What does a city-appointed resignation mean for Myrtle Beach and the GSHS?

A Grand Strand Humane Society board of director's meeting on March 28 lead to the resignation of a city-appointed board member.

Susan Means handed in her resignation after vice president Carol Wallauer made a motion to fire then-president Elena Nicholas. Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune and various city council members attended the meeting.

"City council had received numerous emails and presentations at previous council meetings with concerns and issues from previous board members, from volunteers and we felt that since we do have a financial investment in the organization that it was our responsibility to help resolve some of those issues and request the board to look into some of them and address them," Bethune said.

But what does this resignation mean for the City of Myrtle Beach?

"We don't govern the humane society so as far as what's next, the only role the city really has, other than the support we help give them, is to appoint a member of the board as a representative of the city and we have not discussed that yet, who that person will be," Bethune said.

The city gives the shelter $230,000 and owns the land and building where the shelter is housed.

Because of their involvement, the city has two appointed board members — Larry Bragg, who is still on the board, and Means who resigned on March 28.

Moving forward, Bethune said she is not concerned over Means' resignation and that the city plans to work on filling the vacant seat.

"We'll appoint someone else. It's unfortunate, Ms. Means was a great board member," Bethune said. "I know that she has a passion for animals and a love for animals and I wish that she hadn't resigned, but we will appoint someone else to represent the city and move on from there."

When asked the reason behind her resignation Means said, "To tell you the honest truth, I don't really want to get into this. There was just some stuff going on that I was just not happy with and I thought some things that were handled really badly.

"There were a lot of misrepresentations made by some people and I just didn't want to be involved in it anymore. It just got to be a cat fight and it just wasn't something I wanted to take part in anymore."

Means said she does feel the city should be more involved with shelter, due to the amount money the city gives to the shelter.

"If the humane society didn't take the animals that the city picked up, that animal control picked up, then the city would have to have their own shelter, which would be horrendously expensive. So, this is a win win for them for that shelter to be used as theirs and that's the reason they give them all this money that they do."

This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 9:01 AM with the headline "What does a city-appointed resignation mean for Myrtle Beach and the GSHS?."