General

Growth Impact Action Committee:

Horry County and South Carolina

Nation/World Daily 

Features

■TV Schedule

■TV movie Information

not in TV Guide

■Technology

How to be Effective - Be Aware and Be Heard

1/2/08 Update: Added a table showing the Horry County Board of Education membership

to Horry County and S.C. Elected Officials, Commissions, Committee and Board Appointees

Ways to Influence Change

The way to influence change is to get the attention and convince the incumbents, named in the  "Incumbent Contact Information" section below, of the desirability of your change.  The better your understanding of the issues involved, the greater the likelihood that your views will be seriously considered.  Click here to skip directly to  information specific to Horry County Council Meetings.

Knowledge is power.  The separately titled  information sections below provide potentially useful information.  Your or your organization's representative's attendance (or television viewing of Horry County council meetings) at the times and places shown below provides timely information.  Remember that developers work with Planning continually.   They have presented their case over a period of time.  Therefore, if you are concerned with rezoning issues, it is to your advantage to understand what they plan as far before the final planning commission public input and voting as possible.  If you see a sign that a property is up for rezoning that may concern you, it is to your advantage to call Planning at 915-5340 for information, and if possible, attend or have a representative of your community association attend whatever preliminary meetings possible.

Remember that the vote from every member of a  body counts equally.  You want to get the attention and influence the vote of the member, if there is one, that represents you and you should be sure that you have communicated with him or her.  But communicating with them all is even more effective and reasonable at the county council and planning commission level.  Speaking or having someone else present your views whenever public input is allowed has the advantage that the entire body at least hears your views.  That can be a little late in the process, so earlier direct telephone conversations may be more helpful while assuring you have the other person's ear.  Doing things in parallel is wise.  Taking the time to write well reasoned letters can only help.  Emails, if they are carefully read, are most efficient for your time and that of your representative. 

There is power in numbers.  Encouraging others to also communicate personally with decision makers helps.  Meetings within your community, perhaps with an involved developer, can be very helpful in making those concerned aware of the details of an issue and the need for action -- and may influence a developer to alter plans to a community's benefit.  Petitions help.  Mass attendance at planning commission and county council meetings when critical issues arise tends to be very persuasive, especially if one of those who speaks to the body calls for all who agree with the speaker to stand. 

Informative signs posted in a community a few days before such a meeting have proven quite effective in getting mass turnouts. Some HOA boards have extensive e-mail list of their members that they use effectively. You can also click contact the GIAC web master, request publication of your notice on the "Community Alerts" page on this Web site and alert others to visit this site for details.  In contacting us, please use GIAC as the first word in your subject line to help ensure your message is not inadvertently rejected as spam.

Again, when elections or primaries come around, remember that the vote from every member of a body counts equally .  The most effective thing to do in the long run is to vote for and otherwise promote representatives (in all Horry County districts) whose perspectives are such that they are likely to vote in accordance with your perspective.  In the case of incumbents, you have their previous voting record to rely on.  Take note if the heavy contributors to anyone's campaign are from those with perspectives other than yours.  A candidate's line of work or former line of work may also give an indication of his perspective and, if currently employed in it, where there might be conflicts of interest.  You can of course also talk with them individually to try to find out "where they are coming from." 

You may also attend candidate forums and try to ferret out what is said and promised to get votes from a reflection of their true perspectives.  This GIAC site provides some top-level information on individual candidates during campaigns and often provides an editorial assessment of candidates from the point of view of their perceived perspective with respect to the GIAC perspective. 

When elections or primaries are imminent, it is important to use your influence through your email lists, telephone or otherwise  to encourage others to vote, and then, or always, if you agree with the views on this site or feel the information presented here is worthwhile, to suggest they visit this site.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

General Information Sources and Public Meeting Schedules

Horry County Council Meetings are generally held regularly on the first and third Tuesday of each month in the council chambers of the Administration Building of the Horry County Government and Justice Center at 1301 Second Avenue on the second floor -- directly behind the old courthouse.  All the county ordinances,  rezonings, and resolutions are heard and voted on at these meetings. 

To get to the page tabulating council agendas (previous meetings and the Friday before a meeting) and approved minutes (past meetings), click here and, in the left menu on the Web page that comes up, click County Council.

These meetings start at 6:00 p.m.  Public input for a specific ordinance is called for when second reading (usually) of an ordinance first comes up for council discussion.  At this time, any member of the public is allowed to speak, in turn, when recognized by the council chairman. 

At the very start of a meeting, thirty minutes are allowed for general public input.  During this period, speakers who have reserved a spot have five minutes to speak on any Horry County related item they wish.  Should you wish to speak during the general public input, you have to call at least a day or so before the meeting to get on the agenda.  For this general public input; call  Horry County Council administration at 315-5120 to do this and for other particulars.

