Politics

Everyone’s Mayor Barbara Blaine-Bellamy

Conway Mayor Barbara Blaine-Bellamy presented a Mayoral Proclamation last month to Grand Strand Pride in recognition of June as Pride Month.
In doing so, Blaine-Bellamy was acting totally in accordance with the principles which have guided her professional life. Blaine-Bellamy has worked to help people of every background understand she cared about them and wanted them to be accepted and included in the community. Blaine-Bellamy said she studied the reasons behind Pride Month and she believes every person deserves to feel safe and not be ostracized.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” And Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God’s hands.” Blaine-Bellamy did what she felt in her heart to be right.
A portion of the second paragraph of the proclamation speaks much about Blaine-Bellamy’s personal philosophy, “Our LGBTQ residents …as our relatives, neighbors and friends deserve to feel safe and respected in their homes, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces…”
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Benton Sworn In for Conway City Council Seat

Autry Benton was sworn in as the newest member of Conway City Council before the start of the council’s regular meeting Monday night.
The oath of office was delivered by Judge Alex Hyman. Benton’s wife, Amanda Benton, held the Bible for the ceremony.
Benton won a special election to replace Hyman after Hyman resigned from his council office in order to accept a judgeship. Benton will finish out the remainder of Hyman’s term, which ends December 31, 2023. Benton has already announced he will be a candidate for reelection in the upcoming November 7, 2023 non-partisan general election for Conway City Council.
A short reception was held immediately after the ceremony for Family and friends to greet and congratulate Benton.

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Benton Defeats Brown in Conway Special Election Runoff

Above: Autry Benton with wife Amanda
Autry Benton defeated Kendall Brown in yesterday’s special runoff election to fill the seat vacated when former city council member Alex Hyman resigned to accept a judgeship. Benton garnered 760 votes in the runoff to Brown’s 726.
Brown led the first leg of voting with 428 votes to Benton’s 401. Three other candidates in the special election first round were eliminated.
The runoff drew approximately 200 more voters than the first round of voting June 13, 2023, when there were five candidates in the race. Election commission members commented that both rounds of voting went very smoothly with no problems experienced.
Benton’s margin of 34 votes was slim but in excess of the one percent difference between candidates which would have required a recount.

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Conway Special Election Runoff Pits Benton v. Brown

Voters in the City of Conway will go to the polls Tuesday June 27, 2023 to elect a new member to city council in a special election runoff between Autry Benton and Kendall Brown.
Brown led Benton by a 428-401 margin in the first round of voting June 13, 2023. However, 462 votes were cast for three other candidates who were knocked out in the first round. The first round of voting saw 1,297 ballots cast, approximately 9% of the registered voters in the city. All registered voters are eligible to vote in the runoff regardless of whether they participated or not in the first round of voting.
Brown, an African-American candidate, drew approximately 61% of his votes from Racepath #1 and #2. two predominantly African-American precincts in the city, as well as early voting. Benton’s support was more widely spread among the city’s 13 voting precincts. He also outdrew the other three candidates in the Racepath precincts.
Both candidates said they were reaching to all citizens in the city for support.

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Conway City Council Special Election Candidates

Grand Strand Daily reached out to the five candidates for the vacant Conway City Council seat that will be contested in a special election Tuesday June 13, 2023. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The candidates were asked to provide basic background information such as family, education, church membership, military service and experience. In addition, candidates were asked to provide a short answer why they were running for city council and to explain what issues they felt were most important for council to address.
Candidates Autry Benton, Kendall Brown, April O’Leary and Tyler Thomas responded. Candidate Bill Wiegand did not. Capsules from the candidates’ responses are listed below in alphabetical order.
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School Board Members Apparently Broke State Open Meetings Law with Email Messages

A series of email messages sent to all 12 members of the Horry County Schools Board of Education apparently broke state laws on open meetings by public bodies.
The email chain originated with board member Debbie Edmonds who sent a group email to the other 11 members of the board addressing an issue that she believed occurred during public comment at the regular meeting of the board the previous evening.
Two other board members, Janet Graham and David Koch, responded, again including their messages to all board members.
All email messages sent by and to public officials from a public domain are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. In this case, the “@ horrycountyschools.net” email address was used. Furthermore, when such messages are sent to a majority (quorum) of the governing members of a public body, in this case every member, and responses are sent to these messages, the email string alone is considered to have been a meeting of the body without proper public notice or public transparency regarding the content of the emails.
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Russell Fry Among Politicians Banned from Russia

