Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2021

37 www.MountPl easantPodcas t . com | www. ReadMPM. com | www. I LoveMountPl easant . com W hen residents of Mount Pleasant head to the polls this November, they will determine the leadership of this town for the next four years. On the ballot will be candidates for four seats on Town Council, in addition to the mayor’s nonpartisan position. Because Mount Pleasant operates on a Council form of government, the mayor does not set budgets or have hiring or firing privileges. He or she has the same voting power as each of the other eight Council members. This year, Mayor Will Haynie — who served two years on town council before he was elected to his current position in 2017 — is up for reelection. His opponent, Kathy Landing, has served on Council for the past four years and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 2020 Republican primary. As the fourth-largest municipality in South Carolina with a population of nearly 95,000, Mount Pleasant faces the challenges of a growing town. We asked both candidates where they stand on some of the key issues. You can read extended answers to these questions online. ONWHY THEY ARE RUNNING Mayor Haynie: I love this town too much to walk away now. In 2017, I ran because we were at a point where we weren’t going to get a true change of direction without new leadership. On my agenda was protecting our quality of life and improving our infrastructure by limiting residential building permits, reducing building heights, reining in short-term rentals to protect our neighborhoods and preserving our shrimping industry — to which end, I am proud to say we bought the Wando docks on my watch. These are quality of life issues, and we have tackled them all. Then COVID presented a threat to life issue. I poured my heart into protecting our citizens and spent countless hours on Zoom calls, as the only elected official on the One Region Ready Task Force, helping businesses safely reopen and working with our Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce on best practices. While we have had many wins, it doesn’t mean everything is fixed. In the interest of the path we are on, I want to see it through with relevant, forward-thinking leadership. BY PAMELA JOUAN Behind the Ballot Mount Pleasant Mayoral Candidates on the Major Issues