Author: Paul Gable

Setting the Record Straight in the District 11 School Board Race

The District 11 School Board race got interesting last week when challenger Darrell Ricketts made a Facebook post which appears to insinuate that his opponent, incumbent member Shanda Allen, and her husband, county council member Al Allen, have expanded their aviation spraying business because of contracts with the county.
The post, which reads in part, “Yeah, it’s a shame. The way the money is being made is on outside contracts…Al Allen created an LLC with Shanda as head so he could get the contract for mosquito spraying. He had one plane, now he has 3”, appears to be an attempt to make it sound as if the Allens are profiting from their respected elected positions.
Let’s set the record straight. Allen Aviation first received a contract to spray for mosquitoes from Horry County in 2001, a full six years before Al was first elected to county council and 16 years prior to Shanda serving on the school board. Through the years, the contracts have all been sealed bid and Allen Aviation was underbid and lost the contract for approximately four years not long after Al was elected to council There was no favoritism shown in the bidding process and the Allen’s have been successful bidders because they only charge a small percentage above cost to spray for the county. The company that underbid them for the time mentioned above went bankrupt.

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Dark Money Attacks Benton in District 33 Senate Race

Dark money has made its way into the SC Senate District 33 race with attack ads on challenger Autry Benton.
This is not an unexpected development as incumbent Senator Luke Rankin appears to be struggling to gain traction with his message for reelection to voters.
Our American Century PAC raised its head in Horry County again by paying for negative tv ads against Rankin’s opponent, Autry Benton, which began this past week.
There were two points the ads attempted to attack Benton on – PPP money and a contract that Benton’s business, Benton Concrete, had with the City of Conway.
As far as PPP money goes, the Rankin & Rankin Law Firm also received PPP money from the federal program to aid businesses through the Covid Pandemic. The amount of money businesses received was determined by a formula connected to number of employees and payroll.

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H. C. Solid Waste Authority Pledges County General Fund for Closure and Post-Closure Costs

Horry County Council will vote tonight on third and final reading for next fiscal year’s budget, which begins July 1, 2024.
The general fund of the budget, approximately $270 million, pays for most of the goods and services provided by county government. Approximately 70% of the general fund pays for public safety services.
The SWA is a component unit of Horry County Government established by county ordinance 60-90. Its budget is included in the annual budget for the county and receives final approval from county council. The SWA bylaws and other rules must be approved by county council. SWA board members must be approved by county council.
When the SWA was created, it was specifically mandated by council, in Ordinance 60-90, to find alternative means of disposing county garbage rather than maintaining an ever-increasing landfill next to Sterritt Swamp. Instead, the SWA has done the exact opposite, continually expanding the landfill area in what is identified as an environmentally sensitive area in Ord. 60-90.

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Deceptive Messaging from the Rankin Campaign

The Rankin campaign mailers have raised questions about the accuracy of the message being promoted for Rankin’s reelection.
One side of last week’s mailer showed Rankin in a picture with Chief Mark Keel of SLED, Chief Amy Prock of Myrtle Beach and Chief Dale Long of Conway. The title was “Luke Rankin is Standing with Law Enforcement to Keep South Carolina Safe.”
Rankin is certainly standing with three police chiefs in the picture. However, any implication which may be drawn from the picture that the chiefs support the Rankin campaign are false. Emails were sent to all three chiefs asking whether they had approved the use of their picture on a Rankin campaign mailer and whether they endorsed Rankin for reelection.
Chief Keel and Chief Prock responded. Both said they had not given approval for their picture to be used on the campaign mailer. Both also said they don’t endorse candidates. The picture was taken at a South Carolina Police Chiefs Association Meeting at the South Carolina State House last month. Chief Long did not respond.

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Tort Reform Fails in Current SC Senate Legislative Session

The South Carolina Senate failed to advance tort reform legislation this year despite considerable lobbying by small business groups.
Called the South Carolina Justice Act, the bill would have changed the state tort reform law to a position where a defendant in a tort action would be financially liable only for their percentage of fault. The current law can leave one defendant on the hook to pay all awarded damages regardless of their percentage of fault.
At the time of its introduction into the Senate last year, Tom Mullikan, President and General Counsel for the South Carolina Coalition for Lawsuit Reform, said, “Without this legislation, South Carolina may lose economic development projects to neighboring states like Georgia and North Carolina where liability laws are more balanced.”

