Noelle Phillips, The State

The Columbia Metropolitan Airport and air quality were the topics of conversation Tuesday as 11 Midlands-area mayors and county council chairmen met to discuss regional issues.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin called the meeting as part of his efforts to promote regionalism and collaboration on common issues.

"This is meant to be an ongoing discussion," Benjamin said at the start of the luncheon.

Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- Columbia police say an estimated 40,000 fans showed up Friday for a parade and special ceremony honoring the National Champion Gamecock baseball team.

At the ceremony, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin proclaimed July 2 as "Ray Tanner Day and Gamecock Baseball Day" in the City of Columbia.

The city of Columbia estimates 40,000 Gamecock fans descended on downtown for a parade honoring the national championship baseball team.

It was a celebration made for champions. Thousands lined the streets of Columbia to honor USC's national championship baseball team.

An hour before the start of the parade honoring USC’s baseball team Friday, only several hundred garnet-clad fans milled around the State House and the first couple of blocks north on Main Street.

Was the glow of the national championship fading?

Get ready for Steve Benjamin Week in Columbia.

The city’s next mayor will be officially sworn-in Wednesday night by civil rights icon and U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Perry, but the party will be going all week as Benjamin’s supporters celebrate Columbia’s first African-American mayor.

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The Columbia Urban League Youth Development Institute is all about helping teens in the Midlands -- not just teaching them skills, but also giving them hope that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

The teens are wards of the state whose faces can't be shown. They're not criminals looking to be rehabilitated, but innocent teens who, through no fault of their own, are now under the care of the state.

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - In a few weeks, the City of Columbia will have its first new mayor in two decades. But even before taking office, Mayor-elect Steve Benjamin and community leaders are trying to usher in an era of more regional cooperation.

From basic city services, to leading a push for high speed rail, members of group put together by Benjamin met to discuss how to find ways Columbia can reach past the city limits, build coalitions with other local governments and improve services.

Steve Benjamin said he has moved fully into his preparation to be the city’s next mayor, adding that his transition has not been hindered by the investigation into his car accident.

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The race for mayor of the City of Columbia is in its dwindling days, and WIS News 10 wants to help you make an informed decision on a candidate before election day.

Judi Gatson and Ben Hoover moderated a debate Thursday night featuring all seven candidates for mayor. The hour-and-a-half debate featured questions from Judi and Ben, as well as several questions sent to us by viewers.

We also streamed the event right here on WIStv.com and hosted a live blog during the debate. The video will be posted as soon as it is available.

Steve Benjamin is not the only mayoral candidate to call for transparency, and his attention to the issue isn’t new; he’s been talking about it since he got in the race last August. But he’s launched a new push for some specific transparency initiatives, and this time he’s getting some pushback.

For one thing, Benjamin wants to abolish executive session “except for where required by law.”

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - One of the candidates running for Columbia mayor has rolled out a plan for greater transparency at City Hall.

Steve Benjamin calls it "spring cleaning." It's a package of transparency and ethics reforms that would make Columbia city government less prone to misconduct, cronyism and conflicts of interest.

"It's time the city lived up to its end of the bargain," said Benjamin. "It's time to build a city we can believe in."

By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
After Thursday night's mayoral candidates debate at the Capital Senior Center - the third such forum this week - one thing is clear: The battle for the Columbia mayor's office will be won and lost on a spreadsheet.

In a city that ended the 2009 budget year with a $7 million deficit and had to make millions of dollars of cuts at the police and fire departments, voters will have to choose between competing visions of the city's financial future.

The first vision is from mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin, an attorney who wants to restore the police and fire department cuts and then some, promising to give the two departments whatever money they need to add more officers.

The second vision comes from candidate Kirkman Finlay, a city councilman who said the cuts at the police and fire departments were necessary to rein in wasteful spending on overtime and shrink the city's overall budget to a more manageable, responsible level.

In between is candidate Steve Morrison, an attorney who said he supports "smart decisions" at the police department that rely on crime statistics and "a little bit of overtime" to deploy officers in troubled neighborhoods during peak criminal activity.

All three visions were on display at Thursday night's debate, which focused on the city's aging but most politically active population, which will likely have the biggest turnout on April 6 - election day.

"Funding for law enforcement and the fire department has got to be advocated by someone up there, and I think I'm the only one who did that," Benjamin said shortly after the debate.

Benjamin attacked Finlay during the forum's first question, blaming him for crafting the city budget that included the public safety cuts.

But Finlay embraced his role as a budget cutter and questioned Benjamin's willingness to restore funding to what Finlay said was a wasteful system based on unneeded overtime.

