Horry County Council may not oust Solid Waste Authority board member

The Solid Waste Authority may be stuck with Dan Gray after all.

The SWA board, which makes recycling and waste management decisions for the county, asked Horry County Council to remove Gray from the panel last month after SWA leaders voiced concerns about his behavior.

Despite that request, Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said no action will be taken in Gray’s case unless municipal leaders — not SWA officials — ask the council to do something about him.

“It was their recommended appointment,” Lazarus said, referring to city leaders’ support of Gray.

Last month, the SWA board voted 5-2 to ask the council to oust Gray for sending text messages and emails that most SWA leaders felt disparaged the agency’s staff, distorted facts and hampered their efforts to secure a recycling contract with Charleston County.

Gray admitted he sent the messages, but he called the SWA’s attempted ouster an overreaction.

Despite his peers’ efforts to boot him off the board, Gray said he plans to continue serving on the panel, which he’s been appointed to twice.

“As far as I am concerned, words from the past are in the past,” he said. “We board members may differ at times on the proper way to accomplish best management practices and I will continue to speak to that when appropriate, but only at official board meetings or when asked by an elected official from County Council or a municipality. I feel strongly that my duty lies to the people that appointed me and most importantly to our citizens who elected them.”

Gray maintains his motives are proper.

“All of my votes and actions have been taken to preserve and improve our solid waste disposal capacity and longevity,” he said. “This philosophy is one I will maintain if allowed to continue to serve on the HCSWA board.”

Gray’s peers on the board have criticized his involvement in the Charleston County agreement, which allows Horry County to process the Lowcountry community’s recyclables. SWA leaders have accused Gray of trying to thwart the deal by sending critical messages to Horry County Council and calling a Charleston County official to tell him it was a poor proposal for that community. Gray has said his call to Charleston was merely to find out the level of commitment there.

Board members also objected to a series of critical messages from Gray, including an email where Gray alleged there was a group of local leaders “plotting a civil conspiracy to keep me off the SWA board.” The email included a reference to the “NMB mafia,” which Gray described as including North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley, Horry County Councilman Harold Worley and state Sen. Greg Hembree, R-North Myrtle Beach.

Gray has accused SWA leaders of cherrypicking negative messages and ignoring many positive ones.

Although Gray was appointed by Horry County Council, he was recommended for the post by the Horry County League of Cities, a group of local mayors.

If the league doesn’t want Gray to be removed, Lazarus said, County Council won’t consider the SWA’s request.

“If the League of Cities doesn’t bring it up for whatever reason or doesn’t put it on their calendar … and send us a recommendation, it will not make it to our council agenda,” Lazarus said. “If they do make a recommendation and send it back to us, then we will take it up.”

Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, who chairs the league, said he supports Gray and knows some of the other mayors do, too.

“I do not see us dismissing him from the Solid Waste Authority,” he said.

SWA Chairman Lance Thompson said the board will accept whatever decision the council makes.

“The board feels like we have fulfilled our obligation,” he said. “At this point, it’s entirely up to County Council. … We don’t have any authority to take any further action.”

Thompson said the Gray ordeal has been difficult for everyone on the board, but he felt it was important to raise those concerns. Should Gray remain on the panel, Thompson hopes the SWA’s request will have at least shown council members what’s been going on behind the scenes.

“I hope it’s not for naught,” he said.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Horry County Council may not oust Solid Waste Authority board member."