Blackwell, Williams spar over campaign funding sources, museums

Sparks flew Monday night as the two Republican candidates for York County Council’s District 6 seat stood before hundreds of voters at the lone debate leading up to the June 12th primary.

[media-credit id=18 align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Incumbent Britt Blackwell sparred with challenger Gary Williams over Williams’ support of former Congressman John Spratt and Blackwell’s alleged efforts to break up the county’s Cultural and Heritage Commission.

The two also disagreed over council voting to abolish changes to the council’s Unified Development Ordinance. Williams said the council threw away years worth of work.

Blackwell, who broke a 3 to 3 tie during the April 23rd meeting, says the county’s developers are better served by starting over on a simpler, streamlined UDO.

Williams said he was unhappy with how Blackwell handled a request to offer a one-time bonus to county employees back in December when the county was running on a nearly 40-million dollar budget surplus.

That particular meeting included a plea from Sheriff Bruce Bryant who said he was losing great people to agencies across the state because he couldn’t afford to pay them more. Blackwell said despite the county’s budget surplus, it was not the right time to be revising the budget so close to a new fiscal year.

Nearly a third of the debate questions focused on the county’s Cultural & Heritage Commission, with challenger Gary Williams defending the commission and incumbent council chairman Britt Blackwell defending efforts to shrink the commission’s board.

Williams said he offered the commission’s books up for review several times to the council, and each time, the request was declined.

Blackwell said by the time the commission’s books came before the new council in January 2012, the matter had already been passed off to the State Attorney General’s Office.

And today, the matter still remains in the hands of Attorney General Alan Wilson, after State Representative Ralph Norman sent a letter to the state’s top prosecutor asking for the museum foundation’s assets to be frozen pending an additional audit.

Blackwell, a local eye doctor, and Williams, the head of a 250-employee student loan collection agency, are vying for the GOP nomination for the District 6 seat. The primary is set for June 12, and the General Election, November 6.

LINK: Live tweets from Monday’s debate

WEB EXTRA: Full audio of Monday’s debate, in its entirety.