This Week in Landrum…..
This Week in Landrum
From the City Administrator’s Office • Monday, July 27, 2026
A Note from the Administrator
Over the past few weeks, the Post and Courier has been publishing an investigative series called Townfall, and if you have any interest in how South Carolina cities are actually run, it is essential reading. The series maps what its reporters call “accountability deserts” across the state: towns where annual audits go unfinished for years, professional staff turnover faster than institutional memory can hold, local newspapers have disappeared, and cronyism or outright corruption move into the vacuum left behind. It is uncomfortable reporting. It should be. And in Landrum, I would encourage it as required reading for anyone who cares about the future of this city.
The specifics are sobering. Roughly one in four of South Carolina’s 271 municipalities are behind on the annual audits state law requires. Some are more than a decade behind. Newberry County’s town of Peak is fifteen years overdue. Saluda County’s Ward is seventeen years overdue and holds the state’s record. Elloree, Bonneau, Cottageville, Calhoun Falls, Lake City, Pelion, and Hampton County are all named. The roll call runs through communities much like ours in scale, history, and pressure. The Post and Courier estimates that audit-delinquent towns have collectively left more than nine million dollars in state funding on the table because the state treasurer withholds funds from cities that do not turn in their books. Multiple towns are in outright fiscal or legal crisis. In one North Carolina comparison the series cites, an entire municipality was formally dissolved.
Small towns are disproportionately affected, and the reporting is clear about why. Qualified municipal finance staff are aging out and not being replaced. Regional newspapers have collapsed, leaving no one to notice when things start to drift. Elected leaders in small towns are often part-time volunteers doing their best without the training or bandwidth to catch problems early. Once a town falls behind, the compounding effect of missed audits, staff turnover, and lost institutional memory can trap it in what the reporters call a “failure doom loop,” where cynicism deepens, honest officials leave, and it becomes even harder to climb out.
Landrum is on none of those lists. We are current on our audits, our staff and Council are engaged, and the internal work of this office is oriented explicitly around not becoming another headline in a series like this one. Almost everything I have written about in this letter over the past several months, from publishing agendas a week in advance, to the Classification and Compensation Study, to updating the business license process, to the ongoing planning and zoning inventory, to standing up International Property Maintenance Code enforcement, to on-boarding a professional IT provider, to cleanly transitioning the clerk’s office, to formally posting the permanent City Administrator position, is exactly the daily practice that keeps a small town off that map. It is unglamorous, it is unrewarded in the short term, and it is the single most important thing a City Hall does. The Townfall reporting is a useful, uncomfortable reminder of what the alternative looks like.
Being off that list is not a permanent status. It is a daily practice. Every year we close the books on time. Every audit we complete on schedule. Every agenda that publishes a week ahead of its meeting. Every ordinance we update to match state law. Every staff member we train and support so that institutional knowledge does not walk out the door. Those are the small, repeated actions that separate a healthy small city from a failing one. The Townfall series is a mirror, and this office intends to hold it up to itself frequently. I would encourage every resident to read at least the flagship story and to hold us to the standards it describes.
Below you will find a number of updates from this week that speak to the same underlying picture: Council’s direction at the July work session to draft a data center moratorium ordinance, continued work with private and public partners on green space conservation opportunities including the Frolich Property, the current close-out of Fiscal Year 2025-2026 and the October start of our independent third-party audit, and a short note on FLOCK license plate reader cameras (which have been in the regional news as another live case study in whether accountability infrastructure works).
As I have noted the past several weeks, we are inside an intentional transition, and Deputy City Administrator April Williams will be sharing, and then taking over, authorship of this letter in the coming weeks. As a reminder, I am serving in this interim role part-time while continuing my law practice in North Carolina. I am generally in the office at City Hall on weekday mornings.
A Note from the Deputy City Administrator
JJ leaves such large shoes to fill, and his weekly updates are always spot on every week. Sometimes, in government, we must tell people answers that they don’t care to hear. People want to do something particular with their property that is not allowed or other people don’t want others to utilize their property by right. I have worked in several local government jurisdictions and those are universal cries from all sides. It is a tough place to be sometimes.
While internally, the city is going through some significant changes and transitions, so is the actual city. There are new businesses opening and plans for a new school. There are housing developments that are outside of the city that will, most likely, become a part of the city at some point. There is a huge parcel of land that is being annexed into the city that will never be developed in a big way. But the one thing that stays the same here is that we are always working to better ourselves, learn more and invest in our staffing while also working to balance some of the growth in the area. Some folks love the change, others not so much. We are always here to listen. We want to hear your concerns, worries and appreciation.
Last week was a week of small victories for the city. Not that we made major changes or did anything grand, but simple things such as a citizen made an effort to come in and say we did a good job for them and another group donated to the Farmer’s Market. These are the small, behind the scenes activities that many take for granted, but we absolutely love here at City Hall. These are also the motivations for working so hard to avoid the townfalls that JJ mentions in his part of the notes this week. We want to stay off those lists and remain on the ones that tout Landrum as one of the friendliest places to live in or most visited small town in the area. Landrum gets in your blood, and it leaves such a mark on your soul and every single person at City Hall, from the police to the streets/maintenance folks truly love to be here.
