The leaders of two police and firefighter organizations endorsed Horry County Council Chairman candidate Johnny Gardner.
The National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, Chuck Canterbury, and President of the South Carolina Firefighters Association, Roger Odachowski, announced their endorsement on the steps of the old Horry County Courthouse on Tuesday. They said public safety has taken a back seat under Council Chair Mark Lazarus’s direction. Lazarus is Gardner’s only opponent in the upcoming election. Gardner was not present at the press conference.
“106 patrol officers in one of the largest counties in South Carolina is just not acceptable,” said Canterbury.
Canterbury, a former Horry County police officer, said the county has a low officer retention rate due to a lack of competitive. He said officer retention issues have led to longer response times, especially in further areas of the county.
“We’ve heard it from every neighborhood, ‘When we call the police it takes a long time,’ ‘When we call an ambulance it takes a long time,'” Canterbury said.
Lazarus refuted this statement, stating response times in Horry County are on par with the natoinal average.
“We just had a major fire, Windsor Green, Carolina Forest four minutes. Our personnel was on the ground, hoses out, in four minutes. So we’re doing a pretty good job,” Lazarus said.
However, Odachowski said that’s only because Horry County firefighters were conducting training at the Gander Mountain site nearby.
“That’s why the response time was what it was, because everybody was there. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have been like that,” he said.
Canterbury and Odachowski said about 200 more police officers, and 200 more firefighters would be ideal for the population in Horry County. Both recognize that may not be feasible, but feel Lazarus has done little to get anywhere close.
“I would like to add more, it all comes down to money and it all comes down to keeping officers. Once we have no vacancies, let’s see what we can do to add more,” said Lazarus.
According to Lazarus, retaining officers starts with creating competitive pay, such as the proposed $1 per hour pay increase for all police, and 3% merit increase for all county employees. However, Canterbury said a merit-based increase doesn’t make sense for first-responders.
“When you look at merit, is it how many tickets you write, how many people you arrest, or how many burglaries you prevent. How do you judge those things on the same merit scale,” Canterbury said.
