Hundreds of representatives of cities and towns across South Carolina gathered in Greenville last week for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Municipal Association of SC. Its presenters discussed everything from keeping local communities thriving to effective leadership and civility in public service. The Municipal Association used the time to announce new services for its members as well.
Keynote speaker Doug Griffiths tackles community-killing problems
A former member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Alberta, Canada, Doug Griffiths is spending his political retirement focusing on helping communities find their individual pathways to economic success.
This led him to write the bestselling book 13 Ways to Kill Your Community, covering key issues that arise in many cities and can cause destructive declines in morale, commerce and eventually population. It covers areas like cities holding inaccurate mental images of themselves, refusing to accept newcomers or new economic realities, and prioritizing a sense of independence over the need for responsibility and cooperation.
Doug Griffiths
In his keynote address, Griffiths described his list of 13 major problems including a failure to engage young people, with leaders often instead simply demanding that the youth remain in a community. Young people naturally want to explore and move away, he said.
“Our key to success is not to keep them, but to let them go,” he said. “And then give them a reason to come home after they’re done exploring, and to bring those new contacts, those new ideas, relationships, concepts, back to your community.”
He has often found local officials talking despairingly about their community’s ability to keep young people rather than focusing on a vision for the future.
“When those young people come back, you’ve got to engage them, you’ve got to give them some control, some authority, some power to implement stuff,” Griffiths said. “I still hear too many leaders in communities say, ‘those young people, they don’t know anything. They have no experience, they don’t have a clue about what’s going on’ … we need them to learn how to be leaders faster, and we need to trust that they know where the world is going, sometimes better than we do.”
McClary elected new Association president, President Amidon completes term
Travelers Rest Mayor Brandy Amidon marked the conclusion of her term as the Municipal Association’s president during the Annual Meeting. She expressed gratitude for the Association’s staff and for her experiences among fellow elected officials.
Travelers Rest Mayor Brandy Amidon
“One of my highlights as your president has been spending time with mayors, councilmembers across South Carolina, celebrating your successes, learning from your challenges, and seeing firsthand incredible work happening in your community.”
Among her favorite experiences, Amidon said, has been visiting cities and towns to learn about major projects that are coming to fruition, whether they be “parks, or a revitalized downtown, a streetscape, a trail, or a long-awaited building that has finally opened its doors.”
“I know those projects don't happen overnight,” she said. “They represent years of planning, countless meetings, difficult decisions, grant applications, budget discussions and the perseverance to keep moving forward. You should be incredibly proud of what you've accomplished in your cities and towns, and I know that I am as your president.”
The Association elected its new board of directors leadership during the Annual Meeting, which includes Town of Andrews Mayor Frank McClary as the new president.
Andrews Mayor Frank McClary
He said he was honored by the opportunity to serve as president, and congratulated Amidon for her presidency. He also praised the Association staff’s work, and encouraged his audience to take advantage of the Association’s educational offerings and affiliate groups.
“They're really advocating for the cities and towns of this state,” he said. “[The Annual Meeting] is next-level stuff, and it just shows you that they’re going out, learning new things and looking at ways to improve us and make us better, stronger leaders in our community.”
Executive Director Todd Glover discusses audits, civility
Municipal Association Executive Director Todd Glover discussed South Carolina’s 2025 – 2026 legislative session, which he described as the most consequential and challenging he had experienced, with state lawmakers grappling with the impacts of rapid population growth and government funding in South Carolina. He noted the numerous proposals at the State House to cut the taxes that fund local government services — efforts which mirror similar proposals in many other states — and a growing focus on local governments’ submission of their required audits or financial statements.
Glover announced that the Association will hire additional staff to provide financial technical assistance to cities and towns, just as the Association’s Field Services managers provide general technical assistance to municipalities. The Association hopes to announce further programs to help cities and towns with financial management this fall.
National League of Cities President Kevin Kramer, left,
and Municipal Association Executive Director Todd Glover
Glover also reiterated the Association’s focus on civility in local government, which it has now promoted for years.
“We're seeing people — good, decent public servants — leave office at an amazingly high rate because they're tired of being beat up all the time for the work that they’re doing,” he said. “We're losing great staff people because they're taking the brunt of some of this incivility. These are the things that we're going to have to address.”
The Association-developed civility pledge is now used by cities in other parts of the nation and the world. It received additional praise from the current president of the National League of Cities, Louisville, Kentucky, Councilmember Kevin Kramer, who addressed the Annual Meeting to discuss the NLC focus on civility.
“How many of us have unfriended someone in the last two months, because of how negative they are on Facebook?” he said. “At some point, we've got to get back to a place where we can recognize — I may not agree with you, but that doesn't make you any less of a person. It doesn't make it such that you deserve any less respect.”
Introducing SCottie, the AI assistant
The Municipal Association unveiled its new online generative AI assistant, SCottie, during the Annual Meeting. It can respond to questions about municipal governance — things like how to manage public comment sessions during a council meeting, or what to know about development comprehensive plans for land use — or questions about the Association’s services. SCottie’s answers can draw from the Association’s large amount of website information — areas that can include everything from legislative reports to reference handbooks, as well as past Uptown and RiskLetter articles on many topics.
SCottie is available by logging in at the Association’s website and selecting “Member Home.”
Annual Meeting presentations, Achievement Award videos, available online
Some of the Annual Meeting sessions have presentations now available on the Association’s website.
The 2026 Annual Report, the 2026 Achievement Award videos and the Excellence on Main Street Award video, which all debuted during the meeting, are available as well.