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Southampton County Board of Supervisors Chairman Dr. Alan W. Edwards initiated a discussion at the board’s Dec. 17 meeting that brought forth new details regarding the recent instance of the county paying $42,700 to bush hog property on Camp Parkway that was purchased in June 2023 by Southampton Lance LLC.

Southampton County Community Development and Planning Director James “Jay” Randolph made clear at the meeting that county policy was not followed by his immediate predecessor, an interim director, at some key points of the process that resulted in the elimination of hundreds of acres of brush along Camp Parkway.

Three parcels totaling 435 acres located along Camp Parkway and on either side of Delaware Road were sold for $11.4 million on June 27, 2023, by VOS LLC to Southampton Lance LLC, a Delaware company that was formed June 26, 2023.

Franklin Southampton Economic Development Inc. President and CEO Karl T. Heck previously explained that Southampton Lance is essentially a land company set up by Lecangs, which is a logistics company and also a subsidiary of Loctek Ergonomic Tech, a company that is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange and that is listed online as being headquartered in China.

The purchased land is undeveloped as of winter 2024, and vegetation on the property had grown considerably. 

Lynette C. Lowe, deputy Southampton County administrator and the county’s chief financial officer, noted that the county’s Department of Community Development handles any high grass complaints.

Edwards opened the discussion Dec. 17 by saying, “The usual method of doing this is we don’t have a grass or weed police. It’s usually by a public complaint that comes to the administration or comes to the Planning Commission. And then the violator is issued a letter saying, ‘You have umpteen number of days to get this cut or the county will cut it and send you the bill.’”

Lowe had previously confirmed that this method was followed in this case, with the complaint coming to the county’s Department of Community Development. But she noted in a Monday, Dec. 23, interview that tasks involving $30,000 or more need to be authorized by county administration, which she confirmed did not happen in this case.

“What was the emergency that happened here that this (bush hogging) had to be done?” Edwards said during the Dec. 17 meeting.

“You would have to ask Community Development, because they authorized everything,” Lowe said.

“That was Bart Nuckols, right?” said Southeast District Supervisor Robert T. White, referring to the county’s interim Community Development and Planning director that worked for the county between the retirement of Beth Lewis in May and the hiring of Randolph in October.

Lowe nodded to indicate White was correct.

Southwest District Supervisor Lynda T. Updike said, “He made a lot of mistakes when he was here.”

White said, “I understand anything like that (bush hogging of 435 acres) from now on should come to the county administrator’s attention, I would think.”

“And it should have,” Lowe said. “That is the process. It did not, but we could not control that it was not forwarded properly.”

Speaking to Randolph, who was present for the meeting, White said, “Since we’ve got Jay in place, I don’t think you would approve anything like that without coming to the county administrator, right?”

“Correct,” Randolph said. “I’m well versed in general county government policy as far as even if it’s money budgeted within the budget, certainly if it’s a big-ticket item, I always make sure and get pre-approval for anything because I certainly would not want to blindside administration or finance or the Board of Supervisors with that.

“In this particular instance, county policy was not followed, and there was a general lack of oversight during that entire process,” he added.

Pulling from available documentation, he summarized what happened in this particular instance after the high-grass complaint was received by the Department of Community Development earlier this year.

“In this particular instance, a notice of violation was sent to the property owner,” he said. “They did not accept the certified mail. It was returned back to the county. The previous interim director made the decision to go ahead and just authorize that without getting any quotes or any concern as to what the total amount might end up being. Knowing that it’s several hundred acres, one would envision that, again, this would be a very large expense and you probably should get multiple quotes prior, and none of that was done. This was all prior to me being appointed as the Community Development director, so it’s just another big mess for the county to find itself in with that.”

Randolph said Community Development’s budget includes $8,000 in a Maintenance Service Contract line item, and this was credited toward the item in question.

Southwest District Supervisor Carl J. Faison said, “Well, I’m certainly confident that it looks a lot like going forward, we have it under control.”

“I would certainly hope so,” Randolph said. “I think I can make better, more sound decisions than the previous director.”

Lowe said, “And I think Mr. Randolph will back me up on this — as soon as we figured out what had happened, I spoke with (County Administrator Brian) Thrower, and I immediately sent everyone within Community Development — the ones that make the decisions and the ones that don’t — guidelines as to what had always been followed before and what is to be followed going forward. So they all have the rules now in case they overhear something happening that shouldn’t.”

Thrower confirmed that the $42,700 bill had been sent to Southampton Lance.

“They have till Jan. 3, I believe,” he said.

Board Vice Chairman William Hart Gillette later said, “They’re not going to pay. Everybody in this room knows they’re not going to pay it, so a lien would have to be applied to the property, in my opinion.”

Gillette suggested that the reason Nuckols went ahead and authorized the bush hogging of 435 acres was because he has obviously worked for areas larger than Southampton County and the $42,700 bill seemed normal to him rather than something he needed to run by county administration first for authorization.

Looking to the future, Gillette said, “My problem is I want to set forth a plan before grass begins to grow. We’re going to have the same thing come up this year. Citizens are going to call demanding that (the brush on Camp Parkway) be cut. We’ve got to decide how we’re going to manage this, and that’s our job, and I intend to discuss this with our attorney to advise how to get in touch with (Southampton Lance) and give them an opportunity to decide how they want to handle it.”

Gillette said that something that could change the situation is potential action taken by the Pentagon following the conclusion of information-gathering it is doing in reference to the Chinese-based company that owns the land in question on Camp Parkway.

The Board of Supervisors had reached out to the Pentagon out of concern about a Chinese-based company owning property so close to the largest naval base in the world in Norfolk.

Edwards said, “The last information I could add that I talked with them two weeks ago was that (the investigation) had been turned over to the Treasury Department, (from) what I was told.”

Multiple supervisors showed interest in board approval being required for more county expenditures than is currently required, and Thrower said he plans to review some revisions to the county’s purchase policy at the board’s Jan. 8 work session.