William “Bump” Roddey, current York County District 4 County Councilman and Winthrop University alumnus, is running to be Rock Hill’s mayor. In 2017, he lost the mayoral election to the current mayor and mayoral candidate John Gettys in a runoff election, despite winning more votes in the general election.
To Roddey, the most important issues impacting Rock Hill are government debt, increased cost of living, the lack of affordable housing, low levels of governmental transparency, high crime rates and the lack of incentives to start small businesses.
He believes he is uniquely situated to address these issues as both a York County council member and a member of the working class.
“Our debt limits are what they are, our candidates are who they are, and I bring ten years of experience in the government arena,” Roddey said. “So I’m no newcomer to this arena, and I won’t be in over my head. … I think my views and goals line up more with everyday working citizens of Rock Hill than any candidate in this race.”
According to Roddey, Rock Hill is over $450 million in debt, despite having a population of around 75,000 people. He says this is an “excessive” amount of debt, which he claims is “way out of control.”
“I bring a lot of fiscally responsible policies, and I get that for being on the county council for … 10 plus years, where we have structure when it comes to our spending,” Roddey said.
The cost of living in Rock Hill, according to Roddey, is high due in part to “outrageously high” utility bills.
“In just four years, our utility profits doubled from $17 [million] to $34 million on the backs of our taxpayers, who obviously are struggling due to our economic conditions and the pandemic.”
Also contributing to the high cost of living is the lack of affordable housing in Rock Hill. Roddey mirrors SC Housing’s assessment of the problem in the 2019 South Carolina Housing Needs Assessment, Volume 1: State Overview.
According to the report, the average wage in Rock Hill is $7.23 less than the “housing wage,” which is the wage someone must make to “rent a two-bedroom apartment at HUD fair market rent without spending more than 30 percent of their income.”
“The city has to take initiative to aggressively seek some land … and be able to offer that land to developers … to build either single-family homes or apartments where they are bound … to keep the home sale price within a certain range or the rental rates within a certain range,” Roddey said.
Another issue Roddey cites is the lack of transparency in the Rock Hill government. Information is withheld from the public, he says, even in council meetings. As an example, he used the city’s recent deal with the Carolina Panthers.
“Nobody knew what was going on with the Panthers’ deal until the Panthers’ deal was signed,” Roddey said. “When residents discovered that the city of Rock Hill had given up 100% of its tax revenue for the Carolina Panthers to come here, that really didn’t sit well with a lot of people.”
High crime rates, as well as law enforcement accountability, are two interconnected issues Roddey believes are important for the future of Rock Hill.
“Me, working alongside Chief Watts, we can address head–on our troubled spots, and I can speak to these troubled areas to raise the accountability on both sides of the law: the citizen’s responsibility as well as the responsibility of our officers,” Roddey said.
While the city has done a lot to incentivize large businesses moving into town, Roddey said the city has not done enough to promote small business creation.
“One of the things I definitely have looked at and hammered was being able to offset some of the start-up fees that the city imposes,” Roddey said. “Licencing fees, utility fees, deposits, all those fees that come to the city, that the city controls. We can look at those as ways to incentivize people to, or make it easier for them to, get into business.”
Roddey was born and raised in Rock Hill, graduating from Northwest High School in 1992. After high school, he went to York Technical College for two years, obtaining an associate degree. He transferred to Winthrop to complete his bachelor’s degree in economics, where he graduated in 1996.
He has worked at the same paper mill in Rock Hill since his graduation from Winthrop, and he still works there alongside his responsibilities with the county council.
