By Paul Gable
The spin from the current Mark Lazarus campaign for county chairman is ‘county government is off the track’ and it needs his ‘leadership’ to set it right. Simply put, Lazarus is trying to re-write his past history on county council.
This appears to be the tactic the Walter Whetsell Starboard Communications team is bringing to both the Lazarus and Jenna Dukes campaigns because they are up against two of the most citizen-oriented council members, Chairman Johnny Gardner and Council member Harold Worley.
Lazarus is attempting to re-write his history. Dukes is attempting to re-write her opponent’s.
The Chamber and its cabal members, who are funding Lazarus and Dukes, can’t stand to have the interests of the citizens considered before their special interest projects. Hence the heavy funding and the attempt to re-write the history of the Worley and Gardner.
Unfortunately for the cabal, the facts keep getting in the way of the Lazarus and Dukes messages.
Monday’s $500,000 jury verdict in a civil trial against the Horry County Police Department, over the criminal actions of former Detective Allen Large, is a perfect example of why the citizens of the county can’t afford any more of Mark Lazarus at the helm of county government.
With another trial already underway over the same basic complaint from another plaintiff and three other complaints already settled out of court for a total of nearly $400,000, Mark Lazarus’ ‘leadership’ style is set to cost the county well over $1 million in settlements in just these five cases.
Large was fired in July 2015 for sexual harassment, but Large was under suspicion by county officials for nearly a year before he was fired. Four months after Large was fired, SLED was called in to investigate the Horry County Police Department.
The SLED investigation resulted in Large being indicted on five counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct and six counts of misconduct in office. Three other detectives were also charged with unrelated offenses. Large died before he came to trial, but the county is now paying damages for his criminal actions.
Lazarus and former administrator Chris Eldridge were the ruling duo over county business during Lazarus’ full term as county chairman from Jan 2015 thru Dec 2018.
Former county Assistant Administrator for Public Safety Paul Whitten was forced out of his job by Eldridge in September 2014.
After Whitten left his county job, Eldridge agreed to take on Whitten’s duties with an increase in pay of over $100,000. According to county sources familiar with the Public Safety Division, Eldridge was collecting the money but HCPD Chief Saundra Rhodes was tasked by Eldridge with many of the duties formerly handled by Whitten.
According to council members, whenever they called Eldridge with an inquiry from a constituent about county business, especially the police department, they would, shortly thereafter, receive a call from Lazarus wanting to know what the problem was.
A number of council members said they were unaware of the difficulties at HCPD until stories broke in local media. The Lazarus-Eldridge duo kept many details of county business to themselves.
In 2017, Eldridge hired a former college buddy of his for the job of Assistant Administrator for Public Safety. Eldridge continued to receive the big raise he was awarded when Whitten was terminated and another approximately $130,000 was added to the county budget for his college buddy. The problems didn’t go away, just more money was spent.
By the time Lazarus was running for reelection in 2018, morale in the Public Safety Division was at an all-time low.
Other Lazarus-Eldridge accomplishments included a huge tax increase for the 2015-16 budget which included a 100 percent increase (to $50 per vehicle) in the road maintenance fee paid on every vehicle registered in the county and committing at least $25 million per year for 30 years of county tax dollars to construct Interstate 73. There was also an illegal extension of hospitality fee collections and an illegal raising of county stormwater fees, both of which caused lawsuits the county lost.
Toward the end of the 2018 campaign, Lazarus was on the receiving end of some tough questions by police officers and firefighters during a candidate forum in the Burgess Community. Lazarus called those officers thugs and walked out of the forum saying he ‘didn’t have to take this abuse anymore.’
Now, a Lazarus campaign mailer states Lazarus will face challenges “head on and won’t run for cover when a challenge turns into a crisis.” Based on his actions at Burgess four years ago, how can that statement be believed?
Lazarus is sending out notices that he is having a ‘listening tour’ to meet with groups throughout the county. The only groups Lazarus really listens to are his cronies in the development, tourist and I-73 lobbies that make up the cabal.
Nothing has changed. A new Lazarus term would reverse everything gained for the citizens over the past four years. I -73 will be funded with county tax dollars, impact fees will disappear, development will increase unrestricted, the infrastructure needed to support development will be forgotten and the morale of county employees will again plummet.
If Lazarus is truly listening, the message he should hear is the citizens of the county can’t afford any more of his perceived ‘leadership.’
Speak Up…