County Council Updates and Local Government

Happy February, everyone! I hope the first few weeks of the year have treated you all well. Several of you reached out to comment on last month's article about loneliness vs. aloneness. You can see that message here. If you missed it, and I do hope as you've moved into the new year, you've considered how you can personally take responsibility for building meaningful connections with others. It's never too late to start. 

Last year, I tried to give you a good sense of what was happening in Greenville County's government. While most of the news we consume on a day-to-day basis is focused on the national and state level, I firmly believe that the decisions made at the local level are crucial to our daily lives and deserve our attention. We have a unique opportunity to influence what's happening locally because it's, well, local! 

If you're just getting started, check out this summary by Nathaniel Cary at The Post and Courier Greenville about "five of the top stories from 2022 that intersected with Greenville County Council and a look ahead to some of the news expected to make headlines in 2023". 

So far in 2023, Greenville County Council has already elected Councilman Dan Tripp as Chairman and Councilwoman Liz Seman as Vice Chair and is busy plotting a course for the next two years. The new council leadership is busy laying the groundwork for some changes over the coming months, and you can hear from Council Chairman Dan Tripp on a recent episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County here. You can read more about what actions County Council took at their first real meeting of the year here from The Greenville News, Post and Courier, and Greenville Journal. 

As we start a new year, I want to point you back to a resource we referenced about a year ago: Local Governments and Home Rule in South Carolina: A Citizen's Guide. This 2011 publication from Clemson University can give you a great understanding of how decisions work and who's responsible for what in local government. 

Thanks for joining us for another year of making Taylors a place everyone can belong through awareness, advocacy, and action.