Can a new mayor get cash-strapped Swansea’s finances in order?
Voters in the troubled town of Swansea will vote this November to choose a new mayor to handle the community’s challenges. The winner will have a full plate.
Swansea has experienced money challenges in recent years. Last fall, current Mayor Viola McDaniel warned town council members that the town of 700 was down to less than $600 on hand as expenses threatened to outstrip the town’s revenue before it received an infusion of annual tax collections at the beginning of the year.
A finance report said that in the third quarter of 2024, Swansea had a net operating loss of almost $166,000.
Running to replace McDaniel, who isn’t running for re-election, are two current members of the town council, Doris Simmons and Jerome Williams. The winner will be constrained in how they handle the issues facing the small town in southern Lexington County.
Change in water service
The town water department has been a revenue generator for the town, but Swansea is now in the process of franchising with Lexington County’s Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission to operate it.
“I did not want to give up the water department,” Simmons said. “But we would have to come up with grant money [to make the necessary upgrades], and the town does not have a good reputation for managing grants.”
A study found multiple faults in the town’s water operations, and projected that fixing them would cost Swansea $15 million over 10 years. The town has around $700,000 in water bills that have not been collected, Simmons says.
“It’s more important to the customers that we don’t run into a situation with busted waterlines and different things going on,” she said. “For the benefit of the customers, we wanted to make sure they had good services, so this is just the better way to go with it.”
Town Councilman Jerome Williams, a football coach at Swansea Middle School, is also running for mayor in Swansea. He did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Responding to residents
Besides the town’s financial challenges, Simmons sees a need for town employees to be more responsive to the needs of Swansea’s 700 residents. When she speaks to people who need to contact the town when they have a problem, “they don’t get called back, or they’re not able to talk to anyone,” Simmons said. “They all should be more courteous. [Town residents] pay their salary.”
Originally from Charlotte, Simmons has lived in Swansea since 1983, where she works in financial services helping people make payroll and prepare their taxes. She’s in the middle of her second term on town council, first winning election in 2019.
“I figure, I know finances, I’ve run business for 25 years, I know how to run a business, to manage money,” she said. “When you’re a small town, customer service is important.”
She wants to see the town do more to encourage both more people and more businesses to move into the town limits, arguing growth will ultimately be the only way out of Swansea’s troubles.
Financial struggles
The town of Swansea’s finances have been plagued with controversy before. Former Mayor Jerald Sanders was indicted in 2021 for allegedly embezzling $4,500 in town funds. That case was eventually settled through pre-trial intervention. The next year, Simmons and fellow councilman Mike Luongo filed a lawsuit against McDaniel and the town alleging an audit found some $3.3 million in assets unaccounted for. McDaniel has disputed that interpretation of the audit results.
Simmons said she still hasn’t received an accounting for that discrepancy.
“I think it’s just poor accounting of assets for the town,” she said of the audit. “They didn’t know what the capital assets are, didn’t know what equipment the town has, didn’t know what vehicles, didn’t know the town property that has value, and didn’t know how to pull it together.”
Also up for election this year are two seats on the town council; incumbent Linda Butler is running for another term in District 1 against Angie Alley, while Melissa Williams is running unopposed for Jerome Williams’ old District 2 seat.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 8:56 AM.
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