Former planner mounts challenge to council chairman – Coastal Observer

Former planner mounts challenge to council chairman – Coastal Observer

A former member of the Planning Commission is gathering signatures to put her name on the ballot as an independent candidate for Georgetown County Council District 1. Sandra Bundy said she considered running for the seat when it came open in 2022, but the timing wasn’t right. She was also asked to challenge Clint Elliott, the first-term incumbent and current chairman, in the GOP primary. Bundy said she still wasn’t ready. “There’s been a lot of thought put into it,” she said. “I kept seeing things and talking to people.” Bundy launched her campaign last week and announced it Monday. Her announcement was followed by an email from the citizens group Keep It Green supporting her run. The group also backed Bill Ringer, who beat Council Member Stella Mercado in the GOP primary in District 6 this month. “People deserve to have a choice. Murrells Inlet needs to have a voice,” Bundy said. “It’s crazy not to have a choice.” Bundy needs signatures from at least 5 percent of the registered voters in District 1. That number is determined 120 days before the election, which is July 6. She has until July 15 to submit the petitions to the county Board of Voter Registration and Elections, which has until Aug. 17 to certify them. Bundy’s goal is 400 signatures. Volunteers are helping her collect them. Bundy is a Murrells Inlet native whose father, Capt. Alex Sing, was a pioneer in the charter fishing business. Her mother, Betty Jo, ran Capt. Alex’s Marina. Bundy worked there and on a commercial fishing boat after graduating from Socastee High School and Horry-Georgetown Tech. She and her mother took a real estate course, but Bundy didn’t get into real estate until she and her husband, John, moved to Marlboro County, where they took over the company started by John’s father. Bundy served a term on the town council in Clio. Back in Murrells Inlet, she served on the committee that created the Murrells Inlet Watershed Plan and on the board of Murrells Inlet 2020, which gave her its Golden Oyster Award for environmental stewardship. Bundy was appointed to the Planning Commission in 2018 by District 1 Council Member John Thomas to fill an unexpired term.   She was among the majority in voting to deny site plan approval to three multi-family projects and a zoning change for a fourth that were later approved by County Council. Those decisions were challenged in court and the subject of three opinions from the state Court of Appeals this month overturning lower court judges who dismissed the suits. Bundy was also critical of what she said was a lack of planning and enforcement of zoning regulations. When Thomas put her up for appointment to a full term in February 2022, he was told by then-Chairman Louis Morant that there wasn’t support on council. Thomas resigned in May and Bundy continued to serve while the council seat was vacant. After Elliott took office in January 2023, he appointed David Roper to the commission. He said at the time that there wasn’t support on council for Bundy’s reappointment. Since then, Bundy has focused her work on the Murrells Inlet estuary through Our Marsh Counts, an initiative she started to collect data on litter, and a video of oral histories she produced called “Connected to the Creek.” She is also writing a book about the estuary. “There are a lot of issues facing this county and, specifically, my community,” she said. “I am at heart a problem solver.” She is concerned about the county-sponsored proposal to dredge over 16 miles of channels and creeks through the inlet. “I’m not against dredging. I’m for responsible dredging,” she said, and questioned why the county didn’t do a study for Murrells Inlet similar to its study of the Georgetown harbor that considered a range of options for maintaining the channel. Scaling back the dredging project would also make more money available for affordable housing initiatives, she added. Bundy would also like to see the county improve its rating with the federal flood insurance program’s Community Rating System to earn property owners a larger discount on their premiums. “We need to be saving people money on their flood insurance,” Bundy said. “Little ol’ Murrells Inlet is sitting here vulnerable.” The result in the District 6 primary showed the people on Waccamaw Neck are ready for a change, she said. That could also help people in other parts of the county that are starting to see development. “On Waccamaw Neck, we know the issues it’s created. We can help people on the other side of the county,” Bundy said. “I’m not against growth at all. I’m in real estate. We’re just not getting the quality development we deserve.” And she added, “quality development doesn’t mean more expensive.”