Hilton Head to review contract with Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office

The Town of Hilton Head Island will be taking a closer look at its policing services from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office as part of a comprehensive review of its biggest contracts.

But the town is handling the review differently for the Sheriff’s Office than with its other major contracts. Rather than assign the work to town staff, as the council did with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and Island Recreation Center, the town plans to hire an outside expert.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner says he doesn’t see the need for the third-party review, as he frequently looks at his services to the county and Hilton Head and provides staff with information and statistics. Mayor David Bennett, however, said town staff don’t have the expertise for the task council wants done.

“I’m not sure why the town would ask any service provider to self-assess other than as one component of a more comprehensive review,” Bennett added last week.

Tanner added that he believes Bennett and other town officials pushed for the review in part as payback for how the sheriff handled negotiations to bring an Ironman triathlon to Hilton Head. Tanner opposed the potential race and warned it would be a challenge to ensure public safety before plans were dashed in December.

“I’m not sure the town really has a firm grip on what they’re trying to accomplish,” Tanner said of the contractual review. “... If the reasons that they’ve asked for this is because they’re mad about this Ironman thing, then to spend taxpayer money to move a study like this forward, then that’s kind of disappointing.”

Bennett, however, said Ironman isn’t on his mind.

“My focus and, in fact, my responsibility is to ensure that the residents and visitors of Hilton Head Island are afforded the very best law enforcement services available for their considerable investment,” he said.

The review will examine the Sheriff’s Office’s services in 2015 to identify any opportunities for improvement or changes to its $3.24 million contract, council voted unanimously at its April 19 meeting. It will look at staffing and service levels, response times, clearance rates for solving cases and other factors, and compare them to similar areas.

That review, and those of the chamber and rec center, stem from Bennett’s promise last year to increase transparency and accountability and study how the town and its partners spend public money.

Reached last week, Councilman Bill Harkins said the process is about “basic hygiene.”

“It’s just good business to have parties that are under contract to periodically review them to make sure things are working the way both parties intend,” he said. “We’re just going in with eyes wide open.”

The town has budgeted $30,000 for the Sheriff’s Office review, according to administration manager Faidra Smith. The other audits were completed internally through meetings between the town’s finance and administration committee and the organizations, Smith said.

The results of those reviews were not available, and committee chairman John McCann did not respond to phone calls last week or Monday.

Bennett also hopes to take a second look at the about-$1.5 million-a-year chamber contract approved in November 2015. He would like an outside expert to conduct a thorough evaluation of its marketing techniques, strategies and executions, though there are no plans for that work to be done.

Tanner said, motivations aside, he is not bothered by the concept of a contractual review.

“What you’ve got to do is ask: No. 1, we need to know what your questions are, and we’ll do it for you and provide it in a timely fashion,” he said. “I don’t have any problem whatsoever being criticized. I criticize myself more than anyone else does.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Hilton Head to review contract with Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office."