Could Riley be in line to lead Beaufort County?

As the search for a new Beaufort County administrator heats up, a familiar name is believed to be a candidate for the county’s top job, according to multiple sources.

Longtime Hilton Head Island town manager Steve Riley would not comment Saturday when asked whether he is a candidate to replace current county administrator Gary Kubic, who is set to retire at the end of the year.

A person close to the situation who asked not to be identified said Saturday he was informed Riley is one of six finalists for the position. The 11-member Beaufort County Council is expected to submit its rankings of the final six to a consultant, the source said, noting a hiring decision is expected in October.

Beaufort County councilman Rick Caporale confirmed Saturday that he had been contacted several times in recent days by people asking about Riley’s involvement in the candidate search process.

“Other people have asked me the question” of whether Riley is a candidate, Caporale said.

But, he added, at this point in the hiring process, candidates are “always discussed in executive sessions, so even if (Riley) were a candidate I couldn’t discuss it.”

Hilton Head Town Council member Kim Likins said Saturday she had no confirmation that Riley is a finalist for the position but heard a rumor that he is. Council members Marc Grant, Bill Harkins and Tom Lennox said they did not know if Riley was a finalist.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said Saturday that, although he couldn’t confirm any rumors about Riley’s candidacy, Riley would “make an excellent candidate.”

“He and I have worked together for about 20 years, and it’s always been a good relationship,” Tanner said.

Contacted Saturday, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber, who has long been seen as a potential replacement for Kubic, confirmed that he is an applicant for the position and said he believes he is still up for consideration. But he couldn’t say who the other potential candidates might be, including Riley.

“I haven’t been involved in the (county administrator hiring) process, other than being an applicant,” he said.

Riley, the Hilton Head town manager since 1995, has applied at least four times since last summer for government administrator jobs in Savannah, Texas and Iowa. The seven-member Town Council secretly hired a powerful law firm last summer, at a taxpayer cost of at least $11,500, to deal with Riley’s employment situation.

Riley and Hilton Head Mayor David Bennett haven’t gotten along since Bennett took office in December 2014. The Packet and Gazette last week revealed that Riley received a number of negative, anonymous comments from Town Council members in a 2015 written job evaluation, obtained by the newspapers under the state Freedom of Information Act. Bennett declined to comment about the review; other council members either said they didn’t author the negative comments or declined to comment.

Gruber, like Riley, has recently been a candidate for other municipal government jobs. In July, he was a finalist for the city manager position in Marco Island, Fla. In April, Gruber was the runner-up for the town manager position in Fort Meyers Beach, Fla.

Gruber made roughly $125,000 in 2016, and Kubic’s annual salary that year was about $170,000, according to the Packet and Gazette’s local public official salary database. Riley’s annual salary is $175,203.

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Could Riley be in line to lead Beaufort County?."