Six file for Hilton Head special election to replace Edwards

Six people met Monday’s filing deadline for the Hilton Head Island Town Council special election to replace Lee Edwards.

Ryan McAvoy of Point Comfort was the first to file for the Ward 3 seat, which represents portions of the south end of the island. Also filing were: David Ames of Wild Heron Point, Cindy Hague Bullock of Knightsbridge Lane, Jason Fackler of Sea Olive Road, Brendan Reilley of Spring Hill Lane and Palmer Simmons of Spanish Wells.

The winner of the May 3 special election will replace Edwards, who resigned Feb. 8 because he moved out of Ward 3, which includes Ashton Cove, Bay Pines, Brighton Bay, Broad Creek Landing, Broad Creek Marina, Cedar Woods, Old House Creek, Point Comfort, Spanish Wells, Timbercrest, Wexford and Yacht Cove.

The town has submitted the names of the candidates to the Beaufort County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, which will verify their eligibility.

David Ames

Ames, an unofficial advisor to Mayor David Bennett, serves on the board of the non-profit Hilton Head Institute and has previously been chair of a number of local organizations and boards, including the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, The Children’s Center, Hilton Head College Center, Hope Haven of the Lowcountry and the Mayor's Task Force for the Island's Future.

He was also the recipient of the Alice Glenn Doughtie Good Citizenship Award in 2009 and the Marilyn Stein Bellet Award in 2011.

Cindy Hague Bullock

Bullock is a marketing and business strategy professional and president of Proz, a commercial kitchen exhaust-cleaning company.

She has more than 20 years of banking experience, including about eight years spent on Hilton Head Island, and previously served as marketing president of Bank of America in Florence and head of marketing and training for United Bankshares in West Virginia.

Jason Fackler

Fackler is the owner of Koalaty Trading Inc., a miscellaneous apparel and accessories company with three businesses in the Coligny area, Carolina Tasting Room, Coastal Sunglasses and Coligny Kiosks. He began selling sunglasses from a Coligny Plaza kiosk in 2005 and incorporated in 2008.

Fackler also owns a high-end sunglass shop on River Street in Savannah and a gift shop outside Tampa, Fla.

Ryan McAvoy

McAvoy became an in-house marketing coordinator for Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa in June and previously held the same position at Hilton Head Guest Services, a vacation package and services company where he worked for more than 20 years.

McAvoy has run three previous times for town office. He last ran in 2012 for the Ward 3 seat, and previously lost a special election for the Ward 3 seat in 2011 and a write-in candidacy for mayor in 2010.

Brendan Reilley

Reilley is co-owner of Aunt Chilada's Easy Street Cafe on Pope Avenue, The Boardroom in the Hilton Head Plaza near Sea Pines Resort and Carolina Crab Company at Palmetto Bay Marina. He is also a partner of Reilley's Grill and Bar on the island’s south end and The Crazy Crab restaurants on the north end and at Harbour Town.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, Reilley also launched the Eat Local HHI initiative with his wife, Jill, in 2013.

Palmer Simmons

Simmons is the grandson of well-known Gullah leader Charlie Simmons Sr., who ferried islanders to and from the mainland before the bridges to Hilton Head were constructed in 1956.

Palmer Simmons operates Carolina Trucking HH LLC, a dump-truck-for-hire company, and previously ran Simmons Fishing Camp, a now-shuttered night club on Simmons Road.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Six file for Hilton Head special election to replace Edwards."