Myrtle Beach’s city manager will serve for another year. Why mayor voted no

Myrtle Beach’s city manager and city attorney will stay on for another year after City Council voted to renew both contracts in a Tuesday meeting.

Their renewals weren’t without contention, as some on council argued for a more thorough review process before the summer renewal deadline.

“This is a vote against Council rushing this to judgment,” Mayor Mark Kruea said.

City manager Jonathan “Fox” Simons has led Myrtle Beach has been chief executive since 2021, appointing and setting salaries, removing employees at will, preparing and administering the annual budget, making financial reports and advising council on departments and appointments. City attorney William Bryan Jr. has provided litigation services, oversight and supervision of Myrtle Beach since 2019.

The two are among Myrtle Beach’s highest paid employees, with Bryan Jr. making more than $213,000 annually, and Simons earning more than $292,000 with the most expensive salary in the city. It’s unclear if the contract renewals come with raises.

Should City Council evaluate performances before renewing contracts?

Kruea argued the city manager is “the most important position in the city” and said “the ball was dropped” because Simons’ contract rolled over last year without review. He also pointed out that Myrtle Beach City Council has never completed a formal evaluation of Simons as city manager.

This year Councilman Mike Chestnut requested motions to review the city’s contracts for the city manager and city attorney. Although the motions were initially only to review the contracts, council amended the motions to vote on renewing the contracts in Tuesday’s meeting.

“I firmly believed, when I read this [motion], that we were going to consider, that we would have a discussion, and just to blatantly renew a contract that just keeps continuing to roll, over to me is just very, very bad business, and so I will be voting no on this,” Councilman Bill McClure said of the contracts. “It has nothing to do with those two individuals. It has to do with, I’m disappointed in the process.”

Chestnut, who requested the motions, said renewing Simons’ contract wouldn’t stop City Council from completing a performance evaluation after the fact.

“We have not done it, but I don’t think by passing this contract still stops us from doing all that,” Chestnut said. “We need to do that, but I think we also need to move forward and send a clear direction ... I think the public want us to make a clear statement, I am, that I think that the person that we have running the city right now, he cares and is concerned about the city, and he’s wanting to see or to enforce what council wants him to enforce.”

McClure was the sole vote against renewing Bryan Jr.’s contract Tuesday, vouching for further evaluation before making the annual decision and saying he doubted anyone in City Council had even read Simons’ contract in the last six or seven months.

Kruea joined McClure in voting against keeping Simons on as Myrtle Beach’s sole executive authority and clarified his concerns weren’t personal.

“At this point, I’m not comfortable doing this without City Council having an evaluation for the manager,” Kruea said. “Rolling it over automatically by rote, for a CEO of a company, just doesn’t make good sense to me at the end of the day ... I think that would be a good thing for the city to do, for the City Council to do, to have that evaluation process before you say, ‘Here’s your contract and your check.’ Let’s have an evaluation and see where we stand.”

The mayor, who was critical of City Council’s lack of involvement in Myrtle Beach’s budgeting process in his campaign, also advocated for members to “take more responsibility” for the annual budget, instead of letting it fall to the city manager.

Will City Council introduce an evaluation process?

Citing previous conversations about “an appropriate evaluation tool,” Councilwoman Deborah Conner said she was in favor of setting such a system up in the coming year to outline City Council’s expectations for the city manager and conduct assessments. Councilman Phil Render told City Council he evaluates performances on a daily basis, but supported the idea and recommended starting discussions in January.

January evaluation discussions were also supported by Councilman Mike Lowder, who argued there simply wasn’t enough time to review the city manager’s performance before his contract would renew this summer.

“We can say we all didn’t move forward with it, but at the end of the day, we had time, including yourself, and we didn’t do it,” Councilman Mike Lowder told Kruea of the evaluation process. “So let’s just be straight up and be honest about this, and here it is, I do not believe that we have enough time between now and the time it’s time to the contract would renew.”

But Kruea pushed back on Lowder’s assessment, saying he did, in fact, suggest an evaluation form, but he “got no traction” in City Council.

Although he vouched for more rigorous evaluations, McClure shared concerns that starting the process in January would come roughly halfway through the city manager’s and city attorney’s contracts.

“I think we don’t wait on the evaluation, we start working on it now, so that both of these men have something in front of them, and they know what is expected from them,” McClure said.

This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 12:48 PM.