Robinson promoted to interim county administrator; Audits, reviews ordered as investigation gains traction
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort County Administrator Eric Greenway’s employment was terminated following a Special Called County Council meeting on Friday, July 28, 2023, at Beaufort County Council Chambers in Beaufort.
Greenway was put on administrative leave with pay on Monday, July 24, following the first of a string of Special Called meetings that have been held over the past week.
John Robinson, the Assistant County Administrator of Public Safety, was appointed as the acting county administrator at that time, but as of July 28 he has been temporarily promoted to interim county administrator.
In Monday’s meeting it was decided that Robinson would receive an additional $3,000 a month while he held the county administrator role.
Greenway, who initially took the job in June 2021, is leaving two years into his five-year contract.
“We have voted to terminate him with cause,” County Council Chairman Joseph Passiment said during Friday’s meeting. “This still is a personnel matter and we are advised by our legal counsel we cannot talk about it yet. We will talk about it when we are told we can.”
Because he was fired with cause, Greenway does not get any severance pay or a buyout.
The investigation begins
In addition to putting Greenway on administrative leave, Council passed four motions during the July 24 meeting.
The motions called for reviews of all 2023 contracts, 2023 purchases, a review of procurement codes and an audit of the P-Card system.
The P-Card 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.
On Wednesday, July 26, a Special Called Finance Administration and Economic Development Committee meeting was held to address the four additional motions that came out of the Monday meeting.
“We are not doing a witch hunt,” Committee Chairman Mark Lawson said during Wednesday’s meeting. “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.”
Lawson stated that the committee has been tasked with finding an outside group to come in and handle the four motions that came from Monday’s meeting.
He continued to say 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.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the committee passed a motion to have an RFQ prepared by Friday, July 28, and to begin advertising that RFQ on Monday, July 31, for 15 days to look for a law firm to oversee the review of the 2023 contracts and purchases, the procurement codes and to audit the P-Card system.
“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 answer that we need,” Lawson said.
The committee also requested to receive a monthly report on P-Card usage to be proactive and accountable, not to look over employees’ shoulders, said Lawson.
Additionally, members of the committee agreed that it was necessary to freeze access to relevant programs and accounts to preserve evidence while an investigation is conducted.
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.”
Greenway initially came under scrutiny on July 3, when it was made public that a criminal complaint for misconduct in office was filed against him 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. on January 9, 2023, and 4 p.m. on May 11, 2023, but there are no specific complaints listed and no details of any alleged crimes.
Sheriff Tanner declined to comment any further when he spoke to The Island News on July 3.
Lisa Lynch’s complaint
Lisa Lynch, who was hired by Greenway in April 2023 as the county’s Director of Wellness, released a statement through her lawyer on July 26, alleging that she was terminated on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, in retaliation because she agreed to work with law enforcement as a witness to some of Greenway’s suspected criminal activity.
According to Lynch’s statement, Greenway pursued her romantically before and after hiring her, that is until about two weeks after she started her job with the county.
Lynch attended a party with her significant other and while at the party she ran into Greenway.
She said that he became agitated and made it clear that she had offended him by bringing her boyfriend to the party.
It was after this that Greenway allegedly sent her a string of emails and text messages threatening her and her job, as well as threatening her family and professional associates.
After that party, Lynch claims that things got much worse for her at work.
She said in her statement that Greenway and his “underlings” intentionally made her work life unbearable to try and force her resignation.
“I have no doubt that I was terminated for my reports of harassment, my complaints of the same and my participation as a witness in the criminal investigation,” Lynch said in the released statement.
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.”
Furthermore, 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 office.
Greenway said to The Island News on July 3, that he had only been made aware of the complaint that morning and he 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.
