An Horry County candidate debate got heated just days before Tuesday’s primary election.
Councilman Mark Lazarus left the debate early when he was questioned about public safety salaries. It all took place at a Burgess community candidates forum Thursday.
K.C. Canterbury, a representative from the local Fraternal Order of Police got up to talk about police pay and the problems he sees with the county’s new plan to pay officers more. Things got heated when Lazarus said Canterbury is in a union.
“I want to make sure everybody understands something,” Lazarus said. “Mr. Canterbury does represent a union. We don’t recognize unions in the state of South Carolina,” which immediately led to boos and jeers.
Lazarus went on to address the original question and reminded the crowd of the five percent raise given to officers three years ago and of the new merit increases for all county employees.
At one point when Lazarus said it was his last question, former Horry County firefighter Chad Caton shouted from the crowd for Lazarus to “stay right there!”
“I wasn’t gonna sit down and shut up,” Caton told News13 Tuesday. Caton is also one of the people Lazarus referred to as “union thugs” in a follow-up video the Chairman posted on Facebook.
“The ones that I said were thugs, they acted like thugs,” Lazarus said Tuesday. “It was a handful of them that were there specifically to disrupt.”
Lazarus left the debate early after being there for an hour. Some people cheered him on and thanked him as he walked out.
He said the whole debate got off on the wrong foot and could have been avoided. “They’re the ones that wouldn’t shake my hand when I came in,” Lazarus said. “They’re the ones that turned their back to me.”
His opponent, attorney Johnny Gardner, said it was an example of bad leadership. “They thought they had a chance to be heard, cause they had not been heard,” Gardner said. “And once again they were ignored.”
Lazarus and Gardner face off Tuesday, June 12 in the Republican Primary. News13 will follow both candidates and will bring you results of the Horry County Chair election on News13 and WBTW.com.
