Development in Greenville County and the future of long-time county administrator Joe Kernell were the main topics of discussion this past Monday at the Greenville County Republican Women's luncheon, which was held at the Poinsett Club.
County Council Chairman Benton Blount and four first-time members of Council, conservatives all, were the featured guest speakers before an audience of about 100. The four were Curt McGahhey, Kelly Long, Garey Collins, and Frank Farmer.
The new council has made a decided shift to the right over the past several months, giving the council a slight conservative majority. The four Republican newbies challenged and defeated in last year's primaries four tax-raising fellow Republicans, who all voted in 2023 for the largest property tax increase in county history.
McGahhey, a former Marine, admitted that he has had to learn to negotiate. “I've had to come to a consensus with my colleagues and other people, and that's hard,” he said. He added that their conservative agenda is still there, but that you have to get the votes first, and that involves negotiation.
McGahhey went on to say that they have fulfilled their campaign promises, such as rolling back taxes and bringing transparency to council. He said that there are still big projects that he wants to see accomplished. He encouraged his audience to be patient.
“I'm really pleased with some of the things we've been able to do,” echoed Long. “We're making some great changes and I'm excited to be a part of it.”
“I think that we have started to bring the trust back of Greenville County citizens and they know we are actually making decisions based on their best interests versus the interests of special interest groups,” said Blount.
They all want to slow down the rapid overdevelopment of the county.
“I think we're overdeveloped. We're at where we are now because of rubber-stamping,” said Collins.
Blount was critical of out-of-state developers making a lot of money in Greenville and taking it back to where they're from. “15 or 20 years down the road, your property tax money is having to be used to fix infrastructure that should have been fixed when the development was happening,” he said.
Blount added that a study is in progress to implement impact fees in the future. He wants to get to the point when infrastructure will be required to be in place BEFORE development takes place.
“We have to protect farmland and open spaces,” said Long.
Farmer wants the citizens of the county to offer suggestions about land use regulations. “Often we find that our constituents are very creative at solving problems and thinking of things that we don't,” he said.
McGahhey said that the number of rezonings this year has gone down. “I can count them on one hand,” he said.
The council members also addressed the role of the planning commission.
“We have a great planning commission,” said Farmer. “They don't deny everything but they only approve the things that make sense. They are super transparent. You can go to them. You can ask them any question. . . Deborah Manning's just done an excellent job.” He added that he was totally in favor of the commission making recommendations to council.
Long is also pleased with the work of the planning commission. “They work very hard,” she said.
“I think we need to do a realignment administratively,” said Collins. He wants to “realign the planning commission to be a subsidiary directly to the council, not to the administrator,” he said to applause. He added, “I'm not afraid of the fight even if there's a chance that I might lose.”
Blount is not opposed to the realignment of the planning commission but noted that it would be a lengthy process.
The subject of Kernell's future as administrator also came up in the discussion.
McGahhey said that for the past 20 years, the administrator has done what he wanted because the council abdicated its powers to him. “It seems that Joe has wielded power and done whatever he wanted,” he said, and added, “I do think that we have to grab that power back. You'll see that in the decisions that get made in the future. Joe works for us. He knows that. He does everything we ask now.”
“County Council sets the policy and the expectations of the administrator,” said Collins.
“So far he's done what we 've told him to do,” said Blount.
“He actually does a pretty good job, all in all,” said Farmer. However, if Kernell's contract is not renewed after January 20th, Farmer does not want anyone with any ties to Greenville.
McGahhey agreed. If a replacement for Kernell is sought, he wants to look elsewhere. “I think, honestly, we'd do best if we went outside of Greenville and found someone that had nothing to do with Greenville.” He also said that it is crucial to make sure that whoever is selected as the next administrator is conservative.
“All options are on the table,” said Long, who said that she is not against looking for someone in SC.
The councilors also touched on the subject of the recently defeated Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), which was a land use instrument that was a long time in planning and which was opposed by conservatives.
“We were able to stop the UDO, and I think that was huge,” said Long
“The UDO was written by an out-of-control staff... that had basically no connection to the council and just out doing their own thing,” said McGahhey. “We aim to change that,” he added.
Stan Tsouvelekas, a former member of the council, praised the new council for its work. “I really do appreciate you all voting against the UDOs,” he said.
Another audience member praised the councilors for their leadership and for taking back control of county government. The general spirit in the room seemed to indicate unanimity in this opinion.