Public input on individual ordinances is generally held at the second reading of an ordinance although it may be held at the third reading. In any case, public hearings must be published 15 days in advance. Horry County public hearing announcements are published in The Sun News "Legal Notices" at the end of the Sunday's classified section under such headings as "Notice of Second Reading and Public Review." If an ordinance is deferred at an announced public review meeting, representative members of the public who are there still may be allowed to speak on that ordinance.

County Council meetings are televised and shown live on Time Warner Cable -- Channel 3 and Horry Telephone -- Channel 14. 

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Horry County Planning Commission Meetings are generally held regularly the first Thursday of the month in multipurpose room B on the second floor of the same building in which Horry County Council Meetings are held, starting with an allowed general public input period at 5:30 p.m.  Public input for specific items is allowed throughout the meeting when the items first come up. General public input on items other than those listed on the agenda under "public hearings" requires registration with the Planning Department one hour prior to the meeting. Before going, it is not a bad idea to double-check that the time of a meeting has not been rescheduled by calling Planning at 915-5340 (205-5340 from Myrtle Beach). Agendas for upcoming meetings will be mailed to concerned citizens upon request.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Horry County Planning Commission Zoning Committee Meetings are generally held at about 3:30 p.m. on the same day and in the same room that planning commission meetings (above) are held.  The exact time depends on when the Technical Review committee meeting -- that starts at 3:00 p.m. -- adjourns. This is a preliminary meeting at which an overview of each rezoning is given by Planning Department staff so that the PC members can better understand each case before actually voting on it at the PC meeting.  Again, before going, it is not a bad idea to double-check that the time of a meeting has not been rescheduled by calling Planning at 915-5340. In general, public input is allowed only at the discretion of the chairman. 

Click here to return to the top of this page.

The Board of Zoning Appeals regularly scheduled meetings are held at 5:30 on the first Monday of every month in conference room B on the second floor of the Administration Building of the Horry County Government and Justice Center at 1301 Second Avenue -- directly behind the old courthouse.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Click WWW Links  to obtain agendas for the county council and planning commission meetings.  This GIAC page provides other links that you can use to find a considerable amount of information on Horry County, Horry County and South Carolina government, South Carolina newspapers, and related web sites.

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Cast your informed vote.  Click here to get your voting district and precinct number directly from the state. When putting in your street address, do not include your number address or the suffix, e.g. road, drive. 

Click here to return to the top of this page.

Horry County and S.C. Elected Officials, Commission and Board Appointees

Click WWW Links  to obtain other links that you can use to find contact information on other elected officials, commission, committee and board appointees as well as a considerable amount of other information on Horry County, Horry County and South Carolina government

To see the more detailed contact information on the representatives, click the appropriate selection in the table below.  Again, to get the district number for the elected representative for a specific street address, you can click here (omit the address number and suffix).

Horry County Council

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, you can click Horry County Web site from which it was derived.  Once there, to verify the County Council  membership: click "County Council" in the menu on the left side of the opening screen; on the top of the new screen, click Member List as indicated. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

Click here to return to the contact information menu, or click here to return to the top of this page.

Horry County Planning Commission 11/17/07

You should verify that the information below and that on any other government listing is up-to-date. For the list below, click the Horry County Web site from which it was derived or call Planning.

Click here to return to the contact information menu, or click here to return to the top of this page.

Horry County Board of Education 1/2/08

Click here to return to the top of this page.

South Carolina House of Representatives      

(Horry County)

(To find contact information on any House member, regardless of county, click WWW Links in the menu on the upper left, then on that page's Quick Reference Menu, click South Carolina State Legislature Information, then on the world wide web: under House, click bios, then click the name of the member.)

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, click the South Carolina State Legislative Information.  from which it was derived. Once there, click "House of Representatives," then click "Alphabetically," and finally find and click the name of the representative for whom information is desired. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

Click here to return to the contact information menu, or click here to return to the top of this page.

South Carolina Senate (Horry County)

(To find contact information on any member of the SC Senate, regardless of county, click WWW Links in the menu on the upper left, then on that page's Quick Reference Menu, click South Carolina State Legislature Information, then on the world wide web: under Senate, click bios, then click the name of the member.)

If you wish to verify that the above information is up-to-date, click the South Carolina State Legislative Information.  from which it was derived. Once there, click "Senate," then click "Alphabetically," and finally find and click the name of the senator for whom information is desired. Note: There have been instances in which an angelfire (our Web host) ad has totally covered off-site links such as this; simply clicking the "x" in the upper right hand corner of the page has removed the ad so you can see the site itself..  Angelfire provides free web hosting on the condition that their ads are allowed on the site, but I will complain about this.

Click here to return to the contact information menu, or click here to return to the top of this page.

If you wish to go to another GIAC page, you can use the menu at the top left of the page or click here to go directly to the roadmap page.

If you wish to contact us without the world seeing your message, click contact the GIAC web master.  Please use GIAC as the first word in your subject line, to help ensure your message is not inadvertently rejected as spam.