By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Another high-ranking director in Beaufort County’s government has resigned.
Eric Larson, who was hired in Fall 2022 to the job of Capital Improvement Projects Director under the former Beaufort County Administrator Eric Greenway, resigned from his position as of June 3, according to Beaufort County spokesperson Hannah Nichols.
“Mr. Larson’s last day of employment with Beaufort County was June 3rd,” Nichols told The Island News, but did not give a response to who would be filling in for the position.
In May, the S.C. State Ethics Commission opened an investigation into alleged ethics violations against Larson.
He is under investigation for allegedly instructing a Beaufort County employee to go out to his home, while still on the clock, to measure for the addition of a sunroom. The employee was then allegedly asked to draw up plans for the addition using Beaufort County materials, again while still on the clock.
The citizen who filed the complaint with the S.C. State Ethics Commission told The Island News that the employee allegedly did so out of fear of saying “no” to their superior, Larson, and having their job potentially put at risk.
Then, the plans were allegedly submitted to Beaufort County for permits so that construction could begin on the addition to Larson’s home before summer.
Larson had previously worked for the county, but he resigned in 2019 from his job as Environmental Engineering and Land Management Director before he brought a discrimination and hostile workplace lawsuit against the county and then-administrator Ashley Jacobs.
The lawsuit accused Jacobs of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1965 by discriminating against Larson’s age and race and this created a hostile working environment.
Then Deputy County Administrator Whitney Richland settled the lawsuit in Fall 2021 for $40,000 and one of the terms of the settlement was that Larson would remain eligible for employment.
The position of Capital Improvement Projects Director was a newly created, six-figure position that reported directly to Greenway when Larson was hired to it.
The Island News reached out to Eric Larson for comment, but he declined and deferred to his attorney, Nashiba Boyd.
As of press time on Tuesday evening, Boyd had not responded to request for comment.
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.
