Loper spends nearly $800k unapproved; administration takes 73 days to notify Council
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
It has been posted all over social media – a handicap accessible playground is coming to Beaufort County and has been placed at the Port Royal Community Center.
But documents, internal communication and information from multiple sources show that Parks and Recreation Director Shannon Loper did not follow the rules on how to get it. And the Beaufort County administration was less than forthcoming about how long it took to address the issue or notify County Council.
According to the presentation that Chuck Atkinson, the Assistant County Administrator for Development and Recreation, gave during the Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee meeting on Monday, Sept. 18, Loper and the Parks and Recreation Department did not follow proper procurement procedure when securing the handicap accessible playground.
The term “handicap accessible playground” is the term used by Beaufort County when referring to the playground, so that is the term we are using.
According to Atkinson, the playground structure was procured via a Sourcewell National Cooperative Contract, which is an agreement between a local, state, regional or federal government and a business that secures affordable rates and establishes delivery terms on goods that the agency needs to have.
During the meeting, he told committee members that Beaufort Parks and Recreation did not follow the proper procedure per Beaufort’s Code of Ordinances Sec. 2-509(d), which states that any purchase made that is more than $200,000 needs to be brought before County Council for approval, even if the money has previously been approved as part of the budget process.
He claimed to believe that intentions behind the “oversight” were good and asserted that the positive aspects of the new playground should not be overshadowed by the department’s negligence in following the procurement code.
“Due to confusion resulting from multiple playgrounds being purchased using the Sourcewell National Cooperative Contract for multiple sites throughout the county simultaneously and a procedural sequencing error by staff, the handicap accessible playground, or inclusive, was delivered and assembled prior to county council approving the pending contract,” Atkinson said.
Per his statement and invoices submitted to council, the playground cost a total of $799,052, and according to Atkinson, to date this invoice has not been paid by Beaufort County.
Allegedly, the playground was purchased after Charleston County School District canceled their order while the playground was being made.
The Parks and Recreation Department, which is run by Loper, purchased the playground equipment without Council approval from Churchich Recreation, Inc., and received a discount of $95,801, because the equipment was in their inventory, and had the equipment installed 18 months earlier than they had previously anticipated or budgeted for.
In the county’s FY23 (Fiscal Year 2023) annual budget, the department had allotted a budget of more than $5,000,000 for Capital Improvement Projects, which includes procuring and installing new playgrounds and repairing or replacing existing equipment.
At the time of the committee meeting on Sept. 18, the account balance for the Capital Improvement Projects budget for Parks and Recreation was $4,820,179 and Atkinson asked for the committee to recommend to County Council to approve the purchase and payment of the handicap accessible playground.
The committee voted to recommend the approval of the playground to County Council with only Council member Paula Brown [District 8] voting against the recommendation.
County Council will be voting on approving payment of the playground on Monday, Sept. 25.
According to a document provided to The Island News listing invoices filed by the Parks and Recreation department, playground equipment was also purchased for playgrounds in Sheldon, Bluffton, Shell Point, St. Helena Island and Beaufort during the 2023 fiscal year.
Each of these playground purchases, according to the records, were for equipment equaling $150,000 or less, which is why they did not need approval from County Council or a Council Committee.
The Director
This is not the first time that Loper, who began in her current role as Director of Beaufort County in August 2016, has come under scrutiny.
In August 2023, the S.C. State Ethics Commission opened an investigation into Loper after it was determined that a complaint filed against her contained sufficient facts to warrant an investigation.
The complainant, who is a Beaufort County resident and wishes to not be named in our news article, alleges that Loper used Beaufort County Public Works property – a Bobcat type vehicle and possibly an excavator – to make improvements to her personal property in Bluffton in 2021.
“She appears to be trying to regrade her property and lay fresh dirt and gravel,” the complainant said. “Her neighbors noticed it and took photos and video and brought it to the attention of [Beaufort] County Council at the time as well as Greenway. It was reportedly swept under the rug.”
Former County Administrator Eric Greenway and Former Deputy County Administrator Whitney Richland are both being investigated by the Ethics Commission, as well.
Greenway is under investigation regarding him allegedly hiring his daughter, Andrea Greenway, to do graphic design work for the county without putting it out for bid or going through the proper process to hire someone to do work for the county.
The complaint against Richland involves the alleged attempted purchase of 587 weighted blankets from a company called R&R Home, which is allegedly owned by her husband.
An invoice for $35,644 for the blankets was received by Beaufort County in April 2023 and “Wellness (Eric Greenway)” was listed in the contact information on the invoice.
Neither Greenway nor Richland work for Beaufort County anymore.
Richland resigned from her position on August 18, per a release from Beaufort County, although several sources who wish not to be named told The Island News that she cleared out her office, and was visibly upset while doing so, on August 9.
Greenway was put on administrative leave on July 24 and was fired with cause on July 28.
In August 2022, Loper and the Parks and Recreation Department came under fire for their decision to make an affordable summer camp using public facilities available only to the children of county employees instead of opening it up to the public.
Additionally, a memo written by Loper that was sent out to county employees told them that the program is not open to the public and that the Parks and Recreation Department is doing their “best to disguise it.”
Why is this a problem?
The Beaufort County administration has come under scrutiny over the past few months for failure to follow through with proper procurement procedures, among other issues with transparency.
Greenway’s contract was terminated with cause at the end of July and the reasons for his termination were announced by Council Chairman Joseph Passiment during the appeal he requested on Sept. 11.
It was revealed that Greenway was terminated due to numerous alleged improprieties related to hiring practices and for the execution of a contract with a company called Elementzal LLC.
