Kinard-Shelton takes on new role as councilwoman

PROSPERITY — McKeva Kinard-Shelton has always loved Prosperity. It’s where she was born and raised – the place she calls home. Many people in the community already know her through her career in law enforcement and other personal endeavors. Now people in the Prosperity community will see even more of Kinard-Shelton as she takes on the role as the Town of Prosperity’s newest (and first female) councilwoman.

Kinard-Shelton’s journey into local government first began in 2021 when she ran for mayor of Prosperity.

“After I didn’t win, I realized I didn’t understand the business/budget part. I feel like I had the community part down, but I felt like I needed to learn more,” she said.

The more Kinard-Shelton thought about it and the more people encouraged her to get her feet wet in local government, she decided to start as a council person and maybe run for a role like mayor further down the road.

“I listened to people who said similar things and decided to try the council seat. I don’t plan to come in and make any changes – just learn how the system works and go from there,” she said.

She had support from a plethora of people in the community including Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster, former Clinton Police Chief Sonny Ledda and Prosperity Police Chief Wesley Palmore.

“He (Ledda) found out that I preached and he kept saying he would come to church. I gave him the information and one morning he just showed up. I wasn’t even working for him anymore, but he took the time out of his busy day and that’s priceless. Chief Palmore was my supervisor as a resource officer – he encouraged me to be great. He made me realize that it was time to come behind the scenes and just do me,” she said. “Speaking with people was easy. I felt comfortable knocking on doors and talking to people. The hard part was getting people to register to vote, whether they would go out and vote or whether they would even take me seriously.”

Kinard-Shelton, who was recently sworn in alongside newly named Mayor Robert Martin and re-elected Councilman Mike Hawkins, she said it still has doesn’t feel real to officially be a councilwoman.

“I don’t think it will feel real until I’m doing the role. For me, it was just about showing that I grew up on Langford Street and I wanted ordinary people to feel like they can go out and reach their goals – you don’t have to be from a two-parent home in order to succeed” she said.

While she doesn’t plan on changing much as a member of Council, Kinard-Shelton said she would like to see the Prosperity Police Department have the resources and tools to compete with surrounding departments. As a current police officer, she said it’s important to keep up with the times. She added that she also wants to continue getting to know the community.

“I plan to go around and still visit the people in the community. I don’t want them to feel like I’m only coming around during the election – I want to be a visible council person. I want to change the image people have about politicians – not all of us just want to be in a parade or in front of news cameras,” she said. “But I am very excited about the new role and eager to get to know the people I’m working with on council as council members and as friends. I thank God for this because without him none of this would have been possible.”