VOTE411 Voter Guide

I was elected to represent District 19 in 2022 and now serve as Chairman of Greenville County Council. That experience has given me a firsthand understanding of the issues facing our county, from roads, infrastructure, and public safety to land use, budgeting, housing, and responsible growth.

Before public service, I spent most of my career in the private sector as a professional musician and small-business owner. Those experiences taught me how to work with people, solve problems, manage uncertainty, and communicate clearly.

Most importantly, serving on Council has reinforced that this job is about listening to residents, asking the right questions, and finding practical solutions while considering how today’s decisions will affect Greenville County for years to come.

The biggest issue facing Greenville County is managing growth responsibly. Our population has grown rapidly, and that puts pressure on roads, infrastructure, public safety, housing, and existing communities.

My approach is to make sure development and infrastructure decisions are connected. We should invest in roads and public safety, protect the character of established and rural communities, respect property rights, and remove unnecessary government barriers that increase housing costs. At the same time, we must remain disciplined with taxpayer dollars.

The goal should not be to stop growth, but to shape it so Greenville remains a great place to live for the people already here and those who come after us.

County Council should focus on removing unnecessary barriers to housing while encouraging development where roads, utilities, jobs, and services can support it. That means streamlining permitting, reviewing regulations that unnecessarily increase construction costs, and using targeted incentives and public-private partnerships to create workforce housing.

I do not believe the solution is simply adding density everywhere. Housing policy should respect existing neighborhoods, property rights, and infrastructure limitations. We should also encourage rehabilitation of existing housing and work with private and nonprofit partners to expand attainable homeownership and rental options.

Our goal should be more housing choices without sacrificing responsible growth.

I will advocate for a transportation plan that prioritizes existing roads, congestion relief, safety, and infrastructure needs created by growth. We should continue using objective road-condition data to direct paving dollars where they are needed most, while coordinating projects geographically to make taxpayer dollars go further.

I also want stronger coordination between transportation and land-use decisions so development does not continually outpace road capacity. That includes identifying problem intersections and corridors earlier, addressing drainage and bridge needs, and working with state and regional partners on projects outside the County’s direct control.

As a native of Greenville since age five, I've watched this community grow through the 1990s into what it is today, and I stay closely connected to what residents need now and for the future. After my father passed when I was seven, my mother raised four children alone — and that experience taught me firsthand how much families depend on strong schools, public services, and local jobs.

For the past 17 years, I've managed teams of 100 to 300 employees. Listening to their concerns — childcare, affordability, transportation, healthcare, and community ties like church and civic groups — has given me a real understanding of what people need. At the same time, balancing budgets and meeting priorities has taught me the importance of staying engaged in every part of an organization, not just my own lane. That combination gives me real-world experience managing money responsibly and making sure it delivers the results it's meant to.

Affordability, infrastructure, and education are connected. On affordability, I'd push developer incentives for real affordable housing while keeping zoning fair so residents aren't priced out. On infrastructure, roads get quick patches that develop the same potholes again. I'd demand real repairs, inspections, and easier pothole reporting. On education, the county just flipped a fee revenue split, from taking 30 percent and sending 60 percent to schools, to now taking 80 percent and leaving schools and fire districts 20 percent, as enrollment grows 800 students a year. I'd reverse that and fund a real growth plan.

First, I'd pursue zoning changes shaped by what residents actually want, not top-down mandates, while requiring traffic and commute impact reviews for new apartments and subdivisions. Second, rather than build a new bureaucracy, I'd expand funding and county support for proven partners like the Redevelopment Authority and CommunityWorks, who already deliver affordable homes and down payment assistance. Third, where we use county-owned land as an incentive, I'd require real accountability: a recorded deed restriction capping resale price, income verification for buyers, and the county's right to repurchase at that restricted price if an owner tries to sell. That keeps land donated for affordability actually affordable, for this buyer and the next one.

Rush hour congestion has exploded as Greenville has grown, and county council needs to plan transportation ahead of that growth, not years behind it. I spent time riding the Greenlink bus system myself and talking with riders, and the problems were clear. There's no service connecting smaller cities like Travelers Rest and Greer, the system is too centralized around a single route, and wait times between buses stretch from thirty minutes to over an hour. Weekend service falls apart too, with Saturday service ending around six thirty and no service at all on Sundays, even though many service industry workers rely on it for weekend shifts and are left with rideshares as their only option. I'd push to expand routes between our smaller cities,