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Published: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 / Updated: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 04:21 PM

Tega Cay voters to choose mayor, council members

Voters in Tega Cay will go to the polls and cast votes for two of six candidates vying for city council seats and for one of two candidates running for mayor. The Fort Mill Times asked each candidate two questions via a telephone interview. Included below are their answers and a brief background synopsis.

Question 1: How would you propose to grow Tega Cay's contingency fund?

Question 2: What is the component that is key to continuing Tega Cay's progressiveness?

Two Tega Cay residents are seeking the mayorship:

Name: Bob Runde

Age: 68

Family: Wife, Cecelia, and adult sons, David Runde, Robert Runde, Donald Runde and Dennis Runde

Political experience: First elected to the Tega Cay City Council in 2002. He has served as mayor for nearly seven-in-a-half years

Employment: Retired. Formerly owned and operated a medical computer systems business

Question 1: “The only way we're going to grow the contingency fund is through commercial annexation. Our budget is cut to the bare bones.“

Question 2: “We must do commercial annexation and do as much of it as we can over the coming years. The growth we need is not houses. The growth we need is commercial annexation which would improve our tax base without significantly increasing our expenses.”

Name: George Sheppard

Age: 45

Family: Wife, Penny, and daughter, Emma

Political experience: Tega Cay City Council incumbent first elected to the in 2007

Employment: Senior account representative with Bulkley Duntun, a division of International Paper

Question 1: “Some of the ways we're going to grow the contingency is to stop all needless spending and substantially reduce costly fees, including legal fees. I am going to go to the community and ask for the community's advice and support. I want to publish the budget online so the community can view and know where and how their money is being spent.”

Question 2: “Let's complete the current projects we have, i.e. Walmart and the Stonecrest area. Having those completed will enable us to financially grow the city. Having the businesses will allow us to receive and collect business license revenue.”

The following candidates are vying for two at-large council seats:

Name: John Dervay

Age: 65

Family: Adult children, including Shawne Dervay and Shannon Dervay

Political experience: Tega Cay City Council incumbent first elected in 2006

Employment: Retired

Question 1: “My game plan is not to fund wants until we have built a significant contingency to handle things that go bump in the night. We need to work towards a contingency fund that will pay our operating expenses October through January so we won't have to take out a loan to pay our bills. That money could be used to help build the contingency quicker.”

Question 2: “I'd like to see council play a proactive role in attracting businesses into the Stonecrest area in order to increase commercial taxes. I'd like to continue to build a commercial base in Tega Cay to help lower our reliance on single family resident property taxes.”

Name: Thomas Fitzpatrick

Age: 52

Family: Wife, Patricia, and son, Thomas

Political experience: None

Employment: Served 22 years with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection before becoming a stay-at-home father

Question 1: “We have to do a line-by-line review of the budget and make cuts where appropriate.”

Question 2: “They have to get younger people with better ideas in the city government because the people who are running it today it isn't working.”

Name: Dottie Hersey

Age: 51

Family: Husband, David, and daughter, Lauren

Political experience: None

Employment: Attorney and senior contract director

Question 1: “I would scrub the budget with a view toward eliminating non-essential expenditures, such as Fourth of July fireworks and the croquet field. I would plan future budgets around city needs versus city wants. In other words, ensuring the essential services, processes and requirements are met.”

Question 2: “I'm not sure growth is Tega Cay's vision or the desire of the citizens. Assuming growth is the appropriate strategy, the best way to ensure growth is to build residential communities, not necessarily business annexation.”

Name: Keen McHugh

Age: 65

Family: Wife, Nancy Adams, adult children, Chad McHugh, Jill Shughart and Mike McHugh

Political experience: None, but has sat on several corporate boards

Employment: Owner of an international consultation business

Question 1: “I would look at ways to rein in existing spending. If there are not ways to cut expenditures, you've got to raise revenues. If that's in the way of taxes, so be it… It's either cut expenditures or raise taxes.”

Question 2: “The key to Tega Cay growing is to make it monitored growth. Growth for the sake of growth isn't going to work. There's been all kinds of talk about annexation. Annexation requires buying land. In order to do that, you've got to have money, and we don't have money to do that.”

Name: Stephen Perkins

Age: 44

Family: Wife, Shawn, and adult children, Rikki Williams and Stephen Perkins Jr.

Political experience: Former Tega Cay City Councilman who served from November 2003 to July 2006

Employment: Vice president of an insurance company

Question 1: “Moving forward, we need to budget a larger amount of money each year to rebuild our cash surplus. We're going to need to take a look at the existing budget and reduce expenses.”

Question 2: “I will start with getting our fiscal house in order by living within our means and making sure that decisions made moving forward have sound financial reasoning. We need to stop borrowing money to fund projects that we can't pay for out of our general fund. In addition, we need to address the golf food and beverage and conference center operations to ensure that they are running at least at break even or better.”

Name: Katherine Shive

Age: 40

Family: Husband, Gary, and children, Nate and Lizzie.

Political experience: None

Employment: Formerly employed for 15 years in the retail industry before becoming a stay-at-home mother

Question 1: “I would have the council go through the budget, trying to go line-by-line, and see what needs to be cut and go from there. I don't know exactly where to start. I would cut cell phone for the police department. They have radios in their cars. That would save $15,000. I would go line-by-line and determine what's necessary, what's a need and what's a want.”

Question 2: “We have a commercial area. We need to fill the store fronts we already have, (and) get other companies interested in coming to the Stonecrest area. The annexation they keep talking about is going to add more stress to the fire department.”

Compiled by Toya Graham