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Political affiliation: Fiscally Responsible Anti-Big Government Local Small Business Persons’ Party
Education: B.A., Fordham University, Theatre and Drama Arts
Professional background: Property Manager, The Sea Pines Company, 1984-1986 (managed 13 regimes and POAs and 330 short-term rental units in South Beach); founder/owner of New Leaf Management, Inc., 1986-1996 (managed and maintained 44 regimes and POAs on Hilton Head); founder/owner of Second Nature, LLC, 1997-2008 (provided landscape design and maintenance services to several hundred residential and commercial properties throughout Hilton Head Island and Bluffton; host of WHHI-TV’s “Talk of the Town,” 2002-2010 (hosted nightly interview show to celebrate the best of Hilton Head, including small businesses, history, culture, religion, special events, nonprofits, education, politics, volunteers, the arts, friends, neighbors and everything in between); co-founder and president of the board of directors of the Bluffton Farmers’ Market, 2008-present (conceived the market, gathered community support, constituted a nonprofit board and took what has become a wonderful, thriving, self-sustaining successful event to Bluffton after the town of Hilton Head Island told us we couldn't do it here); co-founder, Swipe4Charities, 2010-present (initiative that utilizes the services of local credit card processing company Merchant Service Center of Hilton Head to reduce processing fees for local businesses, and donates a portion of MSC profits from every transaction back to local non-profits); sales and market for the Merchant Service Center of Hilton Head Island, 2010-present
Public service background: Little League and Rec Center coach for a combined 13 seasons; Boys and Girls Club board member (formed task force and located, evaluated and acquired the land on which the club now stands); Rotarian for 13 years, including Rotarian of the Year; member of the Design Review Board of the Town of Hilton Head Island for 6.5 years; chairman of the Town of Hilton Head Island Public Art Committee (which was imediately disbanded by the town for refusal to rubber-stamp plop art and the design of the Compass Rose Park); Spanish Wells POA Board of Directors for four years (instrumental in implementing a plantation-wide voluntary trash and recycling pickup program that provides wonderful service and doesn't put our local small business haulers out of business); Community Foundation of the Lowcountry Marketing Committee, 2008-present
Family: Wife, Dianne Kosto; children Zach, Jack and William
Who are your heroes and why? My wife, Dianne Kosto, for doing what it took to raise two wild and wonderful boys on her own, and for her faith, warm and open heart, intelligence, courage and love.
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Q: The recently released master plan for the Hilton Head Island Airport outlined several options for runway lengthening. In your view, is it necessary to expand the facilities in order for the airport to be viable? If so, what should the limits of such expansion be?
A: Yes. Expand the runway to 5,400 feet now. This is Option 2 that was recommended by the experts who prepared the master plan. I will work tirelessly and creatively to obviate the impacts on noise and trees and the adjacent properties.
I spoke with a real estate broker who recently lost the sale of two $5 million oceanfront homes when the prospects learned that they couldn't fly their jets into the airport. I spoke with a major commercial real estate developer interested in the re-purposing and re-development of The Mall at Shelter Cove (as many as 10 more stores are reported to be leaving in January). He won't consider the project unless he can fly his jet into Hilton Head Airport. I spoke with a gentleman who runs a fractional jet ownership company. He turned down 40 trips to Hilton Head Island last year because their jet can't land at Hilton Head Airport. He runs only one of hundreds of fractional jet ownership companies. I spoke with a developer interested in the re-development of an older commercial oceanfront property who is willing to pay for the expansion of the runway and make contributions to local schools if his plan is approved and he can fly his jet into Hilton Head Airport. I spoke with the representative of a European investor who is interested in investing $100 million in distressed real estate on Hilton Head Island — and he won't consider it if he can't fly his jet into Hilton Head Airport.
Hilton Head Island is at a crossroads. We need to revitalize our image as a world-class residential resort community. To do that we need to understand that we must attract world-class visionaries with world-class investment dollars just like Charles Fraser did when he started Sea Pines. Charles didn't use a bureaucrat to design Harbour Town. He used Robert Marvin, the pre-eminent landscape architect of his day. We need to re-embrace Charles' vision of Hilton Head Island as a world-class resort community that deserves fruits of the very best world class creative talents. The expansion of the airport is essential.
Q: There’s been a lot of talk about how to encourage property owners to redevelop or spruce up old buildings. What should the town’s role in that process be?
