Beaufort County Council: Communication and cooperation are Tom Reitz’s priorities

There is a great divide among county and town councils, says Tom Reitz, a candidate for the Beaufort County Council, who hopes to bridge that divide.

Reitz, 60, is the Republican candidate for the District 11 seat on the council in the Nov. 8 election. He beat longtime representative Stu Rodman in the June Republican primary.

Reitz graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from SUNY Oneonta and an MBA from the University of New Haven. He currently works as a business development manager and owns Alliance International Consulting.

This is his second time running for office, after a failed run for the Hilton Head Town Council in 2020.

The Island Packet sent questionnaires to all candidates in contested races. Candidates were asked to keep their responses to 150 words per question.

Here are Reitz’s answers:

What will your expertise or past experiences bring to the County Council?

The best expertise I can bring to the County Council is my ability to listen to people and bring people together. This skill comes from my years of doing business development and bringing people together who are at totally different ends of the spectrum. Building relationships to reach a common goal is what makes business successful, and the same thing applies to our local and county governments.

What’s the biggest issue facing Beaufort County?

As I have traveled throughout all of Beaufort County, and most specifically my district on Hilton Head Island, the most important thing I have learned is that the residents are not being listened to in the way that they should be by their elected officials. They have not been made a priority and their thoughts and concerns have been neglected. If I, as an elected councilman do not understand what matters most to my constituents, then there is no way I will be able to do my job effectively.

We must understand that although we may not agree on everything we need to work together, listen to each other, and with the respect, honesty and transparency that I will bring to the County Council position, this will definitely happen. I will also make it my mission to get the Town Council and County Council members working more closely together as there is a great division between them that needs to be fixed.

Development and maintaining Beaufort County’s historic character sometimes collide. What is your position on development versus historic preservation?

We must make decisions that do not allow for this type of collision where building hurts the charm, aesthetics and incredible beauty of our most precious county and this incredible island. As I go around Beaufort County listening to our residents, we often talk about our 12-mile paradise never getting any bigger and we must work together to ensure our kids and future generations get to experience and feel the way we do about the place we love and call home. I don’t support overdevelopment and I think some recent communities that have arisen on our island should never have been allowed. I absolutely support preserving historic locations.

Affordable housing is an issue throughout Beaufort County. What more should the council be doing, if anything, to address it?

Town & County councils must work together to help solve this problem with the private business sector, but in addition to the housing aspect of it, we need to solve staffing issues. So many businesses, especially in my district, can’t even find people to work. The convenience available to workers now of being able to work in the tremendously growing towns of Bluffton, Hardeeville and Ridgeland is enticing. Why drive the extra miles and sit in traffic if they don’t have to? We must also find out from the workers that do work on the island if they even want to live here. Some may not want to leave the communities they live in because of their family relationships, churches and schools.

Do you support the direction the county is going with the 278 bridge project and the one bridge vs. two bridge debate?

Absolutely not, the current configuration of Town and County councils has derailed any resolution to the 278 bridge project. Building a massive concrete structure to the entrance to our beautiful island is a disservice to everyone traveling here and everyone that lives here. We definitely need to have the independent review done and when those results come back we take our next steps. I think we should all be leaning more toward the two-bridge scenario now that we have all seen what happened from Hurricane Ian on Sanibel Island. We have to be sure our islanders can get back home after an emergency happens. Many of my constituents have mentioned that they want elected leaders to start thinking about where we can have another access point onto our island — it shouldn’t just come in from Bluffton.

Many candidates have mentioned transparency as being important. If elected, how will you strive to be more transparent with the public?

I have never held any political office and from the very beginning, I have made it clear that the people are my priority. I commit to representing with honesty, integrity and full transparency. I have already talked to many constituents about doing a monthly newsletter of some kind to keep them informed of everything happening on the County Council. I will always be open to constituents reaching out to me via email or phone, and I’d be happy to meet with anyone face-to-face. There will never be a moment when my constituents do not know what is happening at the county level.