Fowler to keep Florence County treasurer’s seat

Florence County incumbent treasurer Dean Fowler will remain in office after Tuesday’s election.

Leval Williams, former Florence County Tax Assessor, had been Fowler’s opponent in the treasurer’s race.

Fowler received 21,164 votes to Williams’ 12,537 with 46 of 80 precincts reporting at press time.

“I would just like to thank the voters,” Fowler said. “Basically that’s just a mandate for us to continue what we’re doing in the treasurer’s office.”

He said his campaign was based on his cleaning up of “suspicions” about the treasurer’s office to restore the trust of the public.

“We made promises to the public — we felt like not only were they promises, but they were commitments — that we would develop one of the best-run treasurer’s offices in the state of South Carolina,” Fowler said in a previous interview.

Fowler said he intends to continue working to make the office one the residents of Florence County can trust.

Florence County documents showed that Williams had been fired from his position at Tax Assessor for Florence County, after directing a contractor to change the dates on 360 property tax notices, removing late penalties from the notices.

Documents from Williams’ personnel file, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Morning News, also showed that Williams had been suspended from Feb. 29 until the day before his termination. He also had been suspended and recommended for termination in 2005.

The Florence County Council District 4 race, however, was too close to call at press time.

Betty Dowling, a Florence School District 4 board member, was challenging incumbent Mitchell Kirby for the position.

Dowling said in a previous interview that she thinks the amount of frivolous items passed during the incumbent’s time on the council speaks volumes in a time of economic troubles.

“It is the people’s business and we are the servants for the people,” she said. “It’s just high time for the good ol’ boys’ days to be gone. It’s a representative government. People need to select people who they know are going to represent them.”

Kirby disputed Dowling’s comments, saying he thinks the county council has done a great job of promoting the economic interests of the county.

“We come up with a plan to enhance economic development and, through it, we got companies like Monster.com, Heinz, Honda, Johnson Control, QVC and many others,” he said. “Right now, we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been financially.”