New Florence leaders aim to work in harmony

FLORENCE — Florence’s mayor-elect and new city council members say they plan to work harmoniously to handle city business when they take office next month.

Democrats Octavia Williams-Blake and Steve Powers defeated Republicans Glynn Willis and incumbent Bobby Holland in the race for two at-large council seats, according to unofficial results released Wednesday.

Williams-Blake said she thinks her victory means she ran a positive campaign with the message of making Florence “a great place to live.”

The 36-year-old councilwoman-elect said she also spread the message that city government “needed broader representation, a younger demographic, women and mothers.” She and her husband, Charlie Blake, have a 3-year-old daughter, Hannah Ryan.

Williams-Blake said she has engaged in ongoing conversations with most of the current city council members.

“I feel confident that I can work with them,” she said.

Powers said he’s ready to hold town hall meetings and keep the other commitments he made while campaigning.

“I have gotten along and been able to work with every other councilman that’s up there,” he said.

He said he’ll represent the north, east, west and south sides of town equally.

“It’s all one unit to me,” he said.

Powers said all the candidates deserve a “thank you” for their efforts. He said Willis “gives his heart and soul to the city” and that Williams-Blake will be “an excellent addition to city council.”

Willis said he’ll support the winning candidates and continue to serve the city as chairman of its planning commission.

“It’s not always about winning — it’s about service, and I continue to have a place to serve in this community,” he said.

Holland, who has served 13 years on council, said he thinks Powers and Williams-Blake will bring valuable perspectives to council.

“Fortunately for the city of Florence, we had four good candidates running for two seats, and somebody had to lose, and I guess I was one of those somebodys,” he said with a laugh.

Mayor-elect Stephen J. Wukela said he’s “enthusiastic about the mandate for change that the people have given us.”

He said current council members have heard the public’s “call” for change as three council incumbents were voted out of office. He said other incumbencies could be threatened if council doesn’t quickly begin handling “the people’s business.”

“I am confident that the council is going to be professional, is going to put personal differences aside — to the extent that there are any — and put the people’s business first,” he said.

Wukela defeated independent petition candidate Rocky Pearce, a former mayor.

Francis Marion University political science professor Dr. Neal Thigpen said many voters likely viewed Pearce’s candidacy as a move by the establishment to prevent Wukela from becoming mayor.

“I don’t think that was lost on a lot of people,” he said.

Pearce said he decided to run for mayor after receiving several encouraging phone calls and having discussions and prayers with his family.

Thigpen said Pearce, however, “didn’t say a lot” during the debates except to tout his mayoral experience.

Meanwhile, Wukela presented concrete ideas, Thigpen said.

“Maybe you didn’t like ’em, but he had ’em,” Thigpen added.

The city election winners became official after elections officials finished counting absentee ballots about 11 p.m. Wednesday night.

Florence County Interim Elections Director Steve Love said workers began sorting nearly 4,000 paper absentee ballots around 9 a.m. Tuesday before taking a break at 4 a.m. Wednesday and resuming 5½ hours later.

Love began scanning the ballots to record the votes around 6 p.m. Wednesday, but he said many ballots had to be hand-counted because printing problems caused many ballots to misfeed through the scanning machine. The first set of unofficial results including absentees was hand tallied and available shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The county elections commission will meet at 10 a.m. Friday to certify the election results.