[February 09, 2010] Tega Cay voters set to fill vacant city council seat Tweet TEGA CAY, Feb 06, 2010 (Fort Mill Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A former city employee and a Realtor are set to face off in a special Tega Cay election Tuesday, Feb. 9, to fill a city council seat that was held by Mayor George Sheppard. Contenders for the at-large seat are Douglas "Doug" Lee Collins and former councilman John Robert Dervay. Although his name is not on the ballot because he did not file to run, resident Chris Landvik-Larsen has put up campaign signs recently and says he is encouraging voters to cast write-in ballots for him. Political newcomer Collins is owner and broker in charge of EDI Real Estate in Tega Cay. The U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served 38 years in the Navy, said he is the right person for the vacant council seat. "I spent 38 years serving my country, and I feel compelled to spend some time serving my community," said Collins, 59, the father of five adult children, who retired from the Navy as a captain. "I love Tega Cay. It's a great place to live." Though Collins does not have any political experience, he is a member of the National Association of Realtors, Charlotte Better Business Bureau and the Regional Realtors Association. Dervay, 65, an incumbent until this week, has a long history with the City of Tega Cay, where he formerly served as the city's zoning administrator, code enforcement officer and secretary with the board of zoning appeals and planning commission. When Dervay retired from the city in 2005, he sought and won a council seat in 2006. Then, last November, he lost his seat by six votes to newly-elected council member Stephen Perkins, who had served a previous term. Dervay is hoping his absence from the council is short-lived. "I have been involved in helping the city evolve since 1996," said Dervay, the father of two adult children. "I am by far the most experienced guy working in government on the council. I've got a long track record of getting things done. I'd like to continue to help the city evolve." Collins and Dervay mostly agree on the steps Tega Cay, aka the "Tree City," should take to evolve. Collins wants city leaders reduce spending. "We have a significant budget, and we have limited resources," Collins said. "We need to run the city as any businessman would run his business. You can't spend more than you make or you'll go bankrupt. We don't have the luxury to print money in Tega Cay." Dervay also wants to put the brakes on city spending. He takes issue with last year's contingency fund -- money the city allots for emergencies -- that dropped below $7,000. "We are in a recession," Dervay said. "God knows what the economy will do, and we still balanced a budget with a skimpy contingency. When anything goes bump in the night with this year's budget, we might not have the money to cover it." Collins and Dervay also want to create avenues to foster better communication between city officials and residents. "The goal is to better inform the public," Collins said. "A lot of times citizens will ask questions at city council meetings and seldom seem to ever get a response. I'd like to see that process improve." Instead, he suggested that a question and answer session occur before the council undertakes new business as opposed to general public comments, normally heard at the end of meetings, he said. Collins also favors airing city council meetings multiple times on local cable access Channel 19 and using other electronic media sources, such as YouTube. "There is a lack of information coming from the city," he said. "It's difficult to find out from the city what's going on." Dervay also wants the city to step up its communication tactics. "While we've come a long way with communications, there's a lot more we could do," he said. "We could do more with our website. We need to update the city's ordinances on our Web site to make it easy for our residents to understand the rules of our community." Like Collins, Dervay wants increased showings of city council and other city-related meeting on Channel 19. "We need to televise more than we do," he said. "While we televise city council meetings live, I'd like to see us repeat those meetings several nights so our residents can understand the issues facing council and the facts we deal with when making decisions." And neither contender favors the city's current budget that came with Tega Cay's first tax increase in more than a decade. "If I had been a councilman, I would have voted against the 3-mill tax increase," Collins said. "We need to better manage our budget." When the council considered the 2009-2010 budget, Dervay voted against it. "We were not making cuts deep enough in the budget to build a bigger contingency to cover unforeseen expenses," Dervay said. "We're not being proactive so we will end up being reactive just like we were last year." And being proactive doesn't involve immediate annexation, Collins said. "We need to manage what we have," Collins said. "We shouldn't bite off more than we can chew. We need to get a handle on the process right now. For the time being, we are good where we are." Council members are paid about $3,600 annually, while the mayor's post earns $6,000. To see more of the Fort Mill Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.fortmilltimes.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Fort Mill Times, S.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]