Beaufort County Council held a special session Oct. 15 and voted unanimously to offer John L. Weaver the position of interim county administrator.
Weaver has accepted the position and is expected to start the week of Nov. 12, replacing interim administrator Thomas Keaveny, who announced his resignation last month after the council voted to investigate his agreement to pay former interim administrator $12,000 per month for consulting. Keaveny will remain as the county’s staff attorney, a position he has held since May 2015.
Weaver presently serves as the county attorney for Lancaster County, a position he has held for the past four years. He previously served as county administrator, assistant county administrator, and county attorney for Horry County, which has a population nearing 300,000 and is situated further up the coast from Beaufort County in the Pee Dee region.
During Weaver’s tenure with Horry County government, he worked for a county council with 12 members (11 single-districts and one at-large) and managed a workforce of approximately 1,800. Weaver served as a Captain in the United States Air Force and has more than 20 years of private sector experience which includes serving as a general manager and corporate counsel for a South Carolina-based building supplier. He has also practiced law in a variety of areas, including governmental relations.
Weaver holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from The Citadel and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina. He is a member of the International City/County Management Association and the South Carolina Bar.
Beaufort County Council will introduce Weaver during its regular meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 5, at the Beaufort County Administration Building in Council Chambers.
The county has been without a full-time administrator since Gary Kubic’s retirement in September 2017. Josh Gruber, who was the deputy administrator under Kubic, served as the interim administrator for 10 months before accepting a position as assistant town manager on Hilton Head Island.
County Council offered the permanent position to Alan Ours on July 24 – only after first voting against extending him an offer and considering a motion to offer the position to Gruber – but Ours rejected the offer and Keaveny took over on an interim basis. The next day, Keaveny entered into a contract with Gruber in which the county agreed to pay him $12,000 per month for consulting to help with the transition.
