Why It Matters

Stephanie Missert, an independent lobbyist who built her practice around North Carolina coastal municipalities, filed termination notices for all three of her clients on April 28, 2026, including the Village of Bald Head Island, N.C. The second-quarter 2026 lobbying disclosures show Missert ending her registration with Bald Head Island, the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, and the Town of Holden Beach, N.C. simultaneously, effectively closing out her entire client portfolio in a single filing day.

Missert's relationship with Bald Head Island had already gone quiet before the formal LDA termination notice. Disclosure records show she collected $10,000 from the Village in the third quarter of 2024 and another $10,000 in the first quarter of 2025, for a total of $20,000 across the life of the engagement. Every other quarter, including the five consecutive periods running from the second quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2026, reported $0 in compensation. The lobbying registration termination formalized what the filings had already suggested: an engagement that had wound down.

For Missert, the Bald Head Island relationship was one of only three clients she represented, all of them small North Carolina coastal towns with overlapping federal priorities. Losing Bald Head Island alone would have been significant; losing all three at once means she has no active clients on record as of the second quarter of 2026.

Bald Head Island did not leave the federal lobbying arena, however. The Village has been working with two other firms concurrently, and both remain active. Ward and Smith PA reported $20,000 per quarter from the Village across the first quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026, totaling $100,000 over that stretch. Ferguson Group LLC reported $10,000 per quarter over the same period, totaling $50,000. Both firms filed activity reports for the first quarter of 2026 and have not filed terminations.

Broader Context

The issues Missert worked on for Bald Head Island were a mix of coastal infrastructure priorities that are common for barrier island municipalities but difficult to advance in the current federal environment.

Beach Nourishment and Coastal Storm Damage Reduction

The most immediate project the Village sought federal support for, a Coastal Storm Damage Reduction project involving beach nourishment and sand placement, moved forward without federal appropriations. Bald Head Island voters approved bonds in March 2024 to fund the work locally, and the Village contracted with Marinex Construction to carry out the project, which was completed in early 2025 using Jay Bird Shoals as a sand source. With that project finished, the urgency of federal lobbying on that specific front diminished.

The broader funding environment for coastal renourishment remains difficult. Southeastern North Carolina beach towns have faced high costs and funding uncertainty for renourishment projects, according to reporting from March 2025.

Army Corps of Engineers and Harbor Maintenance

Missert also lobbied for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers coastal storm risk management feasibility study for Bald Head Island, as well as for beneficial placement of dredged material from Wilmington Harbor on Bald Head Island beaches. The Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024 became law in January 2025 and authorizes the Corps to carry out coastal storm risk management and beach nourishment projects, providing a legal framework for the types of work the Village has sought. Whether a Bald Head Island-specific feasibility study has been authorized or funded remains unclear from public records.

On harbor maintenance funding, the political environment is complicated. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund has faced pressure from unobligated balances, with reports indicating $1.4 billion from the fiscal year 2024 appropriation remained unspent in early 2025, giving the current administration grounds to resist new requests.

Wastewater and Road Paving

Missert's disclosures also reference lobbying for a Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and for Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations to fund road paving and repairs on the island. No public evidence indicates federal funding was secured for either. The fiscal year 2026 House THUD bill includes Community Project Funding through the Economic Development Initiative program, but fiscal year 2026 appropriations remain unresolved as of late April 2026.

The Bottom Line

With Missert's registration terminated, the two remaining firms carry the Village's federal agenda forward.

Ward and Smith PA brings a notable asset to that work in lobbyist Mike McIntyre, a former Democratic congressman who represented North Carolina's Seventh Congressional District for seven terms. McIntyre served on the House Armed Services Committee and was known for his work on military and coastal issues in southeastern North Carolina. His familiarity with the region's federal priorities and his relationships with the congressional delegation give Ward and Smith direct relevance for the kinds of Army Corps and appropriations work Bald Head Island has been pursuing.

Ferguson Group LLC's team on the account includes Chris Griffin, Roger Gwinn, Chris Kearney, and Ann Durand. The firm's disclosed work for Bald Head Island has covered a broader range of issues than Missert's, including engagement with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on wind energy lease sales in the Mid-Atlantic, EPA's Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, and NOAA funding for the Coastal Storm Damage Reduction project.

Missert, who has no documented congressional staff experience in available records, worked as a solo practitioner focused on the narrow set of appropriations and Army Corps priorities most directly tied to the island's shoreline. With those immediate deliverables either completed locally or stalled in a difficult appropriations environment, the Village appears to have consolidated its federal engagement with the two firms that remain on retainer.

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