Landrum announces run for mayor

When the time comes later this month to file for municipal offices one longtime Farmington businessman intends to put his name on the list.

Stuart “Mit” Landrum has announced he’ll be seeking the office of mayor. He could likely be opposing his friend and sitting Mayor Jeannie Roberts for the upcoming four-year term.

Landrum has always devoted a portion of his life to public service of some form. He says he made a decision back in the 1970s to always try to operate his life on a dual track — one part being a career in business, with the other being public service. Through the years he has devoted countless hours and effort to charitable organizations such as United Way, and to helping his fellow citizens through work with the chamber of commerce and economic development.

“Farmington has been through some good times ... but the last couple years have been different,” Landrum said Monday. “I can supply the leadership needed to get (the city) back on track again.”

Currently Landrum is serving as a city councilman representing Ward 2. This is his first time serving in an elected role for a municipality. He says he decided to seek the office of mayor shortly after winning the council seat this past April.

“We have a wonderful council, but we’re headed for some tough times,” Landrum said. The “tough times” he refers to is how the national economic picture will impact smaller communities in coming months and years.

Landrum’s family moved to Farmington just as he was starting his high school years. He attended Farmington High School, then moved on to college and eventually ended up in the Southeast for about 11 years working in the space program. He worked on the nation’s moon rocket program and the Apollo project.

Following the next presidential election the space program began to take a back seat to domestic and foreign affairs. Looking to change careers, Landrum ended up working in sales for Zerox Corporation in northern Alabama. By 1973 his father had purchased an insurance office and Mit returned home to join him in the business. Landrum and a business partner purchased his father’s insurance office in 1981. He later sold the business to First State Community Bank in 1999.

For the past decade, Landrum has been operating a software company which specializes in writing programs for not-for-profit organizations. As for taking away time from his business interest to serve the city, Landrum said, “I’m going to take the time, (just) like I’ve done through the years. This isn’t going to be something new for me.”

Landrum is perhaps best known to the people of Farmington for his insurance career. However, he’s likely had much more impact in the lives of Farmington residents through his work with the Farmington Chamber of Commerce and, later, by helping develop and operate the Farmington Industrial Development Authority.

A few years after his return to Farmington, Landrum joined the Farmington Chamber of Commerce. The following year, in 1979, he was elected president of the organization. Looking back, he refers to the city as being “asleep” at the time. There were very few jobs which could support a family, and an economic study at the time showed more than one-third of the working residents were driving at least an hour to work.

“I wanted to work with economic development to fix the problem,” he explains. A conversation with fellow businessman Ron Short brought up the idea that what Farmington needed was an industrial park. In 1979 and 1980 a group effort was given by several forward-thinking business, industry and city leaders to develop a new city industrial park.

The group contacted the state about obtaining some land previously owned by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Simultaneously there needed to be a funding mechanism to pay for the land, so the idea of an annual chamber event called Country Days was born, Landrum explained.

More industry coming to town would mean more business owners and leaders looking to locate to Farmington. A combined effort was made by city officials to improve sidewalks downtown to give the city an improved appearance.

Making some measurable progress would mean having a person dedicated to the task of economic development. The city was asked to hire a development director, and put the word out. The job eventually went to Larry Hughes.

During the same time a multi-step funding plan was put in place to help generate matching funds for government grants to help bring in industry. A plan was formed to help businessman Terry Braxton relocate and expand his Iron Mountain Forge manufacturing facility. The new plant became the first large anchor in the city’s new industrial park.

Landrum was also instrumental in developing a plan to use funding collected from payments on the development loans to Iron Mountain Forge to be put aside to eventually build an industry “incubator” building for smaller manufacturers to start and grow in.

Over the next decade several business owners utilized the low-cost incubator building to grow their manufacturing businesses to the point of eventually moving out into their own buildings elsewhere in the industrial park. A few years ago the building was procured and expanded by Accent Marketing to be used as an inbound call center for a major telecommunications corporation.

For more than two decades the Farmington IDA, under the leadership of Landrum and a handful of other community-minded business owners and leaders, worked to continually bring new manufacturing and service businesses to Farmington.

“We need another (jump)‘start,’” Landrum admits. “We’ve done this before, and I think we can do it again.”

The soon-to-be-mayorial candidate says he’d like to see the city hire another economic development director. In recent years any efforts to work on new industry growth from the city’s perspective has fallen on shoulders of City Administrator Greg Beavers.

Landrum believes Beavers has made a valiant effort, but feels that much more could be accomplished with a person who could be totally focused on the daily work of bringing in new business and industry to the community.

And “economic development” doesn’t only mean new manufacturing plants either, Landrum admits. About one fourth of the current payroll generated within the city limits of Farmington comes from state employment. Another estimated fourth comes from the medical field. Landrum would like to look at ways to help both of those sectors grow even more.

“Farmington is a collection of components, ... of pieces,” he explains. The best plan for the future, he believes, would be to bring together groups of forward-thinking people to help discover where the strengths and weaknesses are in relation to moving the city ahead in these changing times.

As for applying what might have worked in the early 1980’s to what might work in 2009 and beyond, Landrum says there is more tools to work with now than ever before. “The city needs to be less passive and more reactive,” he reasons.

The election for mayor and four council positions will take place in April of 2009.

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