Myrtle Beach has a new mayor for the first time in years. What’s on his agenda?

For the first time in eight years, Myrtle Beach has a new mayor. Mark Kruea was officially sworn in on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

Although it’s his first mayoral term, Kruea worked with Myrtle Beach leadership for decades, serving as a city spokesperson for 26 years before retiring last April.

“We need to continue the conversations that we started during the campaign,” Kruea said of his first six months in office.

That includes involving City Council more in the budget process, amending the Tourism Development Fee (TDF), recruiting more police officers, strengthening the city’s relationship with the business community and providing neighborhood services.

In his mayoral campaign, Kruea voiced concerns about City Council’s lack of involvement in the municipal budgeting process, saying members were “basically just rubber-stamping” city manager Jonathon “Fox” Simons’ recommended budget.

“Council needs to talk about the budget,” Kruea said. “There may be some economies that we can achieve in the budget. We need to talk about some of the things that we’re doing downtown, ways to save money in the Arts and Innovation District.”

Public safety

One area that Kruea wants to target with the budget is the Myrtle Beach Police Department. Public safety was a center point of Kruea’s campaign and the mayoral race at large. Heading into office, Kruea expressed concern over police staffing.

“The chamber has done a lot of advertising for police officers, but we’ve had 50 vacancies on the books in the budget for five years, so something has to change … Whatever we’ve been doing from a recruiting standpoint, has not worked as well as it needed to,” Kruea said.

Kruea would not discuss potential staff changes, including Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock.

“Amy and I have had a casual conversation about retirement, but that was 18 months ago, so I haven’t talked to her lately about that,” Kruea said. “Council only hires the manager, the city attorney and appoints the judges. Everybody else works for the city manager, but those are things that the new council needs to talk about. We’ve not had a chance to meet as a body.”

Tourism Development Fee

Another facet of the budget Kruea plans to address is the TDF. Working with state leaders, Kruea wants to lower the requirement under South Carolina law to dedicate 80% of the revenue generated to promoting tourism.

“Chamber’s spending $35 million a year on advertising, and visitor numbers are going the wrong direction,” said Kruea. “In the current budget year, city council used its 20% for the property tax credit, but that wasn’t enough, so they had to add an extra $1.2 million to make the property tax credit whole, or else they would have had to cut the property tax credit so the percentages, the 80/20 [ratio] no longer work for the community.”

The specific breakdown of proposed TDF changes remains to be seen, but according to Kruea, residents can expect more details this spring, before a new budget year starts in July.

Better communication with businesses and residents

Around Myrtle Beach, Kruea wants to boost communication and working relationships between the city, which he described as having “a reputation, lately, of being difficult to deal with,” and businesses. With 10,000 business licenses in city limits, Myrtle Beach needs to be competitive by ensuring businesses know what to expect and understand rules and processes of operation.

The new mayor also spoke about improving the experiences of residents and tourists around the city, particularly outside the Arts and Innovation District.

“The city is focused so much on those few blocks of downtown, the rest of the city has been ignored, and the rest of the city knows that we’ve not done anything for the visitor experience east of Kings Highway,” said Kruea. “Neighborhoods outside of those few blocks downtown have issues.”

Citing unaddressed issues in neighborhoods like Grande Dunes, the Market Common and central Myrtle Beach, Kruea proposed standardizing maintenance across the city. That could include features like landscaping, lighting and maintenance throughout city limits.

As his mayorship begins, Kruea encourages residents to bring other concerns to city leadership.

“We’ll be receptive and seeking input more than previous councils have,” Kruea said. “Hold us accountable. If we get off track, speak up. This is a collaborative effort, this isn’t all Council driven. It’s the whole community working together.”

This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 1:33 PM.