Sources say vote will happen at Aug. 26 Council meeting
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort County Council members will reportedly be voting to release the long-awaited investigative report from an audit of the P-Card system and procurement code to law enforcement during their next meeting.
The agenda for the upcoming meeting had not been officially set before this article was published on Tuesday night, but several knowledgeable sources confirmed that the plan is to vote about the report during the August 26 meeting to decide if it should be released to law enforcement.
“Ultimately, the taxpayers are entitled to see what’s in that report,” County Council member David Bartholomew said. “They paid for it, it’s theirs.”
Bartholomew continued to say that the “double-edge of the sword” is that releasing the report too soon would be bad, as Beaufort County Administrator Michael Moore needs to look at the report and take any corrective action necessary.
“Releasing it too soon … essentially I don’t want to interrupt an ongoing investigation,” Bartholomew said.
The report regarding the investigation conducted by Greenville-based law firm Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd is being kept under lock and key and to date has only been viewed by members of County Council, according to Bartholomew.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said that while he has not had direct confirmation of a vote taking place, he had heard that County Council would be discussing and voting on releasing the audit report to law enforcement.
That said, to date he has had no information about what is in the audit despite speaking with council members and the new Administrator about the importance of transparency and having law enforcement review the results for any criminal activity.
One of the main reasons being cited by County Council as to why the document cannot be released is attorney client privilege, which Bartholomew said they have been told can only be waived if they have a unanimous vote in favor or waiving the privilege.
Such a vote is supposedly going to be held on August 26 to decide if the privilege should be waived to release the report to law enforcement.
Bartholomew said that the discussion among council members is that they are mostly leaning toward releasing the report to law enforcement.
“I think if we all vote to release the report to law enforcement it’s a step in the right direction,” Bartholomew said.
Sheriff Tanner said that County Council is “camouflaging the audit report behind attorney client privilege,” but he does not believe that will hold up forever.
“I’ve shared my disbelief [with council members and county administrators] in how council has taken this audit report that was paid for by the citizens of Beaufort County and they’ve kept it under lock and key and they’ve only allowed council members to view it under supervision and failed to turn over the document and any supporting documents to law enforcement.”
Tanner said that he does not understand why council has refused to release the document and the council’s [reluctance] to release the document makes him believe that there is something in the report that is either criminal, sloppy management or poor decision making.
“The prolonging of releasing the document doesn’t make any sense and has created a hurdle for law enforcement,” Tanner said. “We deal with hurdles all the time and we have a way of dealing with hurdles and we’ll deal with it the appropriate way. But if they wanted transparency like they say, they would have at least called law enforcement.”
Bartholomew said that he had his reservations about hiring a law firm to conduct the audit from the beginning, but his fears were lessened when he thought they could just waive attorney client privilege at the conclusion of it.
“Here we are at the end getting advice that it has to be unanimous,” Bartholomew said. “I took it on face value that we would be able to waive attorney client privilege, but not it looks to be a hurdle that’s going to be difficult to overcome.”
Sheriff Tanner said in an interview with The Island News that he has never seen a vote that has to be unanimous in his time in public service.
“Despite all of the negativity that is going on, I sincerely think things are moving in the right direction,” Bartholomew said. “It’s taking time, but in the process, I just hope people don’t forget about the positive things that we’re doing.”
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
