Oct 27, 2026 · @Jolene Puffer
North Myrtle Beach has lost the leaders of two of its most-used offices at once. The city confirmed this week that Planning and Development Director James Wood and Chief Building Official Bradley Hardee are no longer employed there. In an email to Myrtle Beach News, Multimedia & Communications Director Lauren Jessie said the city would not comment on individual personnel matters and that Suzanne Pritchard has been named interim director of Planning & Development [City of North Myrtle Beach, 2026].
The city did not say whether either man resigned or was let go. What is clear is the effect: the offices that review rezonings, subdivisions, building permits and inspections now have new or interim leadership at the same time. They join a growing list of top City Hall jobs that have changed hands since 2024.
Wood was no newcomer. In 2025 he told WBTW he had worked for the city for about 17 years [WBTW, 2025], and the city’s latest audit still listed him as planning and development director as of May 2026 [City of North Myrtle Beach FY2024 Financial Statements, 2026].
His exit matters because of what his department handles. Asked in 2025 to name the city’s biggest challenge, City Manager Ryan Fabbri pointed to growth and keeping up with it, citing large corporate operations off Water Tower Road and a string of new residential developments [MyHorryNews, 2025]. Planning sits at the center of that pressure.
The building side has been unsettled longer. MyHorryNews reported in August 2025 that building official Delane Stevens and assistant building official John Hill had both recently left [MyHorryNews, 2025]. Hardee then moved into the top building post; Myrtle Beach News obtained his employment application and state certifications through a public records request earlier this year. With his departure, the city’s chief building official job has turned over twice since mid-2025.
The city has also been recruiting for its Planning Commission, the appointed board that approves major subdivision plats and recommends zoning changes. Applications were due Oct. 26 [City of North Myrtle Beach, 2026].
The planning shake-up lands on a City Hall that has struggled to close its books on time. The audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024 was not signed until May 26, 2026, nearly two years after year-end [Greene Finney Cauley, 2026]. State rules give cities 13 months to submit audited statements, and since July 2025 the State Treasurer has been withholding funds from municipalities that miss that window [S.C. State Treasurer, 2026].
The 2024 report itself acknowledged that completion was delayed and that management changed substantially before it was issued. Auditors restated earlier balances to fix errors in capital assets and retiree-benefit liabilities, and the city left out the management discussion section that accounting standards call for [Greene Finney Cauley, 2026]. In June, a resident asked council how it could approve an $18 million bond without a current bond rating [WBTW, 2026].
There is genuine progress. The fiscal 2025 audit has since received a clean, unmodified opinion, though auditors cited two control problems: late financial closeout and misclassified balances between funds [Citizen Portal, 2026]. In September, Moody’s rated the city Aa2 and S&P gave the aquatic center bonds an AA- [City of North Myrtle Beach, 2026]. Good ratings measure the city’s money, not its staffing. A finding for late closeout is, at bottom, a people-and-process problem.
The audit’s own list of department heads, current as of May 2026, tells the story: an interim finance director, an interim public works director and an interim human resources director [Greene Finney Cauley, 2026]. Longtime finance director Randy Wright and public works director Kevin Blayton both retired in 2025 [MyHorryNews, 2025], and public works has been run by an interim since that June [MyHorryNews, 2026]. The city posted its finance director opening in February with a $135,000 to $180,000 salary range [City of North Myrtle Beach, 2026]. Planning now joins the list.
Some churn follows any leadership change. Council forced out longtime City Manager Mike Mahaney in 2024 and agreed to pay him nearly $320,000 [Post and Courier, 2024]. When Fabbri took the permanent job, he said replacing departed senior managers was his first priority, and he described the city’s finance methods as antiquated and largely paper-based [MyHorryNews, 2025]. More than a year later, the fair question is why the vacancy list keeps growing instead of shrinking.
Three more posts tied directly to the city’s infrastructure are vacant. Current job listings show the city recruiting a public works director at $150,000 to $185,000, a project engineer at $81,000 to $123,000, and an operations manager for streets and drainage at about $90,000 [Glassdoor, 2026].
These are not desk jobs. The project engineer designs and permits water, sewer, storm drainage and road projects, inspects existing streets and drains, and keeps developers and contractors on track during construction [Indeed, 2026]. The streets and drainage manager coordinates infrastructure work with developers, contractors, utilities and state and federal agencies [Glassdoor, 2026]. Fabbri himself has said the public works director carries more responsibility than any position except his own and the finance director’s [MyHorryNews, 2026].
In a low-lying coastal city, drainage is a public safety system, not a convenience. When the engineer who reviews a developer’s stormwater plans, the manager who keeps the pipes and ditches clear, and the director who sets priorities are all missing at once, decisions get delayed, handed to outside consultants, or made by staff covering several jobs. Every subdivision approved now adds roads and pipes the city will maintain for decades. Mistakes made during a staffing gap tend to surface later, usually during a storm.
The city’s highest-profile oceanfront project is rising in the middle of this turnover. Developers broke ground Sept. 18, 2025 on Compass by Margaritaville, a 14-story, roughly 150-room hotel at 1717 S. Ocean Blvd., the former Castaway Beach Inn site in Crescent Beach [MyHorryNews, 2025]. A Dallas lender closed a $68.5 million construction loan for it, and the city itself transferred the property’s title to developer MIG Investments of MB that August [WBTW, 2025].
On a project this size, the building division reviews plans and inspects construction, planning checks the work against zoning and site approvals, and public works and engineering sign off on water, sewer and stormwater connections. Today the planning director and chief building official are gone, and the public works director and a project engineer post are unfilled. That does not mean no one is inspecting the hotel, but the city has not said who is. Residents deserve plain answers: Who is the building official of record for Margaritaville? Who is reviewing its drainage and utility tie-ins? Are any inspections being contracted out? Myrtle Beach News has asked.
For most people, these changes show up at the permit counter. Homeowners waiting on plan reviews, builders scheduling inspections and neighbors following a rezoning all depend on the two offices that just lost their heads. Interim leaders can keep work moving, but they rarely push major policy changes, and institutional memory leaves with long-serving staff.
Residents can watch three things: whether Planning Commission and council agendas start slipping, who the city names to sign off as building official in the meantime, and whether the fiscal 2026 audit arrives within the state’s 13-month window.
Declining to discuss personnel is standard practice, and nothing here proves wrongdoing by anyone. But a city that has raised its property tax rate from 45 to 50 mills and taken on new borrowing owes residents a clearer account of how it is staffed. Did Wood and Hardee leave voluntarily? Was severance paid? When will permanent searches begin, and what qualifies Pritchard for the interim role? Myrtle Beach News has asked and will report the answers.