S. C. 7th Congressional District Rep. Russell Fry was among a list released Friday of 500 Americans as being banned from visiting Russia.
On his Twitter feed, @RepRussellFry, the Congressman quickly bragged about his banning:
“Russia just banned me from going to their country which candidly I had no intention of visiting.”
and
“For what reason, I haven’t any idea but if @RusEmbUSA thinks I’m offended, they are mistaken. This just made my night.”
It might have been wise for Fry to take a moment’s pause for consideration before being so quick to take to Twitter to brag about his banning. Fry might have taken pause to consider other politicians in the same banned company as himself. For example, included on the list were President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Barack Obama. Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was included on a previous list of Americans banned from visiting Russia.
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Postal Way Rezonings – A Tale of Two Development Agreements

By Paul Gable
For several months, county taxpayers, especially residents of Carolina Forest, have been told that their Council District 3 representative, Dennis DiSabato, is supporting two rezoning requests on Postal Way, which will add approximately 1,654 new residential units to an already crowded area, only because the developers will pay the total cost of the new public benefit infrastructure associated with the two proposed developments.
The residents aren’t buying the fact that just because developers are paying for some extra infrastructure is reason to support the projects. Residents have voiced continued concerns that adding any more housing density to the already crowded area will only add more overcrowding to already clogged roads and schools.
Citizens opposing the projects, a number of whom were at the council meeting last week, have taken to voicing their complaints to council member Mike Masciarelli, whose council district is located across U. S. 501 from Council District 3.
Masciarelli attempted to give voice to some of the criticisms which he had heard from citizens during last week’s council discussion. DiSabato challenged Masciarelli as to why citizens from District 3 were calling Masciarelli instead of DiSabato. Masciarelli said maybe it was because they were looking for somebody who would listen to their concerns.
DiSabato is obviously in full support of the projects regardless of questions raised by opponents.
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DiSabato Comments on School Overcrowding Raise Anger Among Citrizens and Elected Officials

It was a banner night for Horry County Council member Dennis DiSabato at last night’s regular meeting of county council. During discussions about proposed rezonings in the Postal Way corridor of Carolina Forest, DiSabato managed to anger virtually everyone in attendance with his comments on school overcrowding.
During public input on the proposed rezonings, citizens raised questions about supporting infrastructure, such as roads, schools and public safety. Several citizens commented on the already overcrowded schools in Carolina Forest and called for “pumping the brakes” on development for a while as schools and infrastructure catch up.
Schools and Horry County School Board members have been a punching bag for DiSabato throughout the process. During a meeting of the Carolina Forest Civic Association in March when discussions of Postal Way and other developments were discussed, DiSabato was asked, “What consideration does the Zoning Board and Horry County Council give to the capacity of the schools?”
DiSabato answered, “If you have concerns about the capacity of your schools, you should direct them to your school board member. I’ll be completely honest, none, I don’t consider it at all.”
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Fry Votes to Cut Veteran Benefits

Russell Fry was one of the 217 Republican House members who voted to pass the “Limit, Save, Grow” Act Wednesday as part of the Republican answer to raising the U. S. debt limit ceiling. In doing so, Fry and the other 216 Republicans voting to pass the bill also voted to cut benefits for veterans by 22% over the next 10 years.
If the bill becomes law in the current version, spending on veterans benefits will be capped at the FY 2022 limit and an immediate $2 billion reduction will occur on current fiscal year spending for veterans benefits.
This was entirely predictable for anyone who followed the Fry campaign for Congress last year. Not quite 10 months ago, GSD ran a story about how local disabled veterans who Fry had recruited as a coalition to help with his campaign dumped Fry and gave their allegiance to Ken Richardson. The major reason voiced by these veterans was that Fry wasn’t interested in hearing about their concerns and problems in trying to navigate the bureaucracy of the veterans Administration.
One of the disabled veterans, Keith Brooks, said in that article, “The veterans coalition was a way for Fry to get veterans together to give him talking points. Russell never gave us more than a minute or two to hear our story. You can’t tell Russell anything.”
Brooks added, “Russell is trying to be just another career politician. The last thing we need is another self-absorbed ladder climber.”
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