Folly Beach, South Carolina — Folly Beach voters have picked city councilman Chris Bizzell to serve as the city’s first new mayor in over a decade.
Unofficial South Carolina Election Commission statistics suggest Bizzell received around 55% of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election, defeating real estate agent Elton Culpepper.
The candidates progressed to a runoff after neither received enough votes to win outright in the Nov. 4 municipal election.
Short-term rental rules, beach preservation, and infrastructure were the dominant issues in the race. Shortly after voting, Folly Beach resident Todd Hughes spoke with News 2 about what is most important to him.
“The big thing is the cap,” Hughes explained. “It’s like what everyone is running off of. Aside from that, there’s beach preservation, wildlife conservation, and ensuring that it’s not a massive party town. Just keeping Folly as a destination for families to visit and stay for many years.”
Bizzell, who currently serves on the city council, stated that he sought to strike a balance between residents and renters, making sensible reforms as needed.
“One of the things we’ve done is, the cap is kind of a yes or not vote with the referendum,” Bizzell told the crowd. “On council, we were able to put together amendments that address the inheritance issues, the medical hardship just to make it a little more balanced to solution to accommodate some of the lingering issues around that issue.”
Bizzell will succeed long-time Mayor Tim Goodwin, who is retiring after four terms in office.
