Folly Beach voters deciding between two candidates in special city council election
FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) — People living on Folly Beach will be heading to the polls to vote in a special election Tuesday until 7 p.m. Former City Councilman Eddie Ellis left city council with his term unfinished. Now, two candidates are hoping to take his place.
Jody Lynn Rogers is not unfamiliar with council. Rogers ran in November and lost but she's running again with the people of Folly on her mind.
If elected, she plans to focus on pedestrian safety, creating more walking paths, and storm drainage maintenance. Besides her extensive background as an executive, Rogers feels like she can bring her business and team work skills to city council and even some diversity to the table.
"I'm a collaborator and a consensus builder, and I think we need that on city council," Jody Lynn Rogers, who has been living on Folly Bech for more then 10 years, said. "We have, at least for the time that I've lived here, which has been 10 years, I've seen a pretty unbalanced city council. I think we need a council that's more representative of the people that live in the community. We have one woman on city council of seven members right now. I'd like to see that increase and certainly diversity of thought and ideas."
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Rogers is going up against Skip Fink who says he's not a politician, but still believes he can be the best leader for Folly Beach.
Fink has a military background and two masters degrees and believes he has the education and discipline to listen to the community. If elected, he would focus on traffic congestion, erosion and drainage, but he also wants to emphasize the importance of the community's senior citizens.
"Folly has residents that have been here 50, 60 years. These guys are in their seventies and eighties. They grew up here. Fully 40% of the residents out here are 65 and older," Skip Fink, who has been living on Folly for more than 12 years, said. "Well, they have unique evolving needs and being kind of in that generation myself. They need transportation. Uh, they need assistance with getting to senior services. They need to have a willingness on be on behalf of the city municipality, which is doing a pretty good job to have activities for them. Because as you know, the more active you are, the more vibrant you are, the healthier you are."
Both candidates also have different opinions on a topic that has been the main topic of discussion on many island towns across the Lowcountry which is short term rental caps. Last year, Folly Beach capped the number of short-term rental licenses at 800, but the council in February then created two new classes of licenses only for people who owned property during the passing of the referendum. One for inheritance and the other for medical hardship, which provides exceptions for people in certain situations and an exemption from the cap.
Rogers believes caps on short-term rentals limits property rights.
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"City Council has made some amendments to the short term rental cap that did help a little bit," Rogers said. "The inheritance and the hardship amendment were passed in February, and my position is that is a slight improvement, but a property owner that owned property before the cap passed should not have to either die or be disabled in order to get a short-term rental license."
On the other hand, Fink believes there should be more of an emphasis on placed on protecting permanent housing for people who are already living on Folly Beach.
"Well, long-term housing is an initiative that we need to look at because the more properties that are turned into short term rental properties, the less long term rental properties you have," Fink said. " So, while I may own a house on Folly Beach, let's just say I don't, it's not my permanent residence."
Residents can vote at Folly Beach Baptist Church and polls close at 7 p.m.