Council District 3 is trading one woman on Statesboro City Council interested in promoting local small businesses for another as Councilmember Venus Mack, who did not seek re-election, leaves office at year-end and is succeeded by Councilmember-elect Ginny Hendley.

Near the beginning of the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, council meeting – the last scheduled for 2023 – Mayor Jonathan McCollar presented a framed certificate of appreciation to Mack for her four years of service on the council.

“When Ms. Mack was elected in 2019, there was a lot things that we wanted to get done as an organization as we laid out a vision for the city in its entirety, and I want to say that through her hard work and the hard work of the council members up here as a whole, in the past four years, if you can’t see anything else, you can see that this city has gone through a heck of a lot of change.”

Accomplishments he listed for the city leadership together include major renovations turning Luetta Moore Park and the Grady Street Park into “new parks” and establishment of a new bus system, Statesboro Area Transit.

“We’ve got infrastructure going up all around the city. We’ve seen new business districts created,” McCollar continued. “We have seen a lot of growth within this city. And what I want to say to Councilmember Mack, thank you so much for having the courage to put your name on the ballot and being able to serve.”

Returning to her seat, Mack made some prepared remarks, beginning, “Statesboro, thank you for granting me the privilege to serve,” and calling service on council one of her greatest accomplishments.

“The legacy I have created not only makes me proud, but it makes my family and our community proud,” Mack said. “It lets the generation under me know that anything is possible with hard work and dedication.”

 

Three made history

She thanked city staff members for their work and dedication. Referring to District 2 Councilmember Paulette Chavers and District 5 Councilmember Shari Barr, Mack said, “To my council sisters, together we made history.”

Barr, Chavers and Mack were first elected to Statesboro City Council in the fall of 2019, when they outpolled and subsequently replaced the three men then serving from their respective districts. An instant majority on the five-member council, they became the council’s first women members known from Statesboro’s more than 200 years of existence and more than 100 years with an active city government. Statesboro’s one female mayor so far, Jan Moore, was elected in 2013 and served four years, through 2017.

 

Business commission

Less than two hours before her last meeting, City Hall hosted a farewell reception for Mack.

“My biggest achievement is creating a Business Commission,” Mack told the Statesboro Herald. “That is one of the things that I’m most proud of, and also getting the council pay raise.”

Mack, a licensed cosmetologist who works as a stylist at the Glam Bar Salon, a family business she previously owned, spearheaded the city’s creation of the Statesboro Business Commission as a sounding board for local entrepreneurs.

The council raise, approved by a 3-2 council vote July 18 and set to take effect Jan. 2, increases the salary for regular, district members from the previous $7,575 a year to $11,000, and the mayor pro tempore’s salary from $9,342 to $13,500. The mayor pro tem is chosen by the district members every two years from among themselves.

The mayor’s salary remains unchanged at $18,500 after McCollar asked that it be left out of the raise resolution.

Mack said she proposed the council pay increase to make it possible for more individuals to consider becoming candidates and serve.

“That was the main purpose of it,” she told the Herald. “It had nothing to do with me. It was all about allowing other people who want to serve to be able to serve in this capacity.”

The job demands more time than people who haven’t served may realize, she said.

“It’s very demanding. It takes up a lot of your time, especially if you’re a business owner, you have to shut your business down to come to the meetings and go to trainings,” Mack said. She also noted that the pay had previously remained unchanged for nearly 20 years.

After Hendley announced as a candidate and signed up during qualifying week in August, Mack announced at the end of that week that she would not seek re-election. With Hendley as the only candidate, the actual District 3 election was cancelled.

 

Hendley on board Jan. 2

Hendley’s swearing-in is scheduled for the start of the 9 a.m. Jan. 2 council meeting. So are the swearings-in for the 2024-2027 term of Barr, who stood unopposed for re-election, and Chavers, who won re-election over a challenger in a Nov. 7 election that really involved only District 2.

Hendley attended an orientation provided for her in mid-December at City Hall by City Manager Charles Penny and a majority of the department heads, such as the police and fire chiefs and human resources director and other staff members, including the city attorney and city clerk.

“So I met a lot of the people I’ll be working with and they kind of brought me up to speed on some things and oriented me,” Hendley said in a phone interview. “It was just very welcoming, and I felt just overwhelmed with graciousness and love from them.”

She has also met and talked with Mack.

“I’m proud of the work she’s done, and she’s really paved the way,” Hendley said. “She and I have spoken and we’ve talked about how when the three women were elected just a few years ago, she really paved the way for me, because I think people have seen what women can do.

A Statesboro native, Hendley attained a degree in communications from Mercer University and returned home to work at Hendley Properties, the business founded by her father, Ray Hendley. As its property manager, she manages more than 500 rental houses and apartments.

She has also founded several businesses, including current clothing boutiques Virginia Luxe and Virginia Curvy, both of which she owns, and boutique-style thrift store Virginia Love, which recently launched with charitable purposes.

“I’ve recently been getting into the entrepreneurship field,” Hendley said. “I’ve opened up several boutiques recently, and I just love bringing new and exciting things to Statesboro. I’ve learned a lot from doing that myself that I want to be able to pass along and help others who might want to start small businesses. …

“I just think local people with local ideas are fabulous, so I’d like to see a lot of local entrepreneurship and building of businesses,” she said. “I want to do a lot to bring the city together and help the city. They’ve already paved the way. They’ve done a lot so far.”

Hendley, 37, was recognized earlier this year as one of Statesboro’s “20 Under 40” business and community leaders in the program hosted by the Statesboro Herald with honorees highlighted in an annual magazine.

The Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce also selected her for its 2024 Leadership Bulloch class. She remains in the Leadership Bulloch program and in the businesswomen’s group Women Inspiring and Networking, of which she is a founding member.