Former Horry Chairman Mark Lazarus considering another run for top county job
The most recent former Chairman of Horry County Council, Mark Lazarus, is considering running for the county’s top job again this year, Lazarus told The Sun News on Tuesday.
Lazarus, 60, would face off once again with current County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner, who challenged and defeated Lazarus by a narrow margin in 2018. Lazarus had served as chairman from 2013, when now-Congressman Tom Rice left the role for Washington D.C., through 2018. He was running for reelection when Gardner defeated him. He previously served on county council representing part of Myrtle Beach.
Lazarus said he will make a final decision about running a campaign for chairman by early February, and is spending the month of January discussing the matter with friends, area business leaders and others, including his family.
Gardner was likely to have challengers this year. County Council member Dennis DiSabato, who represents Carolina Forest, previously considered running against Gardner but told The Sun News in December that he would focus on his law career and family instead.
The primary election for the chairman job will be held in June, along with congressional and other county-level races like council and school board.
Lazarus said he was compelled to consider another run for county chairman because he wasn’t able to finish work he started when he last held the job. He said he’s concerned about the county’s leadership and noticed over the last three years that the county wasn’t working as well as it should with the cities and state government, as well as the county school board. With how rapidly Horry County is growing, he said, county leaders should be working hand-in-hand with school district leaders so they can cooperate on infrastructure issues.
Lazarus also questioned the way the county adopted impact fees, a charge on new building and development. He said he supports impact fees but would have pushed state leaders to allow Horry County to adopt an impact fee that could be spent on equipment and operating expenses, rather than just capital projects like new buildings.
“I can’t pay a policeman with an impact fee, I can’t buy a police car. I can build a police substation but we need manpower,” Lazarus said. “How do we reenact the impact fee legislation? Right now the impact fee they passed, they’re just building revenue.”
Lazarus, who’s in the development and entertainment industries by trade, said he’s heard complaints from developers and business owners alike who have encouraged him to run, though he said no one group or issue influenced his decision to consider a run for chairman. Lazarus works as a sales executive for Waccamaw Land & Timber Company and owns several tourist attractions including Myrtle Waves and the Myrtle Beach Grand Prix.
“I have friends throughout the entire county from A to Z, people who own businesses, to developers, to retirees and a lot of them are not liking the direction that the county is going,” he said. “(They’re) not liking the lawsuits between the cities and county.”
If Lazarus does commit to a run for chairman, he said he’ll likely turn to Columbia for help with his campaign. Walter Whetsell, a Columbia-based political operative who runs campaigns for Republicans around South Carolina, confirmed to The Sun News that Lazaraus had spoken with him about potentially running his campaign.
Donald Smith, a Conway political operative and television producer who is running Gardner’s reelection campaign, declined to comment on Tuesday.
Lazarus said that if he does choose to run a campaign against Gardner, he’d make the county’s need for strong leadership a centerpiece of the race.
“I think I’m seeing council not really getting along too well up there,” he said. “My main focus is going to be bringing leadership.”
Lazarus also said he’d focus on bringing more money for roads to Horry County, both funds for Interstate 73, a connection from Myrtle Beach to I-95, and local roads. He noted that S.C. 90 outside of Conway “needs to be widened” and that controlling stormwater and flooding are priorities. And while he doesn’t favor building moratoriums, Lazarus said he does favor “quality development” and that as chairman he would ensure such projects move forward.
While the former chairman considers a run for the county’s top job, he noted that if he does run, his campaign won’t be aimed at Gardner or his tenure.
“This campaign isn’t about anybody, it’s not a personal thing,” he said. “I didn’t go out the way I wanted to go out and I didn’t finish the work I wanted to finish, and I’ve seen some things over the last three years that prompted me to look into running again.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 6:02 PM.