According to a letter from Atkinson to Beaufort County Interim Administrator John Robinson on Sept. 7, the error involving the inclusive playground was allegedly discovered by the Parks and Recreation staff on July 7, 2023, and they notified Administration and the Procurement Services Department, but the issue was not brought up to County Council for approval until Sept. 18.
Atkinson also alleged that the party who did not follow the procurement ordinance were also the ones who found their error and came forward with it.
“Those that made the mistake, discovered it and as soon as they did they brought it forward and they were very remorseful over it. They brought it forward, nobody just found out that it happened. In the course of processing paperwork, as we normally do, it was discovered immediately that…this happened, and this is a big deal. The immediately informed purchasing, informed administration, and asked what they needed to do to take full responsibility for their misstep,” Atkinson said during the Sept. 18 meeting.
But according to an e-mail chain provided to The Island News between the procurement department and the finance department, that does not seem to be the case.
It appears that the issue was first discovered when a requisition was made to pay the invoices from Churchich Recreation, Inc. for a combined $799,052.01 that were provided to County Council dated for May 25 and June 29, 2023.
The email chain begins on July 7, 2023, one day after the work on the inclusive playground was completed, and the emails point to Victoria Moyer, the Contracts Manager with Beaufort County Procurement Services, as the person who discovered that the Parks and Recreation Department had not followed proper procurement code.
The emails also show that there were never any formal contracts, bonds, or purchase order, in addition to the lack of Committee and County Council approval for the inclusive playground.
Per the emails, at some point between July 7 and July 10, Dale Butts, Assistant County Administrator with the Finance Division, and Dave Thomas, Procurement Services Director for Beaufort County, contacted Hank Amundson, Special Assistant to the County Administrator, who then contacted Atkinson.
“Please give me a call as soon as possible regarding the two large projects … that have already been completed without proper authorization [purchase order], formal contracts, Bonds, Committee and [County Council] approval,” an email from Thomas to Loper on July 7 said.
Why did it take so long for the issue to be brought up to county council?
“This was a completely unforced error by staff,” Atkinson said. “It is inexcusable. It was not necessary, although after fully reviewing the content and the circumstances, I think it was intended to be a good thing – to expedite the instillation of a playground at discount that was already approved in the budget. In instances like this, good intentions don’t matter. It is important that we all play by the rules, we follow the rules and, like I said, we are taking this very seriously.”
Per a decision made in early July, when Council decided to place Greenway on administrative leave, Beaufort County Council has hired the law firm Haynsworth, Sinkler and Boyd to conduct an audit of all purchases that have been made since January 1, 2023, to confirm that the purchases comply with the County’s procurement codes, identify any that do not comply and report back to Council.
The firm is also meant to review all the professional services that have occurred since January 1, 2023, to confirm that all contracts comply with the County’s procurement codes, conduct a thorough review of Beaufort County’s Procurement Code and do an audit of the P-Card System for the fiscal years 2019-2023.
“It is a good thing,” said Council Member Anna Marie Tabernik [District 6] during the Sept. 18 meeting. “I would never presume to send [the playground] back. The community would hang us all in effigy because they have already seen it there. However, at a time when this council and this government is under scrutiny for procurement, contracts, purchase orders, bids – I hear what you’re saying about unforced error, but the process was not followed. The person, the director, is a veteran employee. [She] knows the procurement code. So, I know it shouldn’t have happened, but that is just unacceptable that it did occur and the person needs to be held accountable by the County Administrator. No, I don’t want to send the playground equipment back, and we should approve it, but this is what we are under scrutiny for, so this is way unacceptable in my point of view.”
Many of the council members on the Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee meeting agreed that while the playground is overall a positive move for the county, the responsible party needs to be held accountable and a concerted initiative needs to be made to prevent it from happening again.
“I don’t think it’s fair that the taxpayer foot this bill,” said Council Member Paula Brown [District 8].
Tabernik suggested that council members go into executive session during the committee meeting on Sept. 18 to be briefed by Robinson about the administration’s plan to hold the responsible parties accountable, but it was ultimately decided that they would wait and go into executive session to receive information about the personnel matter before the County Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 25.
Paying invoices
During the County Council meeting on Sept. 25, Council members voted to pay the invoices with only Brown and David Bartholomew [District 2] voting against.
As previously stated, the invoices for the equipment have not been paid.
Bartholomew mentioned this article during the meeting and asked Atkinson to account for the discrepancies between what he had told Council about who discovered the issue and what the email chain mentioned in this article said.
“The issue … is how it came to be,” Bartholomew said. “You have addressed it, but it’s still an issue. I mean we’re going through all of this right now and the scrutiny that we are all under. One, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but two, in this environment right now it is unacceptable.”
Atkinson began to respond, but was interrupted by Vice Chairman Larry McEllyn [District 10] who claimed that this was a personnel matter, and as such Atkinson was not allowed to discuss it.
“This is completely procedural, it is in my report, and I am happy to explain that,” Atkinson said to McEllyn.
Following this statement, McEllyn stated again, more forcefully for him to stop talking as he perceived what Atkinson was going to stay to be a personnel matter.
Atkinson then responded by saying he was not going to be talking about a personnel matter, but agreed to stop talking.
Again, Council members seemed to mostly agree that while the playground is a positive move for Beaufort County, the ones responsible for the failure to follow proper procurement code is inexcusable and need to be handled seriously.
This story will be updated.
Editor’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Delayna Earley’s husband interviewed for the Beaufort County Parks And Recreation Director position in 2016.
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.