A: I talked to a local small businessman and owner of two successful restaurants. He created a beautiful new restaurant in an old dilapidated building that had been empty for years. The town unnecessarily delayed the opening of his new restaurant for eight months at an additional cost to him of $600,000. It almost put him out of business.
The codes are broken. The LMO is broken. The anti-business culture of the bureaucracy of the Town of Hilton Head Island is broken. The town needs to be run like a customer service-driven, fiscally responsible small business. The permitting process needs to be thoroughly streamlined. The LMO and codes, etc. need to be rewritten. The town employees need to treat their citizens like clients and customers. They need to approach them with the attitude of, "How can I help achieve a win-win for business and the town?"
Q: How will you react if the S.C. Attorney General’s Office issues the opinion that Hilton Head Island’s dog leash laws are trumped by a state law that would require dogs to be leashed if on public property, even the beach?
A: This is a local issue and it should stay a local issue. We have a great delegation representing us in Columbia, and I am totally confident that they will prevent the long arm of big government from reaching us on this. I will work closely with them to ensure that we will continue to enjoy walking our dogs on our beaches as we see fit.
Q: Do you support off-shore drilling along the South Carolina coast?
A: No. I will do everything in my power to see that that doesn't happen.
Q: Some beachfront property owners have complained that trees block their views, causing vacationers to complain about paying a premium for ocean views that are partially obscured. Would you support a process that would allow them to selectively cut trees?
A: I've worked in landscaping on Hilton Head Island for the last 26 years. I have personally pruned hundreds of trees. Proper pruning can open up views, maintain the health of the trees and still leave the trees looking beautiful. The tree issue has been used unreasonably for years to interfere with sound development and the enjoyment of property by owners and guests. There is a balance that can be achieved.
As a member of the Design Review Board for the Town of Hilton Head Island I inspected pine trees at the Westin Hotel and Resort that were blocking the view of the ocean from 50 rooms at a total estimated cost of around $2 million per year. The landscape architect for the town of Hilton Head Island told the general manager: "You need to know something, mister. I'm the landscape architect for the town of Hilton Head and I don't give a damn how much these trees cost you." There is a balance that can be achieved.
I made a motion to approve the removal of the pine trees, which were actually hurting a grove of specimen live oaks, and got the Westin to agree to double the mitigation requirement and place the mitigation trees in the buffer by the Barony next door to help with a noise problem. There is a balance that can be achieved.
Q: Are you in favor of instituting a 1% sales tax to be used by the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce for tourism marketing?
A: No. No new taxes. I will personally go through the town expenses line item by line item, and I guarantee that I will find many, many, many more dollars in unnecessary and wasteful government spending than can be generated by a new tax.
I will ask the Chamber for a complete accounting of how they spend every single cent they receive from the town. I will ask the Chamber to look at every possible opportunity to reduce their own expenses. I will ask the Chamber to shift spending from administration and overhead into investments in marketing Hilton Head Island. I will ask the Chamber for a clear and credible report on the increased tourism dollars that we earn as a return on the town investment in Chamber marketing programs.
And by the way, I love what the Chamber does to generate tourism and support local small businesses. We did a survey at the Bluffton Farmers’ Market at the beginning of the summer. We discovered that 40 percent of our customers were tourists. 90 percent of those tourists were staying on Hilton Head Island, and 90 percent said they found out about the Bluffton Farmers Market from the Chamber website. We estimated that our return on investment in Chamber membership dues was approximately $2,600 to one. Thank you, Chamber! We love you!
Also by the way, the Bluffton Farmers Market is projecting for next season an average of 50 growers/vendors each doing an average of $1,000 per week for 44 weeks per year, which totals $2.2 million in economic activity in the heart of old town Bluffton. Don't you wish the town of Hilton Head Island would have said yes when we brought it to them? Oh, and we run the whole thing with a volunteer board and one part-time employee.
Q: In the past several years, the South Island Dredging Association has asked the town to help with the dredging of Harbour Town and other Sea Pines-area waterways, a request that could involve financial expenditures. How involved should the town be in dredging efforts?
A: Harbour Town and South Beach in Sea Pines are icons of Hilton Head Island. They are essential to our image. They are essential to our economy. They are essential to our quality of life. The town needs to ensure that they are well-maintained. I managed 44 regimes when I owned New Leaf Management. I have extensive experience in getting parties with disparate interests to the table to work out a deal. I will bring all the stakeholders to the table and I will ensure that we work out a deal that protects and preserves our waterways and distributes the expenses in a fair and equitable manner.