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Rankin Mailer Filled with Political Speak

Every election season, voters are inundated with mailers, television and radio ads and pronouncements on social media about the qualities of candidates and the alleged successes of incumbents.
South Carolina law only requires two things on these various campaign missives to be truthful – who paid for the ad, mailer, etc. and the mailing address of the paying person or entity. The remainder can be filled with “political speak” which does not have to bear any resemblance to the facts.
This week voters in SC Senate District 33 received a mailer from incumbent Sen. Luke Rankin extolling how Rankin had “delivered” for the citizens of his district. But, in its search for “deliveries”, the Rankin piece went down “roads” traveled by many other people.
Under the heading of “Infrastructure Enhancements”, the mailer claims Rankin “led the charge to fund $1.8 billion in Horry Co. road improvements, with $4 billion more to come in the next 5 years – paid overwhelmingly by our 14 million annual tourists.”
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Organized Retail Crime Bill Passes SC House

The SC House passed the Organized Retail Crime Bill last week providing stronger legislation to combat theft of items from retail stores.
The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Jeff Johnson, said, “Our current statutes did not have enough teeth to clarify organized retail crimes. This new bill clarifies organized conspiracy for retail theft with significant penalties for those who are convicted.”
South Carolina retailers have been victimized by organized groups of persons who steal items from stores with the express purpose of selling the items on for profit. These groups are not random shoplifters. Rather, they are organized groups who steal for the express purpose of financial gain, according to Johnson.
As Chairman of the Special Laws (Criminal Laws) Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, Johnson was the primary sponsor of the bill which he shepherded through the legislative process in the House.
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Grand Strand Humane Society Cleared for Construction of Waterside Drive Animal Shelter

The Grand Strand Humane Society is cleared to begin construction of its animal shelter and associated businesses, according to a briefing of the Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee yesterday.
According to the details of that briefing, the property on Waterside Drive to which the Humane Society was given a 40-year gratis lease by owner Santee Cooper, the property was zoned LI (Limited Industrial) in 1987 and one of the approved uses since that time is animal services.
According to the briefing, the text amendment to the LI zoning classification, which was approved by county council in December 2023, had nothing to do with the Humane Society’s use of the property.
Despite the legal clearance, the residents of the Waterside Drive community are unhappy about the potential impacts the animal shelter and associated businesses will have on their neighborhood.
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Below the Radar with the Santee Cooper/Grand Strand Humane Society Land Deal

After the Grand Strand Humane Society withdrew a rezoning request for a plot of land off River Oaks Drive in Carolina Forest last June, due to strong opposition from neighborhood residents, its search for a new plot of land on which to locate its proposed new animal shelter complex went under the radar until it could be presented as a fait accompli.
As noted in a January 12, 2024, letter from Waterside Drive resident Rose Marie Johnson to Santee Cooper, after the withdrawal of the rezoning request, “County Council made a clear statement to the (humane) society that they should not try to place their Dog Pound close to a residential location.”
Early on, Santee Cooper executives were involved in the search for a new location for the animal shelter. According to documents received through Freedom of Information Act requests, on June 20, 2023, Santee Cooper Board of Directors Vice Chairman and Horry County seat appointee David Singleton contacted Santee Cooper Senior Director of Real Estate Dan Camp questioning whether Santee Cooper had “8-10 acres near Myrtle Beach that could be used for the humane society.”
The next day, Camp emailed Santee Cooper Chief Power Supply Officer Marty Watson to apprise him of the Singleton conversation. Camp told Singleton he (Camp) and Watson had briefly discussed the matter on June 20, 2023, and Camp and Watson would “see what was available.”
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Shanda Allen Files for Reelection to Horry County School Board

(Above, Shenda Allen, left, files for reelection)

Shanda Allen, Horry County School Board member for District 11, filed for reelection Saturday on the first day of filing for the upcoming June 11, 2024, Republican Primary voting.
Often school board members and their deliberations fall outside the voters’ immediate awareness of local political issues. However, those same issues may impact local residents and families more directly on a day-to-day basis than any other political discussions in the county.
The School Board oversees the largest budget of any public agency in Horry County. It oversees the safety of the county’s students while they are in school 180 days oer year and the learning environment for those students as they prepare to enter the adult world.
Allen has served two terms on the school board. She currently serves on the Human Relations Committee, which sets the overall policy for staffing school district employees and is Chairman of the Technical Committee, which sets policy for the learning devices provided to each student as education continually shifts from book to digital learning.
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