Mark Lazarus will defend his seat as Horry County council chair in next month’s GOP Primary. Another Republican, local lawyer Johnny Gardner, also runs.
Gardner was born and raised in Horry County, served in the military, studied law at USC and now owns his own law firm. While both he and Lazarus agree there are key areas to focus on this campaign, like public safety and infrastructure, they differ on how to address those issues.
Gardner said he wants to run his campaign off three R’s: responsibility, reform and respect. His number one priority for the campaign, and what he’d tackle first as chairman, is public safety.
He said it’s the county’s responsibility to figure out how to pay police and fire more money– more than the pay raises the county unveiled in its new plan.
“We have the money here,” Gardner told News13 in his first media interview. “We have the money. The best way to make it safer is to pay a decent wage to our first responders. They’re underfunded in every imaginable way. We can pay them a decent wage and we can stop losing them to the cities and other local governments.”
Public safety is also a top priority for Lazarus, whose campaign slogan is ‘Walk into the Future.’ “We want to walk into the future,” Lazarus said. “Provide for our future generations to leave this place a better place that what we found it.”
Lazarus said he has already done that in the five years he’s served as chairman. He sites the Ride III road-building program and the opening of International Drive as successes in bringing infrastructure to Horry County.
“All of the contacts that I’ve been able to make throughout the state and federal government has paid off for the citizens of Horry County,” he said, “For the betterment of federal road funding, to beach renourishment dollars, to protection of our shorefront.”
In January, Horry County paid around $12 million to buy 3,700 acres along International Drive.
“That’s money that could have been better spent for helping… I mean any way could have been spent better,” Gardner said about the decision.
The money for the project comes primarily from funding left over from RIDE II. Lazarus said that money has specific restrictions and can’t go to areas like public safety.
Both men agree the county has problems with fire and police retention. “In the last two years we’ve probably wasted over $2 million in training firefighters for other government agencies,” Gardner said, referring to employees leaving Horry County.
Lazarus said the county’s new plan to pay them more addresses that. 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. “What our whole goal has been is to be able to bring down the vacancy variances that we’ve had in all these divisions and then start adding more.”
When asked his response to the county waiting on any formal plan to add more officers, Gardner replied, “Wasn’t that exactly what was said in 2015? And nothing was done, nothing was said then about how to do it, nothing’s been talked about since then how to do it, and they’re not talking about how to do it now.”
News13 asked Gardner how he would balance owning a law firm with the many obligations of being council chairman. He said his employees are equipped to take more responsibilities, and his time is flexible.
The election is June 12. Count on News13 to keep you updated over the coming month.
