‘We’re back:’ Supported by developers, officials, Lazarus launches Horry chairman bid
Flanked by high-profile developers and Horry County and Myrtle Beach elected officials, Mark Lazarus had a message for his supporters: He’s the right leader for Horry County’s top job.
“We’re back. I just feel it in my heart and my soul that this is the right thing to do,” Lazarus said Thursday. “Y’all, we need some leadership. We need leadership at the county council.”
The former council chairman is running to get his old job back after losing to current chairman Johnny Gardner, in 2018.
Gardner, along with council member Johnny Vaught, are also running in the June 14 Republican primary for the gig.
Lazarus ascended to county leadership after U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, the former chairman, was inaugurated in Congress in 2013.
On Thursday evening at the El Cerro Mexican Bar & Grill in Myrtle Beach, Lazarus launched his campaign and raked in the first round of donations.
Campaign volunteers, including former Horry County GOP Co-Chair Dreama Purdue, collected checks and email addresses from attendees as they entered the restaurant.
A sign listing significant donors greeted attendees at the door.
The owners of Shiv Properties, a hotel development firm, and Salvador Villalpando, the restaurant owner and owner of Coastal Granite & Stone, were listed as top donors.
Others included Keith Hinson, the owner of Waccamaw Land & Timber, Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune and her husband Brown, Carolina Strand Realty and the Sands Building Group.
Mingling around a dimly-lit bar, Lazarus supporters nibbled on chips and salsa as Mexico battled Canada on the soccer field on big screens around the restaurant.
County Council members Bill Howard, Gary Loftus, Cam Crawford and Tyler Servant were all in attendance, as was Renee Elvis, the county’s Clerk of Courts.
Jimmy Gray, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s top voice in Columbia and developer Felix Pitts of G3 Engineering, were also there.
Throughout his term in office, Gardner, a defense attorney by trade, has enjoyed the support of residents who oppose development and the local Chamber.
During a roughly 15-minute speech, Lazarus said he targeted the county chairman’s post - rather than higher office - because local government is “where the rubber meets the road.”
“This seat to me ... makes as much difference in your life, and probably more, than any other seat there is,” he said.
Lazarus grew up along the Grand Strand and owns several tourist attractions, including Myrtle Waves, Wild Water & Wheels and the Grand Prix.
He served as a council member from 2002 to 2006, representing Myrtle Beach.
He currently works alongside Hinson at Waccamaw Land & Timber.
Lazarus criticized Gardner for what he views as a lack of leadership and cohesiveness on the council. He also dinged Gardner for the soured relationship between Horry County and the municipalities. Myrtle Beach and Horry County, in particular, have battled in court several times in recent years over fees and land sales.
“The relationship between the county and cities is awful. We’ve got to do better than that,” Lazarus said. “We’ve got to be able to sit down at the table, whether you live in Conway, Aynor, Loris, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Surfside, it doesn’t matter. We’re all one Horry County.”
Lazarus also criticized Gardner for implementing impact fees in a what he says is a haphazard way.
The fees are a charge placed on new building that help pay for infrastructure in the immediate area of the new development.
Gardner counts impact fees, along with expanded building regulations to prevent flooding, among some of his top accomplishments as county leader.
But Lazarus said if he were chairman, he would have worked with lawmakers to amend state law to allow the county to use those fees for a broader range of projects.
As of now, Lazarus argued, the county can’t use that money effectively because there are too many restrictions in place.
“I think they did it backwards and we would have done it differently,” he said in an interview after his speech.
Noting that developers were in attendance at his event, Lazarus made a special pitch to them.
“Y’all are the economy. Y’all are what makes this economy tick,” he said.
“There’s some issues out there that we need to sit down and debate, and we can sit down and debate and make it better. But ... everybody who works that helps the development community with whatever role you play in development, that’s an economy, that’s not just the guy out there building the house or moving the dirt.”
Lazarus also took a shot at residents who oppose development.
“There’s a group out there ... they want to shut down development,” Lazarus said. “That’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen because it would put people out of jobs.”
He admitted that he had made some “mistakes” while in office, including not taking county employee issues seriously enough. He promised to form an employee council “so that they have a seat at the table.”
Lazarus also championed the construction of Interstate 73, which he called “he biggest economic, public safety, tourist-driven interstate that will ever be built in our lifetime.”
During his time as chairman, Lazarus extended the county’s hospitality fee and worked out a deal to put millions each year toward I-73 construction.
The funds would have jump-started the road’s construction in Horry County, he said.
After Lazarus lost the 2018 primary, though, Myrtle Beach sued the county over the plan, locking the county and the municipalities into a multi-year lawsuit over how hospitality fee money should be spent.
It fell to Gardner to ultimately settle the suit, which the county and municipalities did in 2021.
While the cities have dedicated their portion of hospitality fee money to I-73, and the county has a similar plan in the works, Gardner has said he wants to see state and federal funds used to build I-73 before the county votes to spend its money on it.
Lazarus believes the suit wouldn’t have happened if he had won the 2018 primary.
He said he would also focus on improving the county’s existing roads, including widening S.C. 90 and S.C. 701.
If he wins the June 14 primary, Lazarus said he’d spend time in Columbia meeting with lawmakers and lobbying for legislation and funding to benefit the county.
“I’ve made some mistakes and we’re not going to make those mistakes again,” Lazarus promised.
“We’re going to do better. We’re going to bring everyone together.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 10:49 AM with the headline "‘We’re back:’ Supported by developers, officials, Lazarus launches Horry chairman bid."
