By Tony Kukulich
Beaufort County officials are under fire for a decision to make a pilot summer camp program only available to the children of county employees, including the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, and the county’s elected officials.
Further, a memo issued by the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation gave the appearance that the county made an effort to keep the program under wraps and out of the public eye. A copy of that document was obtained by The Island News.
“Since the program is not open to the public, we are doing our best to disguise it,” read the undated memo in part.
The memo was written by Shannon Loper, the director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, said Beaufort County Public Information Officer Chris Ophardt, who also reviewed it before it was released.
“It was a poor choice of words,” said Ophardt. “It gave a bad perception. The intent wasn’t to hide the program from the general public. It was talked about in council meetings. It was talked about with council members. It was talked about in the open.”
On Tuesday, Aug. 16, at 6:35 a.m., The Island News submitted questions about the camp after receiving a copy of the aforementioned memo. Two hours later, County Administrator Eric Greenway sent the county council and staff members a summary of the program referencing that query.
“While the wording was poor, I assure you that the purpose was to limit confusion and protect the public,” wrote Greenway. “Those who drafted the document did not want a lot of public exposure to the program to publicize that we would have significant numbers of kids in various facilities throughout the summer.”
Ophardt clarified that in the wake of a number of school shootings late in the school year, the county, for public safety reasons, did not want to publicize where students would be gathered over the summer months.
City of Beaufort Council member Mitch Mitchell was dubious of Greenway’s explanation. He asserted that the county wrongly used tax dollars to fund a program that was not available to the general public.
“My perspective on this is that they said exactly what they intended to say,” Mitchell stated. “The reality of it is that taxpayer (dollars) were used for a restricted use. That restricted use was for the exclusive use of a selected group being employees of the county. The county employees have received a windfall at the expense of the taxpayers. That’s my basic argument. That should not have happened.”
The idea of offering a summer camp through the county developed in April. Department heads were concerned that some county employees were prepared to leave their jobs because they couldn’t afford childcare over the summer months, explained Ophardt. County staff began to explore options to avoid the potential loss of staff.
“Due to the newness of the program, there being no employees on board to run it, and the short time frame, about seven week, to hire counselors and bus drivers, it was recommended to only be opened to county employees this year,” Greenway said in a statement to The Island News. “After this initial meeting, I inquired about allowing the employees of various municipalities to participate, and again it was determined we would not be able to accommodate that either.”
Mitchell said that the limited number of spots available in the program was not a sufficient reason to limit the camp to county employees.
“The fact that Eric Greenway’s staff gave him advice does not relieve him of his responsibility as county administrator, who is the decision maker, to make the right decision,” he added. “I don’t accept it.”
The camp, held in two locations including the Charles Lind Brown Center, located at 1001 Hamar St. in downtown Beaufort, and the Bluffton Center, ran from June 6 to Aug. 12.
The fee was $30 per week per child for the first two children, $20 per week for the third child and $10 per week for the fourth child. According to Ophardt, 110 children participated in the camp; 75 in Beaufort and 35 in Bluffton.
The total cost to run the program was $28,500 of which $17,500 was covered by fees paid by the families who participated. The remaining $11,000 was the county’s out-of-pocket cost.
Alana Jenkins, chairwoman of the Friends of Friends of Charles Lind Brown Community Center executive team, expressed concern that access to the Beaufort center was limited while the camp was in session.
“Our perspective is that the Lind Brown Center is and should be a true community center,” Jenkins said. “It’s in the center of Beaufort. The camp is something that we hoped would have been open to all residents to make sure we’re serving the entire community. Our perspective is that the community center should be able to always serve all community members. Anything that is against that is less than ideal for the community. As a government entity, you have a responsibility to community.”
Despite the community’s objections to how the county’s summer camp program was run, Greenway said he was glad to have helped provide the benefit to county employees.
“Summer camp was a success overall, and we have already begun the discussions on what we need to do to open this up to the public next year and how to restructure the program to be more effective,” said Greenway in his Aug. 16 note to county council. “It is a shame that a few individuals are willing to raise such a minor issue in the media to damage what was one of the best employee benefits we could have offered over the summer!”
Tony Kukulich is a recent transplant to the Lowcountry. A native of Wilmington, Del., he comes to The Island News from the San Francisco Bay Area where he spent seven years as a reporter and photographer for several publications. He can be reached at tony.theislandnews@gmail.com.
