Mayor, new Myrtle Beach council members, officially sworn into office

The Myrtle Beach Law Enforcement Center was filled with family and friends as Myrtle Beach mayor-elect Brenda Bethune and newly elected council members Jackie Vereen, Gregg Smith and Mike Lowder prepared for their swearing in ceremony.

After taking oath, each newly elected member took their seat on the dais, and the bang of the gavel marked the start of their time in office.

“To my family, I cannot thank you all enough for the prayers, the support, the love and the endurance for everything we’ve had to go through the past six months to get here,” Bethune said. “To all of you, thank you for the trust you have placed in me. I promise to be honest, I promise to be fair and I promise to always listen.

“It is truly an honor for me to be apart of your team, and together we are going to do great things for the City of Myrtle Beach,” she said.

“I went into it with the mindset of I’m in it to win it, even though it was never an aspiration of mine,” Bethune said. “It was still very surreal when I actually won, just to hear that announced, for people to be calling me and now referring me as mayor-elect and to see my name on the agenda today as Mayor Bethune hit home. But it is, I’m excited about it and it’s a great challenge, a great honor, and I’m ready for it.”

For Bethune, her 96-year-old mother was in attendance at the swearing-in ceremony along with her husband Brown Bethune.

Vereen, Smith and Lowder were elected on Nov. 7, while the mayoral race went to a runoff on Nov. 21..

Incumbent Randal Wallace was voted out-of-office and councilman Wayne Gray did not run for reelection.

Vereen sat on the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board and ran for city council twice before.

“I’m so excited to finally be on council,” Vereen said. “Actually, I’ve grown over the past two times that I’ve run. I’ve learned more and more each time and I think that it better prepared me for this time and to be able to have a better voice on council this time.”

Smith is a real estate agent for Century 21 Broadhurst.

For Rhodes, who served as mayor for 12 years, Bethune’s swearing in was a bitter sweet moment.

“I would love to have won the election again, but when I lost, about three days later, it felt like an anvil had been taken off my shoulders,” Rhodes said. “Because you don’t understand the stress and pressure you are under. When it’s really finally over, there’s a relief factor. I feel very good, I look forward to doing some other things within the city especially grow more sports tourism. That’s my objective now is to do some more events in town.”

On Nov. 7, Bethune and incumbent Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes faced Ed Carey, former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride and C.D. Rozsa. Bethune and Rhodes, the two highest vote winners, went to a runoff election just before Thanksgiving.

Bethune ended the race in the runoff election with Rhodes on Nov. 21, who had previously won elections in 2005, 2009 and 2013.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Mayor, new Myrtle Beach council members, officially sworn into office."