Candidates willing to run for town not yet on map
Two set sights on mayor's post, 12 for council as James Islanders await May 21 referendum
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
BY JASON HARDIN
Of The Post and Courier Staff
They don't have a town hall - in fact, they don't even have a town yet - but candidates seeking election to a possible new town of James Island apparently aren't discouraged by the uncertainties.
A dozen candidates for council and two mayoral hopefuls have filed to run for office in the town. Voters will decide in a May 21 referendum whether the island will become a town.
Just one thing's certain: The first mayor would be a woman.
The two candidates for mayor are Mary Clark, a lead organizer of the incorporation movement, and Kay Kernodle, who works in a law office and is married to a lawyer who has been assisting the incorporation effort.
Both agreed the first few years of running the town will be tricky and critical to its long-term success.
Neither favors an aggressive effort to provide many new services.
Clark said those decisions, though, would be up to the candidates voters choose. The important thing is that voters can decide for themselves how they want the town to operate.
"However it turns out, the people of James Island are going to be able to go to the polls on May 21 to vote if they want a town and on June 18 for who they want for mayor and council," she said. "That is what this has been about for five years."
Kernodle said she would first focus on physically starting up an office and making sure the basics are in place.
"I don't want to take on too much of a bite at first. I don't want to get choked," she said.
Several years ago, voters did decide to form a town of James Island. That town, however, was sued by the city of Charleston, which charged that the town was formed by illegally crossing marshes and waterways claimed by the city. The city won, and the S.C. Supreme Court dissolved the town. Since then, state law was changed to allow such areas to be used in creating a new municipality.
If voters approve the town again, they would also select four members of council from the 12 that have filed.
The council election would be at_ large, and the leading four vote-getters would win, regardless of whether they earned a majority of the vote.
Those candidates include: Karen C. Bennett, Robert Bolus, Paul Hadley, Ray Patterson, Andrew Thomas Price, Joseph K. Qualey, Don Ritchie, Jerome W. Sloane Sr., Clarence Spell, Bill "Cubby" Wilder, Parris Williams and Bill Woolsey.
Town organizers appear to have moved past a roadblock that appeared last week when Charleston County Council refused to contribute toward the cost of holding the referendum.
Trent Kernodle, Kay Kernodle's husband, said donors stepped forward after hearing the news. The money to put on the election is close to being raised, he said.
"The best thing the county ever did was treat us the way they did. Because the next day, we had people calling up and saying, 'I can't believe they did that, and how much do you need?'" he said.
The mayoral race is likely to attract a fair amount of attention. The town, with about 20,000 people, would be the fourth-largest municipality in Charleston County and perhaps in the top 20 statewide.
Clark, who wore a red shirt for years in protest of the demise of the first town, joked that she would fit in well with other area leaders.
"I have something in common with three Lowcountry mayors: I have the white hair of Harry Hallman, I have the shape of Keith Summey and, like Joe Riley, I have a plan for James Island and I'm not going to give an inch," she said.
Kernodle, who resigned as an election manager in order to run for mayor, said her experience in the legal office would help her in her effort to whip a town into shape.
"I just think I'd do a good job," she said, adding that she respects Clark's efforts to create the town. "Either way, James Island wins."
Jason Hardin covers the city of Charleston. Contact him at 937-5549 or at jhardin@postandcourier.com.
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