Author: Paul Gable

Cam Crawford Wins County Council Primary

Cam Crawford won the Republican primary special election for the Horry County Council District 6 nomination.

Crawford gathered 547 votes (53%) to 482 votes (47%) for opponent Kirk Hanna. The totals are uncertified at this point. They will be certified by the Horry County Election Commission Thursday July 2, 2015 at 10 a.m.

Hanna topped Crawford by 31 votes in the first round of the primary two weeks ago, but Crawford reversed that result to win by 65 votes in the election that counted.

Still to come is the special general election on August 4, 2015 where Crawford will be the only name on the ballot as there is no Democratic nominee. However, a write-in challenge to Crawford is always possible.

However, a successful write-in campaign is extremely unlikely, which means Cam Crawford should be the next Horry County Council member from District 6 after the August election formalities.

The election heated up in the last few days as revelations that Peter Bishop, a one-time employee of Hanna’s construction company Hanco of SC, was arrested on June 11, 2015 for submitting nine fabricated and forged soil compaction reports to Horry County Code Enforcement while working at Hanco.

Over the last 36 hours of the campaign, a mail piece intended to be negative to Cam Crawford, surfaced in some District 6 mailboxes.

Both campaigns denied any knowledge of the large postcard size mailer. However, as the alleged sender, the LGBT Association of Horry County, does not exist, those claims, for one camp, appear to be false.

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Dirty Tricks Hit Horry County Council District 6

By Paul Gable
It took a while, but what passes for dirty tricks has arrived in the special primary runoff election for Horry County Council District 6.
A piece arrived in the mail today for District 6 voters stating the LGBT Association of Horry County supports Cam Crawford.
On the back side of the card it states Crawford will sponsor a county ordinance that will provide tax breaks for same-sex couples.
Such an ordinance is an impossibility to introduce. There is no provision in state law, which is what county ordinances must conform to, to allow for such a tax break. Just goes to show how little the author knows about South Carolina law and county legislation.
Then, when you consider there is no LGBT Association of Horry County, the only conclusion that can be drawn is Crawford’s opponent thinks this mailer will hurt Crawford’s vote count.
The piece looks to be exactly the same stock and typesetting that was used in an attempt to smear Tyler Servant during his campaign for Horry County Council District 5.
Now it has moved over to the special election campaign for Horry County Council District 6.
Is there a common denominator in both campaigns?
Possibly one. Jay Specter managed Chuck Ottwell’s campaign for District 5. The same Jay Specter is managing the campaign of Kirk Hanna for District 6.
Is Specter the common denominator? No way to know for sure, but if this piece does hurt Crawford, Hanna would be the only beneficiary.
Dirty Tricks 2.0 is more inflammatory than its predecessor in District 5 with a final line which reads in part, “let Cam know you are here because you are queer and are queer because you are here.”
I doubt it will work. The attempt backfired in the District 5 race as Servant’s voters were energized to get out the vote in response.
Not only should Crawford’s supporters be energized, but the entire LGBT community as well as all reasonable people who see this for what it is.

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Arrest Clouds Horry County Council District 6 Primary – Updated

Voting Tuesday in the Horry County Council District 6 Republican primary runoff is clouded by the recent arrest of a one-time Hanco of SC employee.

Runoff candidate Kirk Hanna is the founder and president of Hanco of SC.

According to Horry County court records, nine arrest warrants for forgery, numbers 2015A2610700601 through 2015A2610700609, were served on Peter Bishop on June 11, 2015. Bishop is currently out on $45,000 bail.

The sworn statement on each of the warrants reads in part, “On (date of incident), while employed by Hanco of SC and working at (location of construction) the Defendant, Peter Bishop, did submit to Horry County Code Enforcement a fabricated soil compaction report on Applied Geotech, LLC letterhead and bearing the forged signature of Technician Michael Hayes.”

According to the warrants, nine separate instances of fabrication and forgery of a soil compaction report occurred at nine construction locations over a 10 month period between August 2012 and June 2013.

Horry County Police Detective Marcus Rhodes, the investigating officer, declined comment on the case because it is still in the legal process. Rhodes did say the initial incident report for the case was filed approximately one year ago, with a supplemental incident report filed later.

Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Division Head Steve Gosnell said he was not familiar with the particular documents involved, but did say, “Horry County takes very seriously any testing that involves the structural integrity of a project.”

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PTR Industries – No More AvCraft’s

As PTR Industries struggles to become current with Horry County and other vendors, it is important Horry County Council remembers the lessons of AvCraft.

Having covered the AvCraft debacle from beginning to end, the issues with PTR Industries sound eerily familiar.

It will be one year ago next week that Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Tommy Rice visited PTR Industries to celebrate the one year anniversary of the announcement that the company planned to relocate to Horry County. Te dignitaries received special edition rifles to commemorate the occasion.

One week later, PTR Industries laid off workers.

In early July 2014, PTR Industries presented a check to Horry County during an executive session of Horry County Council that, reportedly, brought the company to within 45 days of being current on its rent at the county building it occupies at the Cool Springs Business Park.

One year later, it is being reported in local media that PTR Industries hasn’t paid rent to the county since March 23, 2015. In other words, we are back to at least 90 days in arrears.

Additionally, PTR Industries is in arrears to other vendors and, according to information from sources familiar with the company, is required to bring cashier’s checks, as often as weekly, to utility providers in order to keep the lights on.

