Long Fall From Grace

Saturday's editorial explores the trajectory of Atlantic Beach Mayor Retha Pierce's path from a well-liked community fixture to, frankly, an embarrassment to that same community, and suggests she step down so the town can move forward.

As news of Atlantic Beach Mayor Retha Pierce's fourth arrest since her 2007 election played across the Grand Strand this week, many doubtlessly wondered how she was ever elected in the first place.

Prior to her entry into politics, Pierce was well known in Atlantic Beach as the humble, generous proprietor of a restaurant counter and bakery on 31st Avenue. The town's largest landowners would often swing by just to chat, and its less-fortunate residents knew she would never send them away hungry.

"Regardless of who those people were, she never turned her back on them or had bad thoughts to say about them," said Kenneth McIver, a former town manager whose tenure in office included multiple clashes with Pierce. "We all knew her; we all enjoyed her company. She was a good conversationalist."

This kind of goodwill carried her onto the Town Council in 2005, where she would lead the opposition to then-Mayor Irene Armstrong (who herself was later indicted and suspended from office in 2008 on corruption charges). In 2007, she attracted the attention of the greater Grand Strand with her one-vote victory over Armstrong in an election that would later take a tortured, two-year path through the court system. Pierce was hailed as a reformer then, but her trouble with the law began almost immediately afterward.

Now facing charges in four separate, unresolved cases - resisting arrest, trespassing at town hall, hit-and-run and this latest driving-under-the-influence arrest - Pierce must have one of the most active rap sheets in Atlantic Beach, yet it would be wrong to characterize her as a criminal. Her repeated problems with the law, rather, tend to stem from a strange collision of accidents, ego and poor personal choices. In a way, her public insistence after every incident that she was set up in some new conspiracy is more troubling than her driving mistakes themselves.

Her saga may soon be halted, if outside public officials overcome their usual reluctance to delve into Atlantic Beach affairs. If Pierce's hit-and-run charge ever goes before a grand jury - prosecutors have said in April that was their next step - the resulting indictment could be passed to the governor, who would then have the choice of suspending her for "moral turpitude." Solicitor Greg Hembree has had an understandably on-again, off-again interest in the turbulent world of Atlantic Beach politics and crime, but Pierce's case (not to mention Armstrong's) should go forth without further delay.

Pierce's legal troubles do the entire town a disservice. The town has not seen a major crime in more than a year, and the drug trade there has by all accounts been suppressed. Old eyesores are being demolished or renovated, and new beach houses are being built. Yet none of these slow, subtle positive changes have hope of attracting notice when news crews must chase the mayor from jail to jail across the state.

Remember, tiny Atlantic Beach's four blocks are a testament to the strength of the human spirit: strong, brave black men bought the land and built the town in a time when they could have been lynched merely for accepting a job a white man wanted. Neither the state of South Carolina, the Grand Strand, nor the town's residents should lose sight of that proud history - and it is shameful that one person is such a continued distraction from that memory.

With such immense personal and legal problems, the honorable thing for Mayor Pierce to do would be resign for the sake of the town's reputation (perhaps even to return later, once her issues are resolved). As hard as she fought for her seat, however, that course seems unlikely, so we would urge the authorities in charge of her cases to carry them to conclusion without further hesitation.

Prior to her entry into politics, Pierce was well known in Atlantic Beach as the humble, generous proprietor of a restaurant counter and bakery on 31st Avenue. The town's largest landowners would often swing by just to chat, and its less-fortunate residents knew she would never send them away hungry.

"Regardless of who those people were, she never turned her back on them or had bad thoughts to say about them," said Kenneth McIver, a former town manager whose tenure in office included multiple clashes with Pierce. "We all knew her; we all enjoyed her company. She was a good conversationalist."

This kind of goodwill carried her onto the Town Council in 2005, where she would lead the opposition to then-Mayor Irene Armstrong (who herself was later indicted and suspended from office in 2008 on corruption charges). In 2007, she attracted the attention of the greater Grand Strand with her one-vote victory over Armstrong in an election that would later take a tortured, two-year path through the court system. Pierce was hailed as a reformer then, but her trouble with the law began almost immediately afterward.

Now facing charges in four separate, unresolved cases - resisting arrest, trespassing at town hall, hit-and-run and this latest driving-under-the-influence arrest - Pierce must have one of the most active rap sheets in Atlantic Beach, yet it would be wrong to characterize her as a criminal. Her repeated problems with the law, rather, tend to stem from a strange collision of accidents, ego and poor personal choices. In a way, her public insistence after every incident that she was set up in some new conspiracy is more troubling than her driving mistakes themselves.

Her saga may soon be halted, if outside public officials overcome their usual reluctance to delve into Atlantic Beach affairs. If Pierce's hit-and-run charge ever goes before a grand jury - prosecutors have said in April that was their next step - the resulting indictment could be passed to the governor, who would then have the choice of suspending her for "moral turpitude." Solicitor Greg Hembree has had an understandably on-again, off-again interest in the turbulent world of Atlantic Beach politics and crime, but Pierce's case (not to mention Armstrong's) should go forth without further delay.

Pierce's legal troubles do the entire town a disservice. The town has not seen a major crime in more than a year, and the drug trade there has by all accounts been suppressed. Old eyesores are being demolished or renovated, and new beach houses are being built. Yet none of these slow, subtle positive changes have hope of attracting notice when news crews must chase the mayor from jail to jail across the state.

Remember, tiny Atlantic Beach's four blocks are a testament to the strength of the human spirit: strong, brave black men bought the land and built the town in a time when they could have been lynched merely for accepting a job a white man wanted. Neither the state of South Carolina, the Grand Strand, nor the town's residents should lose sight of that proud history - and it is shameful that one person is such a continued distraction from that memory.

With such immense personal and legal problems, the honorable thing for Mayor Pierce to do would be resign for the sake of the town's reputation (perhaps even to return later, once her issues are resolved). As hard as she fought for her seat, however, that course seems unlikely, so we would urge the authorities in charge of her cases to carry them to conclusion without further hesitation.