When Dr. William McCoy thinks of the American relationship with civility, he draws attention to the history of the United States — "a nation founded on challenging the status quo."
"That has helped us to be described — by nations that have been around longer than we have — as scrappy, kind of a rowdy and uncivil group," he said. "If you think about some of the things that have happened in our history, it's not hard to see that."
But even with this kind of background, civility plays a critical role in cooperative work, like that of a city council, or a city government and its residents. McCoy contends that ethics — an agreed-upon standard of good and bad behavior — is the key to making civility work.
Dr. William McCoy
"The foundation of civility really is ethics and helping people understand that a 'right' and a 'wrong' yet exist. You just have to help point it out to people and then hope that they grasp onto it and understand the reasoning behind it."
McCoy will address ethics and civility during the opening session of the Municipal Association's Hometown Legislative Action Day on February 7.
Since 2018, McCoy has served as the director of Clemson University's Rutland Institute for Ethics, where he has worked to emphasize ethical decision-making within the university environment and among outside organizations.
He noted that the definition of ethics can be "somewhat nebulous."
"You open up four or five books and they will all say something different about ethics," he said. "The way I define it, and I put it in very rudimentary terms, is the acceptance and standard of societal right and wrong."
Culture and perspective can influence the differences between individual views on ethics. Even so, McCoy said, some ethical questions should have consistent answers no matter a person's background, and not just for major issues, like the idea that murder is wrong. An example that he uses in the classroom is to ask his students to imagine purchasing a heavy load of groceries, and placing a pack of bottled water in the bottom of the grocery cart, and then discovering they accidentally carried it to the parking lot without paying for it.
"There is no dilemma here," he said. "The only dilemma is, 'how quickly can I get back in there and pay for that?'"
Some of the challenges for elected officials, McCoy said, include a tendency for the public to hold them to a higher standard of conduct, meaning that they are expected to take a measured approach to an exchange even if they are being aggressively attacked. Other major challenges have emerged recently, such as social media giving people an opportunity to more easily engage in public attacks.
"What I've learned is the more balanced that I am, the more that I can remove myself, the more that I can distance myself from mimicking and mirroring behaviors that I don't want . . . to exhibit," he said, adding that this kind of approach can inspire others to take the same calm approach to a situation.
Concurrent sessions
Later during Hometown Legislative Action Day, attendees may choose to attend concurrent sessions, including these:
- Understanding SC's New Law Enforcement Reform Act — In May 2022, the South Carolina General Assembly passed legislation that directly affects law enforcement policies and procedures. This session will feature SC Criminal Justice Academy Director Jackie Swindler discussing what municipal police departments need to know about the new requirements.
- Different Cities, Different Solutions for Short-term Rentals – Cities and towns in South Carolina are different and require different solutions to short-term rental regulation. In this session, several mayors discuss why their cities created their unique short-term rental ordinances, the lessons they have learned and their suggestions for other municipalities considering these regulations.
- Field Services Roundtable – Ask questions on any number of issues important to cities and towns of the Municipal Association's field services managers, Charlie Barrineau, Ashley Kellahan and Jeff Shacker.
Find all agenda details for Hometown Legislative Action Day, as well as the Municipal Elected Officials Institute of Government, taking place the next day on February 8.