Greenville County Council picks new leaders, seeks collegial peace | Greenville Politics

GREENVILLE – In back-to-back unanimous votes, Greenville County Council elected Councilman Dan Tripp as chairman and Councilwoman Liz Seman as vice chair in a quick organizational assembly Jan. 10.

The choices set a tone that Tripp stated could be a theme for his time as chair — to carry peace to the council after what he known as two tumultuous years.

“I’ve seen within the final couple of weeks particularly a collective sigh of reduction,” Tripp stated. “I feel we’re going to see peace on council and even these members who could not have been 100% on our staff, they understood what was coming down the pike and so they ended up being supportive of that. It’s a brand new day on council.”

Seman ran unsuccessfully for chair in 2020 and is within the midst of her fourth time period on the council representing District 24. She stated she had anticipated different council members to be nominated for the function as effectively and was grateful for the assist of the opposite 11 members of the council.

“No matter what seat that we’re in, no matter what committees we’re on, my hope is that the tone that we’re setting is we wish to be collegial, we wish to work collectively. The individuals of the county deserve that,” she stated.

She stated she hoped for unity on the council and for extra engagement from residents within the technique of native authorities.

Seman stated she anticipated this iteration of the council to work extra collaboratively to resolve issues and to make use of committees and committee of the entire conferences to workshop points earlier than they land earlier than the complete council.

“One of many issues that pissed off me was that issues would get to second studying and issues would get placed on maintain or individuals would have questions and it was vetted in committee,” Seman stated. “So I’m hopeful that we’ll be somewhat bit higher within the strategic use of our time in committees and workshops to work issues out and maintain issues transferring ahead.”

Tripp, in remarks following the management votes, stated he’s dedicated “to be a servant, not a command-and-control chief.”

“My objective within the final six months in speaking to you,” he stated, addressing the council, “is to carry council collectively so we will do the individuals’s enterprise.”

How the vote transpired

Shortly after earlier chairman Willis Meadows was defeated within the Republican Major in June, Councilman Ennis Fant approached Tripp with a proposal for Tripp to guide the council. Fant and Tripp met weekly after that and fashioned a coalition of sitting and new council members with a objective to carry peace to the council and to debate insurance policies and “disagree with out being unpleasant,” Tripp stated.

On the time, not all council members backed the plan.

In December, Councilman Stan Tzouvelekas introduced his personal plan for the way he would lead the council. In it, he detailed a lot of conservative points he felt the council ought to assist, together with an in depth proposal for the way he would construction committee assignments.

Tzouvelekas stated he wasn’t in a position to generate the assist wanted to turn out to be chair. The primary-term councilman didn’t obtain a nomination Jan. 10.

“I didn’t have the assist,” Tzouvelekas stated. He stated he helps Tripp as chair and would desires peace, “however our peace must assist the Republican platform.”

“We’ve set to work with him,” Tzouvelekas stated. “We have to work collectively to assist Greenville County.”

Tripp and Seman every stated they anticipated to face different nominees coming into the assembly.

Councilman Chris Harrison, who Tzouvelekas had proposed as his selection for vice chair, stated he was grateful for the assist however withdrew his title from consideration and nominated Seman.

Till this previous weekend, Fant had been thought-about for the function of vice chair, quite a few council members confirmed to The Publish and Courier. However native Republican Occasion leaders mounted a marketing campaign for council members to assist a Republican within the spot quite than Fant, a Democrat.

Jeff Davis, chairman of the Greenville County GOP, stated the ten Republicans with a supermajority on the council ought to select Republicans for the management posts, “not a coalition of extra reasonable Republicans and the 2 Democrats.”

Afterward, Fant stated the native physique doesn’t play partisan politics however that a lot of Republican council members caved to the strain marketing campaign. Fant stated he selected to step apart and he supported Seman due to her seniority on the council and since the council selected her, because the lone feminine on the council, for the management place.

Seman stated it was fascinating that she is now the one girl on the council and stated her philosophy has at all times been that “you possibly can lead from anyplace.” Every member’s vote counts the identical and every council member solutions to the voters of their district.

“We’re the federal government for the individuals in our districts, in order that’s the necessary piece,” she stated.

What’s forward in January

County Council’s first enterprise assembly of the yr shall be held Jan. 24 when it considers rule modifications for the upcoming session. As a part of that course of, Tripp stated he’ll current a plan to restructure and add to the council’s record of committees.

Tripp stated he desires to increase the features of the general public works and infrastructure committee to incorporate extra duties. Amongst these could be enter into the county’s roads and bridges, sewer, housing and different infrastructure wants. He stated he would love the committee to behave as a type of clearinghouse for concepts to deal with development within the county.

Seman, who has served as chair of the general public works and infrastructure committee, stated she is in favor of the modifications and for bringing committees collectively to deal with points collectively.

Tripp additionally plans to introduce a brand new communications committee that may interact with the county’s municipalities and different authorities businesses and would assist share the work the county authorities performs.

One of many powers given to the chair is naming council members to committees and assigning chairs for every committee. The chair can even appoint members to serve on numerous intragovernmental boards, such because the Greenville Pickens Space Transportation Examine committee, the South Carolina Expertise and Aviation Heart board or the board of the Greenville Space Improvement Company.

Tripp stated he would seemingly current his selections for committee assignments on the finish of the assembly Jan. 24.