County Administrator Eric Greenway was placed on administrative leave with pay following first Special Called meeting
By Delayna Earley and Mike McCombs
The Island News
Beaufort County Council has scheduled a Special Called County Council meeting for the second time this week.
County Council members will be meeting on Friday, July 28, at 10:30 a.m. in County Council Chambers in Beaufort to receive legal counsel regarding the employment of a city employee regulated by Council.
Earlier this week, on Monday, July 24, County Council held a Special Called County Council meeting to “receive legal advice on matters covered by Attorney-Client privilege and to discuss issues related to the employment of a person regulated by council,” according to their published agenda.
Following a two-hour executive session, County Council announced during public session that County Administrator Eric Greenway was being placed on administrative leave with pay effective immediately and John Robinson, Assistant County Administrator of Public Safety, was appointed as the acting county administrator.
Robinson will receive an additional $3000 per month while serving in this capacity, according to County Council Chairman Joseph Passiment.
County Council also passed four additional motions during Monday’s meeting that were further addressed during a Special Called Finance Administration and Economic Development Committee meeting held on Wednesday, July 26.
The motions made on Monday, authorized reviews of all 2023 contracts, 2023 purchases, a review of procurement codes and an audit of the P-Card system, which is a charge card that enables authorized S.C. employees to make necessary work purchases, according to the S.C. Division of Procurement Services website.
During Wednesday’s meeting, committee Chairman Mark Lawson stated that they were there to move forward with what needs to be done.
“We are not doing a witch hunt,” Lawson said. “We are not out there to go after people. We are just here to find facts and to find out where we are with things.”
He commented that everything has a silver lining, and this gives them the opportunity to go back through and look at where they are with each of the regulations.
“Our goal is not to make this a huge overall reach,” said Lawson. “We’re going to start out with a very methodical, smaller type search and if something leads us further, then we will have to go further.”
Lawson reiterated that the committee was tasked with finding “someone to handle” the four motions that came out of Monday’s meeting.
After receiving counsel from County attorney Thomas Keaveny and Procurement Services Director Dave Thomas, the committee passed a motion that they are going to have an RFQ be prepared by Friday, July 28, with advertisement to begin on Monday, July 31, for 15 days to look for a law firm to oversee review of the 2023 contracts and purchases, a review of procurement codes and an audit of the P-Card system.
Due to the fact that the committee will be hiring an auditing service, Thomas recommended to the committee that they are as transparent as possible in how they go about hiring a service and they hire a company based solely on their qualifications and not based on price.
“Obviously, our biggest thing is that we want to do this in an expeditious way so that we’re not waiting for this forever, both in finding someone to help us with these items, but also in getting answers that we need,” said Lawson.
Members of the committee agreed that it was necessary to freeze access to relevant programs and accounts to preserve evidence.
In addition, the committee is requesting to receive a monthly report on P-Card usage to be proactive and accountable, not to look over employees’ shoulders said Lawson.
Before closing, in an statement to county employees, Lawson said, “If there is something that we need to be made aware of, there are 11 council people that you can go to…and bring that to them. You can bring that to [John] Robinson as our acting county administrator or anyone else that you feel comfortable with.”
Greenway first came under scrutiny when a criminal complaint for misconduct in office was filed on May 11, 2023, with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner and 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone determined that the complaint would be investigated by the Public Integrity Unit, a team of prosecutors and investigators from the 1st and 14th Circuit solicitors’ offices.
The incident report states that the alleged offenses took place between 8 a.m., January 9, 2023 and 4 p.m., June 29, 2023, but there are no complaints listed and no details of any alleged crimes.
“At this particular time, that is all that we’re saying,” Tanner said July 3.
In South Carolina, the common law offense of misconduct in office is defined as occurring “when duties imposed by law have not been properly and faithfully discharged.”
To constitute a crime, such conduct must be willful and dishonest.
Legally, there are three kinds of misconduct – malfeasance, which means acting illegally; misfeasance, which means acting legally but corruptly; and nonfeasance, which means not carrying out a required duty of the office.
When contacted by phone on July 3, Greenway said he had initially been made aware of the complaint just that morning and had no comment.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
