Personal Injury Attorneyin Camden, SC.

Only one council member will remain by December, as four will vacate their positions, including the mayor.

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CAMDEN, S.C. — The composition of the Camden City Council will look quite different in the new year. Only one of the current five council members, Hamilton Boykin, will remain in office.

Boykin will be joined by three newcomers—William Wilkes, a Camden native, and Phil Elliott, a retired member of the Camden Fire Department—who were elected as council members along with Vincent Sheheen who was elected as mayor.

Sheheen, a former state senator, was unavailable for an interview before our deadline for this story. But he outlined his priorities in a Facebook post back in April. He emphasized stabilizing utility bills, attracting a new grocery store to the area, and encouraging affordable housing.

This change in leadership follows the decision of current Mayor Alfred Mae Drakeford and Councilmember Stephen Smoak not to seek re-election. Councilmember Joanna Craig lost her seat in the election and Jeffery Graham who will vacate his seat following his win for Senate District 35 last Tuesday.

A special election will be held at a later date for Graham's seat.

In interviews with News19, Elliott and Wilkes outlined their major goals for Camden's future. Both men emphasized the importance of managing the city's growth, particularly in terms of utility costs and development.

"I have grandkids that I want to see grow up here and I want to keep Camden Camden," Elliott said. 'That’s why I got interested. A couple of things Camden’s faced with some high utility rates right now with water, electricity, and sewage, and all and I am looking forward to getting in there to see what we can do to help our citizens out with that."

Wilkes, who has deep roots in the community, agreed that responsible growth was essential for the city's prosperity. "Certainly Camden’s going to continue to grow. We want that we want Camden to prosper. But we also want to create a Camden that works for everyone, and when you have unbridled development that outpaces responsible growth, at the end of the day, the only people that end up benefiting from that are developers."

Elliott added, "You’ve got to grow to keep support the community, but it needs to be controlled growth, I want to get in there and look at the plans that's been made so far. Now, We have a moratorium on building that will give us a little time to meet with council to come up with a better plan to allow the growth to make it be a controlled growth."

The newly elected council members will take office on December 10.

A date for the special election to fill the seat left by Graham’s move to the state senate has not yet been set.

The city also welcomed Matt DeWitt to the vacated city manager position over the summer.