During the breakfast, Gov. Mark Sanford, Sen. Vincent Sheheen, Rep. Laurie Slade Funderburk, Rep. Anton Gunn and Sen. Joel Lourie, as well as Congressman John Spratt, detailed several initiatives they would like to see implemented in the near future and answered questions from the crowd.

Sanford spoke to the audience about his desire to see reform of the Employment Security Commission, as well as an imposition of spending limits for state government and the formation of a Department of Administration.

Two weeks ago, council members passed a resolution asking Kershaw County Council to enact a countywide lifting of South Carolina's blue law restricting the sale of certain products before 1:30 p.m. on Sundays, either by ordinance or through a public referendum on the November general election ballot.

Despite that, council will take up first reading of a series of 16 ordinances Tuesday that will designate many of the Sundays remaining in 2010 as either holidays or special event days in order to temporarily suspend the restriction.

"This is the only method the city has available to suspend 'hours of operation' restrictions," City Manager Kevin Bronson told council.

The ordinances were not originally on Tuesday's agenda when the matter was discussed during a work session Thursday afternoon. Camden Mayor Jeffrey Graham asked that the items be placed on the agenda. Councilman Walter Long agreed with the move.

The purchases are being taken up as separate ordinances, which council will consider on first reading. It will take a second reading of the ordinances, presumably two weeks from Tuesday, before the purchases would be completed.

"I've considered it for a long time over the past few years," Ray said during a recent interview. "I've lived in this area pretty much all my life. I'm looking to get the council back to where we have one common goal, and that's the betterment of Kershaw County. Sometimes you need to put your individual preferences aside to improve the county."

Ray, 42, works as a purchasing materials manager for Oak-Mitsui, a producer of copper foils, aluminum bonded copper and advanced interconnect material for electronic interconnect applications. He's married with two children. This is his first bid for public office.

The case against Jeff Galardo, 27, was developed out of Operation Flicker, a national child pornography investigation conducted by federal law enforcement.

The investigation identified Web sites that sold access to Web sites offering images of child pornography. These sites used online credit card payment services to effect payment.

It's time for Census 2010, the every-10-year count of how many people live in the United States of America. It starts on the local level, counting the number of people living in the incorporated municipalities of Bethune, Elgin and Camden and then all the people in the rest of Kershaw County. Those numbers, in turn, feed into the population of our state and, then, the nation.

An accurate count is especially necessary on the local level because it is census data that sets out how much money the federal government hands out to states and how much in state funds are given to counties and municipalities.

Bobby Bowers, chair of the S.C. Complete Count Committee and director of S.C. Budget and Control Board's Office of Research and Statistics said South Carolina had the nation's second lowest initial response rate to the census questionnaire in 2000. Alaska came in last.

Rising first- through fifth-graders may stay at their current school if parents are able to provide transportation, while rising kindergartners will be required to attend schools in their attendance zones. Rising kindergarten siblings of current students will be grandfathered in next year.

During public comment, Angela Coleman said she felt as if board members were not looking out for the best interest of the students when making redistricting decisions.

A lifelong resident of Kershaw County, he was raised the Buffalo-Mt. Pisgah community where his father, Skinny Gardner, taught in the public school system and coached state championship basketball teams. Gardner is a graduate of Mt Pisgah High School and the University of North Carolina-Pembroke, where he earned a degree in accounting.

Gardner has worked as an accountant, taught accounting and coached basketball in the public schools. He has owned and operated Sports Connection for the past 23 years.

During a council finance committee meeting Wednesday, KCSD Superintendent Dr. Frank Morgan and Dr. Charles King II, chair of the Kershaw County Board of Trustees' finance committee, proposed a revenue agreement equivalent to one used in previous years. They also discussed reducing debt service millage by exchanging a corresponding increase in operating millage by drastically altering the one-to-one laptop initiative the district began six years ago.

The revenue agreement is based on a formula dividing current local taxes by the number of students in the district in the current year and applying that rate of spending to projected revenue in the subsequent year. An adjustment is then made for inflation. The school district would like for this formula to be the minimum funding set by county council.

The challenge with any agreement is implementation. Councilman Stephen Smoak and KCSD Finance Director Donnie Wilson said the agreement isn't any different than the "gentleman's agreement" of years past -- one that essentially ended last fall for the current fiscal year.

But when she recently learned that she is now a finalist for S.C. Teacher of the Year, Johnson said her reaction was a bit different.

"I couldn't do anything but scream," Johnson said. "Mr. (State Superintendent of Education Jim) Rex called and told me the news on Friday afternoon, and I just screamed. That's all I could do."

Johnson, who teaches fourth grade at Lugoff Elementary School, was one of only five teachers chosen from nominees who represent more than 80 school districts. As part of the selection process, Johnson and four other teachers from Greenville, York School District 3, Sumter School District 17 and Spartanburg School District 7 will travel to Columbia for interviews with a seven-person committee.

The approximately $300,000 general fund deficit for the year that ended July 31, 2009, wasn't that bad given the circumstances, said Marc Wood, an accountant with Sheheen, Hancock & Godwin of Camden. Total revenues were approximately $17 million while expenditures were nearly $17.3 million.

"From all the state budget cuts, that's really not bad -- county council ought to be commended for the job they did on holding down expenses - cutting some areas where cuts could be made," said Wood.

In his first term on council, Long proposed, and with the support of council, ultimately passed several key articles of legislation including combining the city and county election process, a ban on smoking in public places, and a new façade grant program for local businesses.

Board Attorney Charles Baxley said advertisements for the position will be posted across the state to facilitate the department in finding the most qualified individual.

"We are making a commitment to the public to find a qualified individual to fill this position," Baxley said.

The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. March 26.

"After that deadline, we will meet, interview, and run background checks on all qualified candidates," Baxley said. "A decision will be made when the board feels they have found the best candidate."