Water commission election is only contest on the ballot

Next week voters will be hitting the polls to cast their ballot in the City of Charleston’s Municipal General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 2. There is only one race on the ballot for Daniel Island and Cainhoy voters and that seat is an unopposed and uncontested race.

 

The race for the Commissioner of Public Works has only one name on the ballot. That individual is incumbent David Rivers, a current commissioner and likely a foreseeable one, barring the improbable victory of a write-in candidate.

 

Rivers serves as the vice chairman on the Charleston Water System Board of Commissioners, an independent public utility where three commissioners are elected at-large by majority vote and serve six-year terms. Rivers was first elected to the position in 2003 and is about to complete a five-year term that began in 2016.  

 

The board acts as an oversight and policy-making body and has full authority to approve contracts, purchase property, and authorize water and wastewater rate adjustments. The utility’s daily operations are carried out by a staff of 430 associates.

 

Rivers is also a professor and director of the public information and community outreach at MUSC.

 

Over the past three decades, Rivers held senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Energy and the District of Columbia government, to name a few. He is also as a board member of the South Carolina Aquarium.  

 

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and councilmember Keith Waring of District 7 are ex-officio members of the board. Also on the board are Chairman Thomas Pritchard and Kathleen Wilson.