A Note on FLOCK License Plate Reader Cameras
If the Townfall series is a case study in accountability infrastructure breaking down, the recent regional coverage of FLOCK license plate reader cameras is a case study in accountability infrastructure working. FLOCK cameras are automated license plate readers used by law enforcement. They photograph vehicle license plates as vehicles pass, run those plates against databases of vehicles associated with active investigations (stolen cars, AMBER Alerts, wanted subjects, missing persons), and alert officers when there is a match.
The regional news over the past several weeks has included the termination of two Greer police officers and two Greenville County Sheriff’s Office employees after departmental audits detected policy violations in how they queried their FLOCK systems, along with the intentional destruction of two FLOCK camera poles inn several jurisdictions. The concerns behind those stories, about surveillance, privacy, and the potential for individual abuse, are legitimate. What often gets lost in the headlines is this: in each of the personnel cases, the misuse was caught by the system’s own audit tools and internal review, and the responding agencies terminated the employees and disclosed the outcome publicly. That is not a failure of oversight. That is oversight functioning exactly as designed. Every query into a FLOCK system is logged, attributed to a specific user, and available for audit. The technology is not the story; the accountability infrastructure around it is.
What Happened This Week
• At the July Council work session, Council discussed a proposed data center moratorium and directed staff to prepare a draft ordinance for first reading at the August Council meeting. The purpose is to pause data center development while the city updates its zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan to address facilities of that scale, power draw, and water demand. To be clear: there are no proposed data centers in Landrum. A moratorium is a proactive pause, not a permanent ban.
• Continued work with private and public partners on green space conservation, including ongoing conversations around the Frolich Property. A city with real growth pressure has to be intentional about what it protects; green space is often the easiest thing to lose and the hardest thing to get back.
• Continued Fiscal Year 2025-2026 close-out activities, with our third-party independent audit scheduled to begin in October, as it does every year. Landrum is current on its audits and intends to stay that way.
• Continued recruitment for the permanent City Administrator, including active outreach through MASC and other professional networks. Applications are being received and processed on a rolling basis.
• Continued rollout planning for the International Property Maintenance Code enforcement program, including public-facing outreach materials and internal workflow.
• Continued planning and zoning inventory and assessment, in coordination with Deputy City Administrator April Williams and the City Attorney.
• Continued on-boarding of our new IT provider, Acumen.
• Continued implementation planning for the new municipal court system, which must be in place by December 31, 2026.
• Continued one-on-one outreach with business owners working through this year’s business licensing process, and continued progress on collecting overdue business licenses.
• Continued monitoring and communication around the extreme heat, including internal coordination on employee safety for staff working outdoors and continued outreach to check on vulnerable residents.
• Continued transition planning between the Interim City Administrator and Deputy City Administrator April Williams, including handoff of this letter.
• Continued staff coordination on the Saluda Grade Trail.
What We’re Working on Now
• Preparing the data center moratorium ordinance for first reading at the August Council meeting, together with a companion review of zoning and comprehensive plan provisions that would need to be updated during the moratorium window.
• Finalizing Fiscal Year 2025-2026 close-out and preparing internal materials for the October engagement with our third-party independent auditors.
• Continued engagement with private and public partners on green space opportunities, including the Frolich Property.
• Active recruitment and screening for the permanent City Administrator, with preparation for Council review of candidates in the weeks ahead.
• Ongoing commitment to timely annual audits, transparent financial reporting, and full compliance with South Carolina municipal reporting requirements.
• Monitoring statewide and regional developments on data center moratoriums and related land-use issues.
• Continued stand-up of the International Property Maintenance Code enforcement program.
• Continued planning and zoning inventory and assessment.
• Continued implementation planning for the new municipal court system.
• Continued on-boarding of our new IT provider, Acumen.
• Continued internal work on next steps from the Classification and Compensation Study Report following budget adoption.
• Ongoing maintenance and improvement discussions with Spartanburg County Parks and Recreation District.
• Continued coordination with School District One staff, architects, and engineers on the proposed site plans for the new school.
• Continued engagement with the South Carolina Main Street Program.
• Standing by to assist the Northside (Simmons St.) Park property owners as they work to clear title through the probate courts.
• Continued evaluation of existing and needed ordinance updates and additions with the City Attorney.
• Continued internal improvements to workflows and processes, including the one-week-in-advance agenda publication standard.
Looking Ahead
• August Council Meeting: August 11, 2026. Anticipated first reading of the data center moratorium ordinance. Full agenda and packet will be posted a week in advance.
• Coffee with the City: Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. at Third Space 803 E. Rutherford Street, Landrum.
• Continued follow-up engagement on the Saluda Grade Trail. More information at saludagradetrail.org.
• Hogback Mountain Day, Saturday, September 12, 2026 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on North Trade Avenue
• October: engagement with our third-party independent auditors begins for the FY 2025-2026 audit.
• Every Saturday, 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.: Landrum Farmers Market. Come out, hydrate, and enjoy the season!
• Rail & History Museum located at 211 North Trade Avenue is open Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Questions or concerns? Reach us at 864.457.3000 or requests@cityoflandrumsc.com. We always want to hear from you.
Respectfully,
J.J. Sauve, Interim City Administrator
April Williams, Deputy City Administrator
Tricia Taber, Communications Director