Public Service Week a Time to Thank Those Who Keep Things Running
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
It’s public service recognition week, offering an opportunity to thank those who have chosen to serve our community, in ways which are often overlooked and rarely applauded.
For some towns and cities in Anderson County, 2025 is an election year. At least some seats are up for election in the City of Belton, City of Easley, and towns of Honea-Path, Iva, Pelzer, and Pendleton, and all have elections in November. A special election for Honea Path Mayor is set for July 15.
Those who choose to seek public office are often met with the question “Why?” In an era when the world is saturated with national and international politics, many voters are skeptical and negative about all politicians.
But politician is a work which has taken an unfair beating. It means "one actively engaged in conducting the business of a government.” Yet throughout all this time it has simultaneously been used in a contemptuous fashion as well, and to be fair, many who have held office have fed this flame of suspicion and negativity by abusing the public trust.
Some have chosen narrow agendas over serving citizens, and continue to do so. The Freedom Caucus is one example of a group that creates chaos but produces few, if any, legislation that helps citizens.
But the overwhelming majority of men and women serving our state and the cities, towns and county, most notably in Anderson County, are doing their part to move the needle in the direction of progress that benefits all citizens.
It does not mean there is no room for disagreement and dissent for those who hold office and those they serve. In my decades of covering local governments, it has more often been lack of citizen participation than nefarious elected officials who have impacted government. It has always been interesting to witness the charges of local governments “wasting money” or some other baseless charge from those who either never show up at a county or city council meeting, or who might show up a couple of times a year to complain.
This was not always the case. I can remember when council meetings were nearly full of citizens offering comments or making requests of various councils. Those numbers have been in steady decline for at least two decades. Social media rants may have replaced much of the community engagement, and that is lamentable.
This lack of participation offers council members, city and county, little guidance or feedback from the community on the level of interest in an issue. It’s sad, because citizen comments can prove invaluable in helping elected officials make decisions.
If you have been one of the few who have attended a local government meeting, it’s not unlikely that large portions of the meeting left you sleepy. Long discussions on wastewater treatment, obscure right-of-ways, or bids on a new bulldozer are not exactly the source for a new Netflix series.
But it is in such complicated details that the men and women who serve in our local governments serve us best. Many are not elected officials, they are civic employees who grind away at the bureaucracy and minutiae that are required to keep our infrastructure in place, our water running, toilets flushing, law enforcement and fire departments ready, elections running and efficient, roads repaired, bring in new jobs, protect us from those who have less than honest intentions and numerous other small public services that most would likely go unnoticed unless they were neglected.
They work to inform and advise those who are elected in hopes that the more information, the better the decisions they will make.
For almost all of our elected officials serving the cities, county and towns is a part-time job – including all of the mayors in the county. These are positions which require often overwhelming hours of research, committee meetings and constituent services outside the scheduled public meetings.
Those who choose to serve as mayors as well as on city and town councils, generally face even smaller compensation for their service. They are all aptly called public servants.
I know all of the county’s mayors and can attest, if you counted the hours they invest in public service it would come out to far below minimum wage.
Williamston Mayor Rockey Burgess is paid $461.54 weekly, a salary set well before he was elected. But Williamston is the only town of any size without a city administrator, which at going rates (including benefits) would cost the town $100,000 annually. Burgess, a successful businessman, probably works more hours than any other mayor in the county. Meanwhile, it is not unusual to see Burgess with work crews doing manual labor for the town.
Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts is paid $288 a week, an amount that would not cover the time it takes for his requests to appear and speak at public events and meetings, much less his work on city council. Roberts is well-informed and has invested countless hours as an ambassador for the City of Anderson. His public service takes a lot of time away from his primary job, something people tend to forget.
Belton Mayor Eleanor Dorn is paid $274.36 weekly as mayor. Dorn’s work in economic development, recreation, infrastructure investment and promoting the image of the town adds up to what amounts to a full-time job. Knowing everyone and being known by everyone is the blessing and the curse of mayors of small cities such as Belton are essentially on call all of the time, and their phone never stops ringing.
Pendleton Mayor Frank Crenshaw, who leads the fastest growing town in the county, is paid $192.30 per week to be mayor. Crenshaw, who like many of the other mayors is a native of the town he serves, invests dozens of hours each week in working with his county and administrator on the town’s exponential growth. Those hours would be fare more profitably spent in his business, but he cares deeply about the town and chooses public service over personal profit.
Honea Path, which will elect a new mayor on July 15, pays its mayor $150 per week. For that the mayor is expected to keep office hours and answer calls of needs or complaints when not in the office. The job also includes working with council on budgets, recreation, law enforcement and other daily challenges small towns face.
Iva Mayor Bobby Gentry who receives $134.61 weekly as mayor, faces the difficult challenge of working a full-time job, he is not self-employed, while serving the town. Gentry works with the town manager and council to sustain an area not growing as fast as some other parts of the county, while looking ahead to perhaps witness that change in the future.
West Pelzer Mayor Jim Riddle is paid $92 weekly for the office. Though the town is small, it faces the same daily challenges, even if on a smaller scale, as bigger towns. Safety along the S.C. 8 which runs through the town, law enforcement, new housing, and managing the few open spots for business are among those things which require regular attention.
No question the most underpaid elected official in the county is Pelzer Mayor Will Ragland, who receives $46.15 per month to serve as mayor. With no other administration and a small-town council, Pelzer is also hamstrung by the fact that the town has no way to generate revenue other than business licenses. S.C. Act 388 has crippled roughly 82 municipalities in the state, and Pelzer is among them, by not allowing them to tax citizens. Zero tax funding represents a tall challenge for even the smallest of towns, which must still provide services to those who live there. Ragland continues work to restore Pelzer’s historic buildings, plant wildflowers in the town (he joins in the shovel work) and recruiting small businesses.
Meanwhile, Anderson County Council members remain the lowest paid in the state for counties over 100,000 citizens, with a salary of $8,930.10 per year. This essentially means council members must be self-employed or have extraordinary flexibility in their work schedule. (For comparison, Greenville County Council members are paid $29,633 annually – with the council chairman being paid $35,560, York County $18,947-$26,526, Lexington County $18,040, Berkeley County $12,484 and Spartanburg County $12,500.) The salaries for our county are set by the Anderson County Legislative Delegation, and in serious need of any update to better reflect other county council salaries.
The problem is council itself would have to approve such a raise, and due to the archaic two-year term system in Anderson County (every other county over 100,000 in population has staggered four-year terms), it’s difficult to make a change, even though any raises would not be in effect until the next council is elected. Our council members are in essence serving one-year terms before they have to campaign again, which is not good for the county.
Four-year staggered terms, which are the norm in the rest of the state, are long overdue. Such a change would require a referendum, which is currently not on anyone’s agenda (other than that of the Anderson Observer).
Over the decades, my discussions with newly elected council members found they have both a new respect for the position as well as a stunning realization of the number of hours the job involves. Most admit, without any regret, it costs them more to serve on county council than they are paid.
Again, this also rings true of those who are in charge of finding ways, especially in times of challenging budgets, to keep our roads safe, water running, trash and recycling efforts on track, keep us safe on a daily basis and during emergencies and provide the other day-to-day services we all take for granted.
The same is true of those who serve on the other commissions, committees and school boards who give of their time and energies for the public good.
May 4-11 is a national week set aside to recognize the efforts of those who have chosen to give back to their community through public service. It’s also a good excuse to say thank you to those you know or come in contact on a regular basis who make life easier for us all.
To thank local elected officials, here are the sites offering contact information:
