We live in an age where media is a far-reaching spiderweb, present not only in print publications, but online as well, which extends to our phones, computers and tablets.
Once something is published online, all it takes is a Google search and no more than an hour or two of time to unearth past offenses that could cause harm to your reputation and your future.
Mayor Steve Benjamin has been Columbia’s mayor for four years. During his time in office, he’s helped improve Columbia’s economy with $1.1 billion in regional capital investment. By October 2013, he raised more than $8 million for public safety funding.
No time in office is perfect, and with the divisions between the City Council members earlier this year, Benjamin’s tenure as mayor is no exception. Still, he’s done a lot for the city, even if the council members don’t always play nice with him or each other.
Recently, Benjamin’s name was attached to Jonathan Pinson. A former South Carolina State College trustee, Pinson has been found guilty of 29 charges filed against him by federal prosecutors — which doesn’t even include the indictment for his participation in a bribery scam last year.
Benjamin was once in business with Pinson, including the Village at River’s Edge, a housing development that ended up in foreclosure in 2012. When he was running for mayor in 2010, he told a reporter at The Free Times that he’d sold his share, and he said this again in a statement released on July 3.
Whether or not he sold his share, Benjamin was still named in the 2012 lawsuit filed by Richland County.
Of course, no one is infallible, not even public figures. Benjamin is a human being, and as such, he’s going to make mistakes.
And it’s true that he didn’t do anything illegal in this instance. But during the trial, Benjamin’s name came up multiple times.
When you elect someone to public office, you do so for a variety of reasons: you agree with their policies, or you think they can bring positive change. My dad always says he votes for the person whose campaign ads annoy him the least.
Although the rationale behind the vote may differ by circumstance, there is a core truth behind the candidate in question being elected: you trust them to be a good representative of your interests, of the office itself, and of the city, state or country that they serve.
All of Benjamin’s accomplishments may pale in comparison to this trial, and all because he exercised poor judgment a few years ago.
It is easy to lose the trust of your constituents in an age where each misstep is made public knowledge across multiple media platforms. This could follow Benjamin for the rest of his career.
In precisely what ways this will affect Benjamin’s career are still up in the air, but one thing is clear: in the future, the mayor should be far more careful where his friends and business partners are concerned.
This doesn’t just reflect poorly on him, after all. This reflects poorly on Columbia, too.