Probes into current, former County employees total 7
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The S.C. State Ethics Commission has opened investigations into four more alleged ethics violations against former and current Beaufort County employees.
The complainant, a Beaufort County citizen who wishes to not be named in the article, received letters regarding the four complaints stating that the “complaint[s] contained facts sufficient to warrant an investigation.”
The four new complaints were filed against former County Administrator Eric Greenway, former Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Loper, Special Assistant to the County Administrator Hank Amundson and Assistant County Administrator of Infrastructure Jared Fralix.
The complaint against Greenway, who was terminated in July, alleges that he was accepting gifts and dinners of value from developers and not disclosing it.
Previously, Greenway was accused of hiring his daughter to do graphic design work without putting it out for bid or going through the proper process to hire someone to do work for the county.
The results from the initial ethics investigation are still pending.
Along the same lines, the newest complaint regarding Loper alleges that she hired all her sons to referee youth sports and to run a cheerleading camp at some point during her tenure as the Beaufort Parks and Recreation Director.
A complaint was previously filed against Loper alleging that she used a Bobcat type vehicle and possibly an excavator owned by Beaufort County Public Works to “regrade her property and lay fresh dirt and gravel.”
Loper was terminated on Monday, Oct. 9, and several sources within the Beaufort County government have told The Island News that she was terminated because of her treatment of an employee.
Amundson is under investigation for allegedly purchasing a $10,000 sponsorship on behalf of Beaufort County for the RBC Heritage PGA tournament on Hilton Head Island in March 2023.
According to the complainant, Beaufort County had never had a hospitality tent at the Heritage.
The purchased hospitality tent and sky box included tickets to the tournament and access to alcohol.
Amundson allegedly attended the golf tournament every day along with his son and Greenway and then hid the invoice for the purchase of the sponsorship for several months.
Lastly, the concerned Beaufort County citizen filed a complaint against Jared Fralix for allegedly stealing Beaufort County resources by charging his electric vehicle using a charger that was installed only to charge the electric vehicles that are owned and used by the county.
He has been accused of holding meetings strategically so that he was at the location where the charging station is so that he could charge his car.
These four new complaints bring the number of complaints currently under investigation by the S.C. State Ethics Commission to seven.
In addition to the complaints filed previously filed against Loper and Greenway, former Deputy County Administrator Whitney Richland has been accused of conspiring to attempt to purchase almost 600 weighted blankets from a company allegedly owned by Richland’s husband for $35, 644.
Richland resigned from her position with the county in August 2023.
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.