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Food Trucks and Horry County Council

(Ed. Note: The following article on food trucks was sent to Grand Strand Daily from Steven Hoffman, Horry County Republican Party Executive Committee member for Burgess 1 voting precinct. Hoffman visits his son in Austin, Texas approximately twice a year. After seeing the possibilities opened with food trucks in that Texas city, Hoffman believes Horry County could have done a better job licensing this growing industry.)

Food trucks, the latest trend in consumer drive markets. Horry County Council – Ho-Hum.

Consumers in Austin, Texas were first introduced to the food truck phenomena in 2010 primarily in the South Congress Street area.

Since that time the food truck entrepreneurs have widened their scope and some of the more successful ones have even opened brick and mortar stores, for example, Chi-lantro. Today the residents of Austin have the option of eating, Thai, Tex-Mex, Korean, Middle Eastern, Fusion, and other types of food in this culinary heaven of a wide mix of restaurants and food trucks throughout the city.

For the people of Austin, Texas, the food trucks bring increased employment (economic growth) and provide gastronomic diversity (more choices). Isn’t that what America is supposed to be all about? Well, maybe not.

Here on the Grand Strand – the county council recently authorized food trucks, but in a limited scope.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

SC General Assembly, Much Ado About Nothing

It seems that it takes national news making events to make the SC General Assembly work at all.

This year’s edition of the SC General Assembly may be known as the group that removed the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds and little else.

In the past few days, momentum seems to be building for removal of the Confederate flag in response to the massacre of nine Black citizens at a Charleston church.

Removal of the flag was nowhere on the SC General Assembly radar at the beginning of the legislative year, or last week for that matter.

But now it will be debated in a specially amended legislative session next month and members of the SC General Assembly are falling all over themselves to demand its removal.

A bill to require police body cameras throughout the state was passed after a North Charleston police officer shot a fleeing Black man in the back two months ago.

Both events were covered by major national and international news organizations so they got the attention of the legislators.

Does it really take a major tragedy to get the SC General Assembly to act?

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Budgets - Cuts, Spending and You

Horry County Council Budget Failures

The latest development at MBREDC indicates how casually Horry County Council approached raising taxes this year.

Jim Moore, President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, resigned from that agency Monday.

Moore came to MBREDC only six months ago after the three plus year dismal reign of Brad Lofton. During the four year period represented by these two, MBREDC allegedly reorganized itself with a new approach to attracting jobs to Horry County.

Neither Moore nor Lofton was any more successful in economic development recruitment than the former iteration of MBREDC or Partners Economic Development Corporation before it.

The difference is the current four year MBREDC 2.0 has been receiving serious funding from Horry County Council, between $1.3 million to $1.8 million per year of taxpayer dollars, with little to nothing to show for it.

Think of AvCraft, Project Blue and PTR Industries as the poster children of MBREDC efforts.

Over the past five county budget cycles, MBREDC has received at least $7.5 million from Horry County Council to fund its few employees and other operational costs.

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Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

The Devious SC General Assembly

The disconnect between the SC General Assembly and local political sub-divisions is highlighted by excess state budget appropriations.

House bill H 4320 amends the FY 2016 budget bill, H 3701, to appropriate excess state revenues certified by the SC Board of Economic Advisors.

Dealing with just three sections of H 4320 demonstrates how devious the SC General Assembly remains in limiting the ability of local governments to fund their services while taking care of its members.

According to H 4320, the SC Board of Economic Advisors has certified recurring general fund revenue for FY 2016 of $150 million (Section 1). This is additional recurring money that was not anticipated at the beginning of the legislative year.

In addition, the board certified $150.2 million in excess revenue collected during the current fiscal year (Section 3).

Those two excess revenues total slightly over $300 million.

But, that isn’t enough for the SC General Assembly. In Section 5 of the bill, state legislators reduced the state contribution to the Local Government Fund by $20.425 million.

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Thanks Dad, Happy Father’s Day

As Father’s Day rolls around it is funny the memories it conjures up of earlier times.

As a child, I played basketball thinking I was Larry Bird and baseball pretending I was Shawon Dunston.

If I was inside the gym at Myrtle Beach’s Pepper Geddings Recreation Center, I’d dribble into the corner and throw up a 3-pointer.

If I was on the diamonds, I’d throw the ball as hard as I could to first.

And, many times, I did this much to the ire of my father.

“Stop throwing up threes, you’re not Larry!”

“Make the routine throw!”

Yep, those were the words of my father, Paul E. Gable III.

I learned those two lessons, and many more from him.

Growing up as a kid, I could expect several things – trips to Hardee’s in the morning to talk sports with dad, there was a strong hatred for the New York Yankees, Notre Dame football was the only thing we could find on television on a Saturday – even in South Carolina – and dad was going to teach the “proper” way to learn the basic fundamentals, regardless of the sport.

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General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

The South Carolina No One Mentions

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

I love South Carolina.

I love the fact that in a matter of a few hours I can be in the mountains or along the coast and never have to leave the state.

Great football is divided by only a few hours, and there is arguably no greater scenery anywhere with pink azaleas, Angel Oak trees blowing in a cool breeze, and yes, of course, the Palmetto trees and a crescent moon setting.

South Carolina is Charleston, the Grand Strand, Columbia and Greenville.

It’s where my family has called home since 1983, where I lost my mother to cancer and where I graduated from college, met my wife and got my first start in journalism.

It’s home to the Loris Bog-Off Festival, the Irmo Okra Strut, and the Prosperity’s Hoppin’ Fest.

It’s the home of Due West, Green Sea, Fair Play, Ketchuptown, Ninety Six and Wide Awake.

In case you haven’t figured it out, South Carolina is the home to many amazing things.

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