JOHNSONVILLE — Straining under $5.2 million in debt, a small South Carolina city may resort to selling its own city hall and the municipal golf club it reopened three years ago to pull the city out of its financial pit.
A healthy city should have enough money in its general fund to operate for three to six months, said attorney Marc Wood who has been consulting city officials on budget matters.
Johnsonville has no reserves. The Florence County city’s general fund has negative $2.1 million.
To claw its way out of debt, Wood suggested the city sell the municipal golf club and the $2 million city hall that was built in 2021. He also suggested cuts to the police force.
Johnsonville’s debt
Johnsonville interim City Administrator Jimmy Brown is tasked with balancing the city’s budget, but it is proving difficult because of the $5.2 million in debt.
That debt comes from the golf course and city hall building, but also from a history of the city borrowing money from its other departments, Brown said.
Past city councils may have been under the impression that money borrowed from one city department for another does not need to be paid back, Brown said, but it’s required.
Just a year after its new city hall opened, Johnsonville used money from its reserves and water and sewer revenues, which are typically used for upgrades to those systems, to cover its first payment of nearly $200,000, according to previous reporting from The Post and Courier.
Johnsonville’s new city hall as seen on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Previous budgets were passed by administrators without taking debt into account, a practice that is abnormal, Wood said. Already, the city has passed a continuing budget ordinance, meaning last year’s budget will remain until a new budget is passed.
Brown said he wouldn’t support a budget that doesn’t include the city’s debt. He also said he won’t support raising the city’s debt millage because it would be unfair to residents whose tax money — $3.9 million from the capital project sales tax — already went to the rebuilding of the golf course.
“It’s unfair, you know. You should be held to some sort of standard,” Brown said.
The proposed budget will, Brown said, include a small “palatable” rate increase for water and wastewater rates. Historically, the city has raised rates significantly when in need. Now, they’ll try raising rates incrementally, a common practice in other cities, including Florence.
The city’s police department is taking a large chunk of its general fund, Brown said — totaling $443,293 of the city’s negative fund balance. Wood has suggested getting rid of the Johnsonville Police Department and contracting with the county to provide public safety services instead. Brown said he has not heard from the county and is not sure what will become of the department.
Interim City Administrator Jimmy Brown at the city of Johnsonville’s June city council meeting on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Deirdre Weaver-Currin/Staff
Johnsonville has also struggled to keep up with payments for its city hall.
The city issued a $2.7 million general obligation bond to build the new city hall and improvements to its Wellman Golf Club. Of the multi-million-dollar bond, $656,000 went to the golf club.
City hall has a half dozen offices, council chambers with the capacity to hold more than 100 people, a conference room, a small kitchen area and multiple bathrooms. Only three employees man the building today, and Brown previously said it’s more building than the city needs.
Florence County Council is set to vote on first reading for whether it will take over the building and the debt at its upcoming council meeting June 18. County Administrator Kevin Yokim said at a May meeting that it would be the right thing to do.
Two golfers chat on the putting green at the Wellman Golf Club in 2023.
The municipal golf club
Wellman Golf Club reopened three years ago after being shut down in 2010. The city’s accounting firm believes it needs to close its doors immediately, to the disapproval of some councilmembers.
The course was rebuilt after years of neglect using $3.9 million from the capital project sales tax, which can only be issued every seven years and must be approved by voters. It took $5 million total to rebuild the club. Now, Brown said the golf club is barely breaking even on a good day.
“I don’t think they (city council) truly understand how bad it is,” Wood said. “Whether they don’t want to understand, or they don’t understand.”
City of Johnsonville Councilman Olin Altman speaks at a council meeting Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Deirdre Weaver-Currin/Staff
Still, council hasn’t given up on Wellman. Saving the municipal course was a focal point of the June meeting, where the body also recognized members of Johnsonville High School’s golf team as state champions.
“This is an asset to the city, and it could be for a long time coming,” Councilman Olin Altman said about the course at the meeting. “Now, we all have to figure out how to keep it and figure out this debt that we have that none of us up here voted on.”
Mayor Dipen Khambhaita was not immediately available for comment. Councilmembers Julie Rogers and Olin Altman declined to comment.