BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) - The mayor of Beaufort, who has worked to shape a legacy of bringing people together, has spent his final months as an elected official socially distant and in contact with city leaders via video conference.
Perhaps there is irony there, but Billy Keyserling pressed on with his soft-spoken sense of diplomacy anyway.
Amid city protests this summer after the death of George Floyd, he brokered a conversation with police and community activists. And in one of his final meetings as mayor in November, he invited historians, representatives of Confederacy groups and Black leaders to talk about the future of the city’s Civil War monuments.
His leadership style is not always embraced by everyone, including, perhaps, incoming Mayor Stephen Murray, who feels a hammer is sometimes necessary and that some spirited disagreement is healthy. But it’s clear how Keyserling hopes his tenure is viewed in navigating the city through major infrastructure projects, hurricanes and now a pandemic, while helping secure a Reconstruction Era National Park in northern Beaufort County: as an era of civility and consensus building.
“If you’ve watched the way I’ve worked for 12 years on council, it’s always to be inclusive of the ideas and thoughts and wishes of every council member,” Keyserling said. “Plus we’ve never limited public comment.”
Keyserling said he plans to step back and allow a new City Council to work when Murray is sworn in as mayor and newly elected Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell join the council on Tuesday.
HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT’S GOING
Keyserling had already served on City Council - and two terms as a state representative - before he was elected mayor in 2008 as the Great Recession was underway.
He had campaigned against plans for a large new municipal complex on Boundary Street, saying the project didn’t need to be completed at one time, and city administration could work in the municipal court building until the larger City Hall was needed. But he got on board once in office.
The special tax district used to help fund the new City Hall later helped pay for a $33 million project to transform Boundary Street, work that caused angst among travelers and business owners. The project, completed in 2018, helped green-light new development in Beaufort Plaza, with a new Publix grocery store underway and other new businesses expected to follow.
Keyserling advocated the city’s purchase of the Beaufort Commerce Park out of foreclosure in 2012 for $1.8 million, a deal seen as an opportunity to draw large employers to the Burton area and diversify the local economy. Eight years later, the city has not yet fulfilled that vision.
But Keyserling has worked to attract companies, the incoming mayor Murray said, though his other work might receive more attention.
Keyserling was an early opponent of oil and gas exploration off the S.C. coast, traveling to Washington, D.C., on numerous occasions to oppose plans during the Obama and Trump administrations and helping frame the issue as a local one - a stance adopted by municipalities up and down the coast.
The Coastal Conservation League noted Keyserling’s leadership. His “dedication to our quality of life, and the understanding that it depends on the health of our unique Lowcountry environment, has been unwavering,” said Jessie White, the league’s South Coast director. The outgoing mayor showed “early and consistent leadership protecting our coast from offshore drilling, seismic testing,” White said.
Murray, who was elected to council in 2014 and won the mayoral race over former councilman Mike Sutton in November, noted that “Billy often sees some of those things early on and is proactive in how he gets the city to move towards those things.
“We work on local zoning; we approve festival permits - there’s sort of a narrow box of responsibilities we’re in,” Murray said. “To have a conversation to tell residents and (state and federal officials) we don’t want your offshore testing, it was a little new for some of us on council. And it tended to be one that is a partisan issue and as a nonpartisan council, we tend to stay out of wholly partisan issues.”
More recently Keyserling had urged his constituents to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic and donated and distributed thousands of the face coverings.
“I wish him much success in whatever he’s going to do,” said former Port Royal mayor and friend Samuel Murray. “Knowing Billy, he’s going to be moving on to doing other things.”
WHAT’S NEXT
In 2017 President Barack Obama made official a national monument to the Reconstruction Era in Beaufort County, a cause with which Keyserling had been intrinsically involved and has plans to continue supporting.
Keyserling has formed a nonprofit organization in concert with Community Foundation of the Lowcountry dedicated to advocate for what is now a national park to Reconstruction. The nonprofit, he anticipates, will equip a network of educators to teach Reconstruction in schools, an effort Keyserling hopes can grow to a nationwide reach.
Keyserling has written a book, “Sharing Common Ground: Promises Unfulfilled but Not Forgotten,” recounting those experiences.
The mayor survived a health scare last year when he was hospitalized several days after experiencing breathing difficulties during a tense meeting at Penn Center on St. Helena Island. Keyserling said he had experienced what’s known as “broken heart syndrome,” a heart condition brought on by stress. Subsequent checkups have shown he’s healthy, he said.
Before the scare, he had dropped more than 160 pounds, and he says he regularly exercises near his home on Ribaut Island. His vice remains smoking, as those who have seen Keyserling spark a cigarette at his home during a virtual council meeting can attest.
Keyserling plans to remain visible but wants the new city body to chart its own course.
His replacement, Murray, has been a political ally but has challenged Keyserling on some issues, at one point walking out of a public meeting to protest what he felt was the mayor violating proper protocol by tabling a vote.
“We’ve talked a fair amount about the job he’s done and the job I hope to do, his strengths and weaknesses, my strengths and weaknesses,” Murray said. “We are a lot alike, but we are a lot different.
“I think Billy gave up on trying to tell me what to do a long time ago,” Murray said. “He’s offered more gentle advice, going back to that civility and inclusiveness and allowing the public to be heard - and to make it as easy as possible for them to add input to their local government.”
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