"Why do you want to restore ... overtime to the police department?" Finlay asked Benjamin during the debate, adding that the police department is fully staffed for the first time in 10 years. "You are buying police officers at 1 1/2 times the rate, the benefits are costly to everybody here, and generally the officers are highly paid."

Benjamin scoffed at the idea of "buying police officers," saying "these are men and women who put their lives on the line every single day to provide the very blanket of freedom that we live under."

And he rejected Finlay's point that the police department is fully staffed, arguing that while all of the budgeted positions may be filled, the department still does not have enough officers to protect the city.

Columbia Police Chief Tandy Carter set a goal of cutting Columbia's crime rate in half in five years, and to do it
he asked City Council for 92 additional police officers - a request that was turned down because of funding.

"We are a fraction of the force that the chief of police said he needs," Benjamin said. "We have not fully staffed this police department, and the city is feeling the effects of it every single day."

Morrison, who along with Benjamin and Finlay make up the three fundraising leaders in the nine-candidate race for mayor, said the city could not "arrest our way to a crime-free city" and advocated cutting off crime at its source

"Opportunity begins with youth in schools," said Morrison, adding that if elected mayor he would create after-school programs with the city's parks and recreation employees. "It encourages kids."

By ADAM BEAM - abeam@thestate.com

Columbia's next mayor could sink or save Richland County's unified fire service, a 20-year city-county partnership that is crumbling because of increasing health care costs and allegations of financial mismanagement.

The partnership has been so successful it lowered insurance ratings throughout the county, saving homeowners $5.5 million, according to a 2007 study.

But increased health care costs and changes in how the city is required to handle retirement health insurance have made firefighting so expensive Columbia officials say they need millions of dollars more from the county to make things work.

COLUMBIA, SC – Friday night’s snowstorm couldn’t stop Columbia mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin from taking his vision of A New Day for Columbia to the streets going door to door talking with residents in Columbia’s Historic Lower Waverly neighborhood today.
 
“It’s been a great day!” Benjamin said. “This is my favorite part of the campaign, getting out and talking with folks about what’s important to them. There was no way I was going to let a little snow get in the way of that.”
 
Benjamin and campaign volunteers began spent more than four hours canvassing the neighborhood and knocked on well over 100 doors.

Columbia Urban League president James T. McLawhorn Jr. says there is a real chance Columbia will elect a black mayor.

by Adam Beam
The State
December 3, 2009

from Firefighter Hourly
November 3, 2009

Steve Benjamin doesn't hide from making the tough statements. Today the candidate for Mayor of Columbia stood in front of a Columbia Fire Station and said budgets shouldn't be balanced on the backs of first responders. This is a sharp departure from any other member of city council or anyone running who has commented on the issue.

Standing across the street from Station 9 in Shandon, Benjamin eloquently delivered a short but powerful indictment of cutting funding to public safety. His statement is resonating with firefighters who are becoming aware of his comments. In addition, several national fire service writers, as well as media, are now interested because Benjamin joins a small list of political candidates who have spoken out nationwide for first responders. All are leading in their respective races for election.

Columbia has gutted the fire department while spending more money on other projects. Just recently the city has hired a firm to look at the efficiency of the city.

by Adam Beam
The State

Columbia mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin raised $102,475 in his first full fundraising quarter, believed to be the most ever for a City Council candidate.

Mayor Bob Coble, who is not seeking re-election, raised $133,000 in the final quarter leading up to his 2006 race, but a portion of that was borrowed. All of Benjamin's money came from campaign contributions.

"Steve Benjamin is the front-runner," said Bob Wislinski, a political consultant who has been involved in numerous city elections. "He has made a viable case that he will be the next mayor."  To keep reading, click "Read more" below.

Steve Benjamin is taking a substantial financial lead in the race to become the next mayor of Columbia. On Thursday, Benjamin reported raising raising over $100,000 in the third quarter.

Benjamin said his monsterous quarter put him well beyond his fundraising goal and that it was one of the largest fund-raising totals for a single quarter in Columbia history.  To keep reading, click "Read more" below.

Folks in Columbia may finally have an opportunity to turn their city around and move beyond nearly two decades worth of ineffective, wasteful, bloated bureaucracy.

Attorney Steve Benjamin announced Tuesday that he will challenge five-term Mayor Bob Coble in next April’s city election.

“I’ve been given some incredible opportunities to get involved in making this city better,” Benjamin told The State newspaper. “I want to take a more central role in making that happen. I want to try to help provide some vision, some leadership, and also help restore some sense of accountability.”  To keep reading, click "Read more" below.