Public safety, roads dominate Horry County Council District 3 race

Hiring more police officers and improving Grand Strand roads top the campaign wish lists of the Republican and Democrat running for the Horry County Council District 3 seat.

Bob Kelly, a Carolina Forest Republican, and Jimmy Washington, a Myrtle Beach Democrat, will square off in Tuesday’s general election. They’ll also face a challenge from write-in candidate Jason Morris, who has spent the last few weeks knocking on doors and asking for votes.

Despite accusations that he’s playing a spoiler role, Morris contends he’s dissatisfied with both candidates. A self-described conservative who lives along the Intracoastal Waterway, Morris said he’s not looking to lose.

“I’ve heard it both ways,” he said. “The Republican people are saying I’m trying to split the Republican vote and give it to Jimmy. The Democratic people are saying I’m trying to split the Democratic vote and give it to the Republicans. I’ll tell you this: I wouldn’t be working this hard if I wasn’t working to win.”

But the candidates whose names will actually appear on the ballot don’t appear too concerned — most write-in campaigns fail — and they’re already busy trying to sell themselves to the voters.

The special election is being held to fill the unexpired term of Marion Foxworth, who stepped down in August to accept the position of Horry County register of deeds.

The winner will hold the seat through next year.

The candidates

Kelly, a 59-year-old who retired to the area from New Jersey, is running on his background as a police officer. That experience, he said, makes him uniquely qualified to deal with the district’s crime problems.

“There’s no better person than a 25-year law enforcement career person to know how to deal with those issues and what those issues actually are,” he said.

Kelly moved to the Plantation Lakes development about a decade ago. Shortly after he arrived, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and he spent several years caring for her. His youngest daughter plans to enroll in college next year, and he said he’s ready to return to public service.

“It’s time to get involved again and give back to my community,” he said.

Washington, a 57-year-old manager and corporate trainer for Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant, portrays himself as a born-and-raised Myrtle Beach leader who knows local officials and can negotiate with them to benefit the district.

“That’s what I bring to the table more than anything,” he said. “I can sit down and work with County Council and also [with] the city of Myrtle Beach.”

Washington is the only candidate in the race to have ever held public office. He was appointed to the District 3 seat on the Horry County Board of Education in 2013 to fill the unexpired term of Joe DeFeo after DeFeo was elected school board chairman. Washington was defeated when he ran for the seat against Republican Ray Winters last year.

Despite serving a short time, Washington said he developed good relationships with local leaders and those connections would serve him well if elected.

“I’m familiar with all those folks and familiar with working with them,” he said. “So I decided that I think I could make a difference on the County Council as well.”

A 34-year-old real estate agent, Morris moved to the Grand Strand after graduating from Winthrop University in 2003. Although he grew up near Sumter, Morris said some of his relatives have lived in the area for decades.

When asked why he jumped into the race, Morris pointed to the layout of the district, which includes much of the city of Myrtle Beach and part of Carolina Forest. He said that Kelly is more concerned with residents west of the waterway and Washington is too busy working in the restaurant business to win the race and serve the city.

“The biggest reason I’m running is I just didn’t see where downtown Myrtle Beach and the south end of Myrtle Beach would get fair representation,” he said. “My job every day is to sell the Myrtle Beach area, so I talk to a lot of people and I see the problems there.”

The issues

When it comes to the district’s public safety needs, Kelly considers Horry County’s police force understaffed and insufficiently trained.

“We need to increase, if not double, the amount of police that are on the street,” he said. “We need to give them more training. We need to equip them a little better than they are. We need to do the same with the fire and EMS. They need more support from the county.”

But how to pay for the additional officers, gear and training is a question Kelly can’t completely answer.

A tax increase, he said, should be a last resort. Kelly said the county could consider establishing a dedicated funding source for police similar to the one the county has for fire service. He also suggested looking at projects to trim, though he wasn’t sure where those cuts could be made.

“It’s a core function,” he said of public safety. “It needs to be there. The money has to be there for these services. Where it’s going to come from, again, is a hard question to answer without having first sat on the council and see where the monies are totally allocated to.”

In terms of infrastructure, Kelly said the county must find a way to improve the intersection of U.S. 501 and Carolina Forest Boulevard.

“You can do all you want to 501, but until you eliminate those bottlenecks, and the worst one being Carolina Forest Boulevard, you’re not going to effectively make any positive changes to the traffic on 501,” he said.

County staff and a special commission are developing a proposal for RIDE III, the county’s next road-building program. County Council will vote on the list of RIDE III projects in the spring and Kelly said he wants to be a voice for the district when that vote is taken.

Like Kelly, Washington doesn’t have a prescription for boosting the number of police officers in the district, though he insists that must be done. Improving police pay is also on his radar.

“I’m trying to find money to increase officers’ salaries,” he said. “That’s probably the No. 1 reason why all of them are leaving.”

He agreed with his opponent that the budget could be trimmed, though he also wasn’t sure where to apply the scalpel.

“It’s going to be hard,” he said. “Budget is tight.”

As far as infrastructure is concerned, Washington said he would stand with other council members in pushing for the completion of International Drive. He also wants to see U.S. 501 widened and the roads in the Carolina Forest area improved.

“Infrastructure is going to be a big plus for tourism in the city of Myrtle Beach,” he said. “They (tourists) are going to need roads to get here.”

While Kelly and Washington are campaigning on their support of adding police officers and addressing traffic problems in Carolina Forest, Morris is touting the need for better roads in the city of Myrtle Beach and holding the line on taxes, which County Council voted to raise this year.

Although he acknowledged that Carolina Forest Boulevard needs to be widened, Morris said many roads in the city limits should be repaved, though he didn’t name any specific ones.

“One of the major road problems we have is maintaining the roads we already have,” he said.

Morris has also campaigned on the need to reduce government waste, but he doesn’t have a detailed plan for accomplishing that goal. He said some money could be saved if county employees didn’t drive government-owned cars home. He also said police resources could be shared.

“We need to just go line by line and look at the budget,” he said. “What jobs are being duplicated? Like command structure between the sheriff’s department and the police department. Can we combine some of those things? Can we share resources between the police department and the sheriff’s department and the city of Myrtle Beach?”

Tuesday’s race will be the third for Kelly, who won a four-candidate primary and a runoff to reach the general election.

Washington ran unopposed in the primary.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Because of the Christmas holiday, the results will be certified on Dec. 28.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 1:07 AM with the headline "Public safety, roads dominate Horry County Council District 3 race."