decisions are supposed to go through council we're supposed to have input. So, although we're not at some, you know, dire situation where there's these factions that mayor is constantly fighting with the entire council, it is showing that there's a little bit of trouble brewing. And perhaps after they voice these concerns there will be some changes and everything will be okay but it's certainly something that we want to keep an eye on. Now to some statewide news, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced on Tuesday that his office has brought a lawsuit against tick tock for alleged violations of state consumer protection laws. So according to a press release from Wilson's office, it says that they believe tick tock is deploying a business model that is designed to be addictive and maximize the time young users spend on the platform. And also uses manipulative features such as continuous scrolling to keep kids and teens on the platform longer, and finally marketing the platform and platform features to parents is safe for kids and teens online and in app stores. Wilson is joining this lawsuit against this popular social media company by attorneys general and over a dozen other states, including California, New York, and Illinois. You've probably seen this before this you know lawsuits against companies Facebook, Instagram, which is both both platforms are owned by meta. You know I've been in lawsuits there's been talk about tick tock and obviously other states have brought suits forth. So South Carolina is now part of it. I certainly think there's something to it we know the social media apps are designed to keep people on them and can lead to addictions and some people. And not even necessarily that extreme but just keeping people on there longer than they normally would be. I mean that's the business model we know that. But it can be particularly damaging for teens and children for numerous reasons so, you know, we'll see what happens here. I think the lawsuits may be a good idea. There certainly needs to be some changes. I don't know exactly what those changes could or should be or how you verify a person's age to change how you market the platform, you know when someone signs up for it or what have you, but it'll be interesting to see where this goes. And that'll do it for this edition of holy city center radio. I hope you have an amazing weekend. Thank you to Lindsay Marie Collins with LMC sound system for producing this in every episode of holy city center radio. Thank you to Tyler Boone whose music you hear in each and every show. If you haven't already please like, subscribe, rate, review, whatever you can do on the platform you're listening on right now would be great. It's super helpful for me but also you definitely want to be subscribed, subscribe right now because we have a couple exciting interviews that are planned. Don't want to say too much yet, but we've got some, you know, some pretty fun things on the horizon so be sure to be subscribed. You're not going to want to miss any of that. Have an amazing weekend. I'll talk to you all on Monday. Until then, good night. Good luck. ♪ ♪ When I was done ♪ ♪ And moved very fast ♪ ♪ Nothing slowed me down ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]