By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
Beaufort County Council’s June 8 meeting lasted more than four hours and covered a diversity of subjects from a business license for a Catholic thrift store to stricter regulations for plastic bags.
But four of the 11 council members who sat on the dais and participated in the discussions must have been contemplating their political futures which would be determined the next day, primary election day.
Unfortunately, two of them – Tom Reitz and Paula Brown, both Republicans from south of the Broad River – didn’t fare well with their voters and they won’t be coming back in January. The other two – Vice Chair Tab Tabernick and Mark Lawson – won their party’s nomination but still face Democratic opposition in November.
Another three – Chairwoman Alice Howard, Joe Passiment and Larry McElynn – got to sit there, knowing they wouldn’t be facing such weighty government problems much longer because they’re not running for re-election.
Councilman Logan Cunningham, of District 7, which is pretty much Bluffton, wasn’t up for re-election to his council seat but he WAS on the ballot as one of 11 Republican candidates running for the party’s nomination to the 1st Congressional District. Coming in third, with 15.5 percent of the vote, looks like Cunningham will be sitting on the County Council for two more years.
No reports yet on how much the individual candidates spent, just in those primary races, but we do know at least five of those races, all Republicans, saw financial contributions from an unidentified Alliance for Lowcountry Balance, a political action group who presence prompted cries of “dark money” since its origins are carefully hidden from those trying to see who’s supporting whom.
Rumors were the source was developers – again, unidentified – who wanted to “buy” County Council influence, say, for example, Pine Island supporters but those who know the truth, aren’t saying.
Of course, the endorsement by the Alliance didn’t help Reitz, Brown, or Beth Gillespie, who ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Mark Lawson of District 9.
The fifth candidate, and only one from north of the Broad River, endorsed by the Alliance was Thomas Grygowski, candidate for District 4 to replace Howard. He lost to Michael Andersen who will apparently have a seat at the table since he has no Democratic opposition in November.
But who knows whether the Alliance’s endorsement helped Joshua Hower, who is in a runoff in Republican primary for District 5 seat currently held by Passiment. The winner of that primary race will face Democrat opposition.
Make sense? It’s Politics 101 and the 36,600 Beaufort County voters (26 percent of the total) who went to the polling places last week did their part to preserve democracy. The races aren’t over and the future of Beaufort County government is still dangling.
So what DID County Council do last week?
BEAUFORT — The June 8 County Council meeting, for one, drew a large crowd, with half the room was filled with island residents there to support the St. Francis Center on Lady’s Island and the other half, Palmetto Bluff residents upset that the county was working with The Nature Conservancy to acquire 4,900 acres of undeveloped land next to their gated community for a park.
The issue involving the St. Francis Center was the county’s contention the nuns needed a business license for their thrift store if they wanted to erect a new directional sign. The previous, small sign which, for years, had directed volunteers and those needing help had to come down when recent owners of the sign location decided they wanted some rent.
In the discussion on what to do next, the county stepped in and pointed out they needed a business license, which, as a nonprofit, would not cost anything, but they would have to register. That did not sit well with the higher powers of the church whose representative argued with the county attorney and business license folks they weren’t a “business.”
After 45 minutes of discussion, the council agreed to direct the staff to, basically, drop the matter.
The irritated Palmetto Bluff residents didn’t fare as well but they did get a commitment from the Council for a special workshop to “air the facts” associated with the Nature Conservancy land deal, which according to a spokesman, had been in the works for more than a year with the cooperation of state Sen. Tom Davis. The plan is to use $42 million from the county’s Green Space program to extend the county’s New River park.
The plastic bag banners were able to celebrate the third and final reading of a more restricted ordinance which would eliminate all plastic bags including the heavier weight ones which were introduced when the county imposed the original ordinance in 2018. The new regulations requires plastic cutlery and straws to be provided only upon request and violations, of which there have been none since the original ordinance was passed, would be a civil (vs criminal) violation.
The new regulations passed but five council members voted against the final reading of the ordinance, calling it a “government over-reach” and a “feel-good” action.
The ordinance still has to be adopted by the Beaufort city, Port Royal, Bluffton and Hilton Head town councils before it goes into effect county-wide. Beaufort City Council has already given one of two necessary readings.
As the evening dragged on, the council tackled second reading of the FY 2027 $203.3 million budget and used the opportunity to add on various projects including $465,000 for the return of the Human Services Department which was consolidated with another department by the now departed Chief Finance Office Pinky Harriott. The motion to do so came from Councilman David Bartholomew who said he was motivated, to reverse the staff decision, by constituents who were concerned the changes negatively impacted services to those in need. He got seven of his fellow council members to agree with him.
There will be one more reading of the budget at the June 22 meeting.
And the $780 million, 9-year transportation sales tax referendum which the council plans to present to the voters in November? It’s still on track for a third and final reading next meeting. Then the voters get to decide.
Revolving door raises more questions than answers
BEAUFORT — One issue the Council didn’t discuss at the June 8 meeting was their decision a week earlier to hire another outside investigator to look into county operations.
The reason? Eight county administrators, six financial officers, five deputy administrators and four county attorneys, all in nine years.
That’s what The Island News reporter Delayna Earley last week quoted County Treasurer Maria Walls saying as she expressed her own frustration with county leadership.
In response to hours of recent closed-door meetings, the Council agreed to authorize “an inquiry into departments and personnel overseen by the county administrator” which would be Michael Moore who started the job July 2024 after former administrator Eric Greenway was fired.
Earley points out this is the third major outside investigation of county operations in the past three years, one dealing with purchasing issues during Greenway’s administration which was done to the tune of $400,000 and the other, an investigation trying to identify employees who supposedly “leaked” confidential information, again, during Greenway’s administration, that one at a cost of approximately $60,000.
A selection of which firm for this latest investigation or how much it will cost has not been announced.
There has been no indication that this latest call for an inquiry is related to the sudden departure last month of Chief Finance Officer Pinky Harriott who was either fired or resigned. No one’s saying.
With all the employee coming and goings, it was interesting that the Council in March voted to hire their own attorney and brought in the law firm Howell, Gibson and Hughes, which represented the county for a number of years before the decision was made to create an in-house legal department which now supports three attorneys plus staff. They’ll be paid on an hourly basis, at $225 per hour.
And with all these investigations and allegations, it’s also interesting to remember the county, as required by state law, has an annual outside audit which for the past decade has been conducted by Mauldin & Jenkins, CPA of Savannah, Ga., and costs around $175,000. And, the annual reports have traditionally been “clean” reports indicating no areas of mismanagement.
For the record, community activist and often critic Skip Hoagland of Hilton Head was at last week’s council meeting and offered to conduct the investigations … for free. The council took no action on his offer.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. The Rowland, N.C. native’s goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.