Aiken2025 seeks to motivate competent, motivated, and energetic candidates to run for City Council seats. But equally important is to have a set of principles that can help to guide ongoing decisions within a broad framework.

Aiken2025 encourages any candidate running for office, or any manager retaining a position in the City of Aiken government, to formally embrace – and demonstrate compliance with – the following principles and standards:​

Ethics: 

1. • Establish a City Code of Ethics and have all officials, contractors, and employees sign it. 

   • No conflicts of interest (no self-dealing; recusal from anything close to a conflict) - “If it looks like a potential conflict, then treat it as a conflict.”

   • Maintain strict confidentiality, where situations warrant, until publicly disclosed

   • Ensure honest and fair elections of officials

2. Transparency:

   • Support objective and visible practices for engaging contractors, vendors, and in contemplating the acquisition or divestiture of City assets; i.e., avoid sole source contracts.

   • Advocate for early and meaningful public involvement and input on any city initiative (i.e. the new Zoning Ordinance) through improved communications via channels that are well understood and easy to access.

   • Support early, pro-active disclosure of issues that may be perceived as controversial and seek meaningful public dialogue.

3. Subscribe to principles of thoughtful, slow and controlled growth (including coordination with the County):

   • Avoid pursuing growth for growth's sake.

   • Bias for attracting high paying, non-polluting, "knowledge industry" employers

   • Commit to align and right-size infrastructure with expectations of steady but modest growth (e.g. traffic, housing density, water, sewer; power).

   • For new employers or developments, support the use of impact fees to offset infrastructure demands (e.g. electrical use; water/sewer; road requirements).

   • Pursue policies that allow for an array of housing cost levels to avoid pricing citizens out of the market.

   • Pursue policies that improve walkability, bike-ability, and horse-friendliness. 

4. Acknowledge what makes Aiken distinctive/special (compared with peer cities) and nurture/support policies via Planning, Zoning and Design Review to enhance these attributes:

   • A vibrant downtown with flourishing local businesses

   • Distinctive forested parkways and streetscapes

   • The historic horse-centric nature of the City

   • Historical and top-tier golf amenities – a tourist destination

   • A city center surrounded by open space: public land, agriculture and horse farms

5. Revisit and improve City leadership standards and norms:

   • Bring creative and innovative ideas to the table, including those generated by constituents.

   • Expect Council to conduct healthy analysis and debate of policies; avoid cursory review and rubber stamping of policies brought to Council by the City Manager.

   • Insist on beginning the City's next 10-year comprehensive plan promptly, in a visible and meaningful fashion by first establishing benchmarks on topics like livability, multi-modal transportation, safety, and aesthetics. Commit to steadily executing the plan to avoid it sitting on the shelf as a "good intention."

   • Over time, calibrate the “right-sizing” of City tax revenues with strategic needs and aspirations to ensure sufficient resources to thrive – all while remaining fiscally prudent.

6. Seek complementary policy alignment with the County and encourage County officials to buy into overlapping elements of the City’s plans.