Editor's note : This is the second in a three-part series about how Horry County Council conducts business over e-mail, how politics over the recent administrator search and the upcoming chairman's election are affecting business and about how the county keeps e-mails considered public records. The reports are based on 1,348 pages of e-mails obtained by The Sun News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Politics caused by a hotly contested Horry County Council chairman's race and the stalled search for a new county administrator has brought some areas of County Council business to a crawl and affected overall relationships, according to e-mails between council members obtained through the state Freedom of Information Act.
Many of the more than 1,300 e-mails obtained by The Sun News show tension and accusations of political posturing between council members. Others reveal efforts to form alliances about decisions such as the search for a new administrator, showing a council that has been largely fractured by politics and infighting.
The Freedom of Information Act request asked for e-mails sent to and from County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland's e-mail address because as chairwoman she has a role in leading debate over official business. E-mails sent between other members that excluded Gilland were not obtained.
The struggle to find a new administrator has resulted in two deadlocked council votes in the last three months: first between two finalists in the first round of the search, and the second on how to move forward with the search.
Both votes brought the process to a standstill when no one was willing to budge, and the e-mails sent after those votes sometimes bordered on hostile. The atmosphere also created an audible strain among council members with several occasions of public outbursts directed at one another during meetings.
The e-mail discussions were not only hot-headed, said Bill Rogers, the executive director of the S.C. Press Association, but they may also have crossed some legal lines.
Councilman Brent Schulz, who is up for re-election this year, suggested via e-mail that the council might want to wait to appoint a new administrator until after the election is over in January 2011.
The council decided at its meeting at the end of January to move forward immediately.
"I just felt like we have six council members on each side both refusing to budge. We have a lock down vote that's irreversible. There are seven that are going to be up for re-election. There may or may not be new faces on council. It just made sense to me to wait," he said.
"A lot of these attacks are very personal on both sides. Sometimes everybody gets along. Lately, I don't know. There are a lot of undercurrents that are going on. There are individual e-mails that were shared about God knows what subject. One person gets mad at the other, and it starts to come out in front of the cameras. ... A lot of times I don't know what the rub is."
Gilland later sent an e-mail Dec. 10 to several council members warning them that the political atmosphere was getting ugly because of the chairman's race.
"I just had a thought: both [Harold] Worley & Schultz [sic] want [Mark] Lazarus to win the election in June for the chair I sit in. So does Weaver, I hear...," Gilland wrote.
"I anticipated serious problems from within as the new year started and filing drew close, but things have begun earlier than usual this time," she continued. "It's going to be a long and ugly six months."
Schulz and Weaver denied being aligned with any candidate for council chairman. Schulz said because only one person had officially declared his candidacy and the filing period had not started, it was too early to know who he would support.
"I think it's 100 percent political. I still have a cordial work relationship with the six [council members] who did not vote for me, that is probably equal to the six who did vote for me," said Weaver, who was one of the two finalists during the deadlocked council vote.
"Mark Lazarus and I have had no discussion about his choice for the administrator should he be successful in the Republican primary in June. He and I were cordial when he was on council. My involvement with the council is more so with the chairman than others because she is the chairman. I have not said anything that would intentionally detriment her service as County Council chairman as long as she serves."
Former County Councilman Mark Lazarus has said he plans to run for the chairman's seat again, but has not officially announced his candidacy. Councilman Harold Worley is a business partner with Lazarus in the O.D. Pavilion Amusement Park in North Myrtle Beach.
"There's politics in just about every decision that's made. That council seat doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the people. We have to remember to make decisions that are good for all. For me, the administrator decision is not a decision based on politics," Worley said.
"It's bad for the council and Horry County to switch and change leaders on that airport terminal [project] at this time. Weaver needs to be involved in that because it is at a critical stage. He has been involved with that critical project and understands all of the moving components that it involves. I don't know that someone coming in from the outside would be able to do what he would."
In other e-mails, Gilland tries to directly address outbursts or what she perceived as political maneuvering with individual council members. She chastises Worley in an e-mail dated Dec. 10, writing, "I don't ever mind you disagreeing with me (although I would prefer a bit more decorum and respectful debate than you sometimes offer), but [...] at least be honest with your accusations and don't lie."
Councilman Bob Grabowski, whose seat is not up for re-election this year, said he believed that the chairman's race, which could include at least three council members and close business and other associates, has shown itself in the general decorum of members during debate.
"Yes, I'm seeing the politics. I see things that ... it's very subtle, like a council member disagreeing on something that they would normally let slide, and it seems like political grandstanding rather than anything for the benefit of the county," he said.
Gilland said the feeling of political strategizing and undertones is omnipresent.
"I see [the politics], I feel it. I'm painfully aware of it. I know that there are outside movers and shakers that have taken a very active role in lobbying council members about their choice for administrator, and I have seen council members do whatever they could to change another members' vote," she said. "Without a doubt it is affecting how we do business. There are some who at times absolutely refuse to follow any leadership attempts I've made and there are times I've been undermined over the smallest things."
Many members said the administrator's search has had a particularly political tone, and some said that it has been inappropriate at times.
"I've gotten calls from other politicians and other persons from throughout the county about this and it should be our decision," said Councilman Al Allen, who will run for re-election in his district this year. "I feel like there are council members playing politics and there is a large political stirring pertaining to this. The current county council should not shirk their duties or play the political game with a decision that needs to be made with the council that was elected by the public."
The full council will get a public update on the progress in the administrator's search during the county council meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Horry County Government & Justice Center in Conway.
Each council member submitted the names of new finalists for consideration, a list composed of 11 candidates, including Weaver. The filing date for the year's election will open in March.
Coming up
Tuesday : A look at Horry County's e-mailed public records retention policy, which some officials have said violates state laws.
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