After 40 years as Goose Creek’s mayor, Michael Heitzler was ousted by two-year city council member Greg Habib.
Habib - 1612. Heitzler - 1544.
Elected to the city’s three city council seats were Debra Green-Fletcher 1545, Corey McClary 1689 and Jerry Tekac 1739.
Habib said it was time for a change for Goose Creek.
Habib, general manager of Charleston Steel and Metal, ran a campaign that embraced economic development as a way to fund the city’s expenses like hiring police and firefighters. He said it was “embarrassing” that Goose Creek had not lost opportunities to land big corporation like Volvo and Boeing to neighboring municipalities.
Heitzler, a retired educator and former Goose Creek High School principal, expressed gratitude for having served in public office for 50 years. He was elected mayor shortly after moving to the city from Hawaii.
This year’s election was athe largest for Goose Creek, boasting more than 3,000 voters. About 20,000 Goose Creek residents are registered to vote.
Thing went awry early Tuesday when the voting machines malfunctioned before the day started. Residents used paper ballots for more than six hours.
Berkeley County Election Comission employees sifted through paper ballots for nearly three hours. More than a hundred ballots would not scan, so a three-member group had to “duplicate” the ballots. One person read aloud the intended mark, another filled it in, and a third person provided another set of eyes.
