Hartsville mayor names Cabinet of advisors
By JIM FAILE
Hartsville Mayor Mel Pennington has put together a group of individuals to offer advice and ideas on issues that affect the city, its government and Hartsville’s quality of life.
The newly formed Cabinet of the Office of the Mayor had its first meeting Tuesday morning at The Byerly Foundation office.
“I wanted to assemble a group of advisors, a brain trust, to provide ideas and to hear ideas and to help us focus on different projects,” Pennington said.
Pennington said he hopes the Cabinet helps ensure greater accountability and efficiency in city government. One chief aim, he said, is to improve communication and delivery of services to citizens.
“We need to use the brain power we have been blessed with having in our city,” he said. “This is a chance for me to have a Cabinet of advisors who can mentor me as far as leadership, as far as policy. These are some of my most respected mentors and advisors. They’re a good group of people.”
Cabinet members so far include Richard Puffer, Coker College professor and executive director of The Byerly Foundation; Bobby and Nancy McGee of McGee Financial Group; Bill Perry, pastor of Hartsville Community Fellowship; Dr. Murray Brockman, president of the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics; Jon Shannon, administrator - technology director for the Governor’s School; Emory Waters, retired FBI agent; and Robert Fletcher, director of the BlueCross BlueShield Economics & Finance Institute at the Governor’s School. Other members will likely be added, Pennington said.
City Manager Natalie Zeigler serves as clerk to the Cabinet and Public Information Officer Donald Quist as archivist.
“These people are advocates for the city. All of these people have talents that Hartsville needs,” Pennington said. “We’ve talked about this for quite a while. All of these people could easily have said no, but they didn’t, and that’s good. These are very busy people. Nothing but good can come from this.”
Pennington said he also views the group as a tool that can help Hartsville City Council as it seeks to deal with difficult issues and said he hopes council will buy into the concept.
“This is not an attempt to go around council because you can’t go around council,” he said. “This group can supplement council. I hope council understands that. Council has the final say on anything the city does. And council may not buy into it. But I hope they see the value in what we’re doing.”
Pennington said he wants to model the Cabinet after the federal model. And he said that may include asking council to confirm or reject nominees for the panel. “I want them to have some checks and balances,” he said.
“I’m not trying to be president. I’m just trying to use something that has worked well for a very long time,” Pennington said.
During its first meeting the panel got a review of several city projects, including the city’s nuisance ordinance, the abandoned house ordinance and demolition project, the city’s new recycling program and city efforts to obtain a Community Development Block Grant to help improve the Oakdale neighborhood.
The group also got an update on the city’s most recent development, the purchase by the city for $200,000 of the former Bank of America building in downtown Hartsville. City officials plan to convert the building into a new city hall.
The panel discussed the possibility of using web-based technology to improve efficiency, customer service and communications technology.
“I feel real good about what we did today,” Pennington said. “I feel good about this group helping council move the city forward. We’re trying to use the great talent we have here to solve some problems that we haven’t been able to solve for a long time.”
Pennington said he is not sure how often he will ask the cabinet to meet, but said he hopes it can meet monthly.