Calling for unity, Horry council member Johnny Vaught says he’s running for county chairman
Calling for decorum and unity on the Horry County Council, council member Johnny Vaught on Wednesday announced he will run for County Chairman.
Vaught, a Republican finishing the final year of his second term as a council member, will run against the current chairman, Johnny Gardner, as well as former chairman Mark Lazarus, in the June primary. Filing for candidates officially opens in March.
Vaught, 72, told The Sun News he’s running for chairman because the council has been divided and prone to infighting in recent years. As chairman, he said he could bring peace and build consensus among members on important issues.
He said it’s the council chairman’s job to act as a “mayor” by forming good relationships with city leaders to prevent conflicts, such as major lawsuits that have been waged between the county and cities in recent years.
The partisan council has 12 members representing 11 districts, plus an at-large chairman elected by the entire county.
He has represented a Conway-adjacent district on county council for the past seven years.
“There’s 11 districts here with all different problems and different councilmen, and a good chairman finds consensus among all those and says, ‘OK, how can we solve problems?’” Vaught said. “I don’t think that’s been happening.”
Opinions on top issues
Vaught, in an interview, described himself as someone who would take a balanced approach to the county’s biggest problems and use consensus-building to find solutions.
On the county’s rapid growth and development, for example, he said that building and rezoning moratoriums were not appropriate for Horry County, but that the county should do more to slow the pace of building and invest in infrastructure to ease its burden on residents.
“We always have to look at a balance,” Vaught said. “We can’t just say, ‘Let’s shut down development.’ That makes no sense, it would kill the economy. What we’ve got to do is to try to control it or throttle it.”
One way to do that, Vaught suggested, is to increase impact fees on new building, which the council is likely to consider this spring.
Vaught also said he would help the county avoid costly lawsuits with Horry County’s municipalities, such as the one over the county’s spending of the hospitality fee, which was resolved last year after a multi-year fight. There was another lawsuit between the county and Myrtle Beach over the sale of campground land.
“Look at how much money the lawyers made. That was a straight cost and a straight loss to the taxpayers and that should have never happened,” Vaught said. “The chairman should realize that, ‘I’m the mayor of Horry County, I’m the leader, I’m going to reach out to people.’”
Road projects, new jobs
On Interstate 73 — a $1.6 billion project that would build an interstate highway connection between Myrtle Beach and I-95 near Latta — Vaught said he supports the project and contributing county funds, but only if the federal and state governments pick up the largest portion of the bill.
After Gov. Henry McMaster announced $300 million in state funding for I-73 in the fall, Vaught led an effort on council to pass a resolution saying the county would commit funds if others did, too. That resolution ultimately failed, though.
Still, Vaught said, the county also needs to focus on local infrastructure and using available funds to build and maintain roads.
“We have to focus on our local roads,” he said. “We’ve got to do something for our local people that are seeing the effects of the growth.”
Vaught also said he’d work to bring new industries and jobs to the county, citing the county’s current efforts to repair railroad lines and find tenants for its industrial parks.
Vaught, a retired teacher from Horry-Georgetown Technical College, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering before teaching for more than three decades.
Vaught said he already has raised about $50,000 towards his campaign. The Columbia-based political firm First Tuesday Strategies is running his campaign.
Vaught also noted that his campaign should not be considered as an “attack” of Gardner or his work as chairman.
“We’ve got to have a council chairman that can get people together,” he said.