Q: Hilton Head has resisted calls to create a lawful employment ordinance that would require all companies to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Would you support such a law?
A: As a small business owner of a local service company, it always rankled me that I was competing with companies that hired illegal immigrants. I deeply believe that everyone who sets foot on Hilton Head Island to work should be a legal resident of the United States of America. I believe that every small business on Hilton Head Island should play by the same rules and compete on an even playing field. Our new representative, Andy Patrick, has done a great job working with Beaufort County on this issue. Doing something on the local level would be duplicative and unnecessary. I am not in favor of adding laws to the books for political posturing purposes. I am not in favor of increasing the size of local government. I am not in favor of unnecessarily adding to the bureaucratic big government burden already borne by our local small businesses.
Q: What should the town’s role be in encouraging people to recycle?
A: I started the Bluffton Farmers’ Market to preserve the economic viability of local family farming. I used organic fertilizers at Second Nature. I drive a Prius. I was instrumental in implementing the voluntary competitive single trash hauler recycling program in Spanish Wells Plantation. I definitely have my green cred.
I am definitely in favor of recycling, but I am definitely not in favor of doing it in such a way that it crushes our own wonderful local small business haulers. I am definitely not in favor of doing it in such a way that completely trashes (pun intended) our American values of freedom of individual choice and free market competition. The town Obama-trash-gate plan was written such that our own wonderful small business local trash haulers could not possibly meet the requirements of the performance bond and therefore could not bid. When the town Obama-trash-gate plan goes into effect it will take contracts, such as the one in Spanish Wells, away from our wonderful local small business trash haulers and effectively put them out of business on Hilton Head Island. Local small business is really, really good for our local economy.
I informed the town Obama-trash-gate committee that there are several regimes and POAs on the island that are very happy with their trash recycling programs and that they had competitively, individually contracted for service at a better rate than that of the town. I informed the town Obama-trash-gate committee, as a small businessman who had managed property and run service companies on Hilton Head Island for 26 years and had hired and fired dozens of trash companies, that our wonderful small business local trash haulers provide a much, much better level of service. In response, the chair sent out an e-mail telling folks that he was amused by my appearance.
Instead of instructing town staff to oversee the trash recycling program with existing staff, the committee asked town staff how many more bureaucrats they would need to add to oversee the program. The committee commended staff for doing a good job when staff told them they could not tell them how many more bureaucrats it would take and that they would get back to them later.
I am in favor of island-wide trash recycling. I am in favor of writing specs that allow our own wonderful local small business haulers to bid. I am in favor of not putting our own local small business trash haulers out of business. I am in favor of preserving freedom of individual choice and free market competition. I am in favor of preserving existing recycling programs with our own local small business haulers that are competitively priced and working great.
Q: Describe how the town can make itself friendlier to business and economic development.
A: I will completely re-create the culture of town hall. I will run it like a customer service-driven fiscally responsible small business. Every team member in our new town culture will understand beyond the shadow of a doubt that the citizens and the small businesses and the tourists are our clients and customers and that we are here to serve them. They will understand that we are accountable to our clients for every penny we spend. I will ask every team member to join me in my mission to root out and eliminate every penny of wasteful government spending that so thoroughly hurts our local business environment.
I will completely streamline and expedite the approval process for new construction and development permits. I will work with council to amend the LMO and codes, etc. when they get in the way of doing what is best for Hilton Head Island and our local economy. I will tirelessly promote Hilton Head Island's new image as a place that is friendly to small business and sound construction/development investment. I will continue to work with world-class land planners, architects and developers to create a plan to re-invent The Mall at Shelter Cove and convert it into a state-of-the-art multi-purpose vital town center that embraces and enhances the image of Hilton Head Island. I will work closely with Coligny Plaza and every other commercial property owner to ensure that re-development is not unnecessarily, bureaucratically delayed and that owners are not burdened with the additional costs of those delays. I will work with the Native Island Community to develop a new model that ensures that heirs’ property is treated fairly, and that we don't perpetuate the unconscionable situation that has native islanders losing property that has been in their families for generations. I am in conversation with the Home Builders Association, Habitat for Humanity, Native Island Community leaders, grant writers, real estate developers and members of town council about the development of a public private partnership to make this new model a reality.
I will always remember the conversations I had with Charles Fraser 26 years ago when I first went to work for The Sea Pines Company, and I will honor the vision and the values he shared with me and I will use them as my guiding light in every decision I make for the good of the Town of Hilton Head Island.
