Sweetheart deal or creative problem solving? Local volleyball club nabs county facility
A heavily discounted lease given to a local volleyball program by Beaufort County raises questions about how the deal was made and why the county’s parks and recreation department was unaware and uninvolved with the arrangement.
Also unclear is why, and at what cost, a county warehouse used previously as a storage facility for EMS equipment and hurricane supplies was retrofitted into a volleyball gym. It’s also unclear whether the availability of this new county-created facility was communicated to other volleyball club coaches and the public.
The details and dollars
The county gave a one-year lease to Beaufort Elite Volleyball Club for 22 hours a week at $525 a month, or about $6 an hour for the storage turned volleyball training facility. Other sports organizations pay $20 to $50 an hour to practice in Beaufort County-owned facilities and, according to a parks and recreation official but the county is not even leasing its other gyms at the moment.
The deal appears to have originated with a conversation between County Administrator Eric Greenway and the club’s outgoing director, Mike Dixon. Greenway and Dixon live on the same street in Beaufort, across the street and two houses apart. Greenway said he did not know Dixon before they connected about the building and that a personal relationship played no part in the deal.
Asked why the deal was done without the knowledge of, or input from, the parks and recreation department, Greenway said the deal is a lease with a nonprofit organization, not a parks and recreation program, and added, “I’m over parks and recreation, too.” The lease was approved on January 23 of this year by County Council in a unanimous vote.
According to Beaufort Elite’s website, it began its program in 2007. The site lists 14 coaches and says most recently it had 135 players ages 8 to 18 “try out” for the program. The site touts the program’s success in travel tournaments and claims to have had “many of our athletes go on to play at collegiate level.” According to the South Carolina Secretary of State’s office who oversees the state’s charitable organizations, Elite filed for and was granted nonprofit status on January 24, 2022.
Volleyball’s growth pains in the region
In January of this year, when Beaufort County Council voted unanimously to enter into the one-year lease with Beaufort Elite for use of the county facility for practice, it solved a problem for one club but furthered the frustration of others trying to find available and affordable practice space.
It was a deal Mike Dixon, the club’s outgoing director, couldn’t turn down after looking for practice space for so long.
“I wanted to sign the contract as soon as possible,” said Dixon.
Beaufort County’s explosive growth in the last two decades led to the creation of many new sports clubs and teams.
Finding appropriate practice facilities can be a challenge for the other clubs in the area. They can cost upwards of $50 an hour and are often unavailable.
Dave Bly, director of Seaside Volleyball said it’s frustrating to have to go as far out as Hardeeville and Ridgeland when there is a nice facility, the Buckwalter Recreation Center, basically next door to him.
Jessica O’Connell-Young, director of Beaufort Select volleyball club, says her club is often denied space by the county. “We got a lot of doors closed in our face,” she said.
“Volleyball is growing around here,” O’Connell-Young said. “Now there’s six clubs in the area. There’s so many more kids participating and we’re having to use cafeterias and try to make a makeshift thing because the county will not comply.”
Why is a volleyball gym not overseen by parks and rec?
Currently the Parks and Recreation Department doesn’t rent out gyms at all, according to Chuck Atkinson, assistant county administrator for development and recreation, so there aren’t currently rates for gyms. However, rates for renting county facilities are set by the Parks and Recreation board, a citizen advisory board.
But the board had no role in determining Beaufort Elite’s monthly rent.
Bruce Yeager, chair of the county’s parks and rec board was surprised to hear about the warehouse-turned volleyball gym when contacted by the papers.
“I’m not inferring that we should have been in that process, but typically we do set those things and there is a schedule of fees for those items, for fields and other travel ball types of entities,” Yeager said.
Instead of being managed by the parks and rec department, County Administrator Eric Greenway directly oversees the facility.
Greenway sees a distinction between recreation and nonprofits.
“What’s going on in there is not a Parks and Rec program,” Greenway said. “It’s a lease with a nonprofit company that’s doing practice there. I’m over Parks and Recreation too.” Greenway elaborated that just because recreation activities were taking place there, it didn’t have to be overseen by Parks and Recreation.
Before the council’s resolution, the building at 2727 Depot Road was a warehouse for EMS equipment, surplus furniture and hurricane supplies. The facility needed modifications to be turned into a volleyball gym. Details about who refitted the gym and the related expenses were not immediately available to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
The facility fee of $525 per month in the lease was determined in accordance with Beaufort County lease policy, Greenway said.
According to the policy, which was passed by county council last year, lease rates are fair market value as determined by an appraiser. (The Island Packet / Beaufort Gazette has requested a copy of the appraiser’s report.) As part of that policy, nonprofit organizations are eligible for a 50% deduction on lease rates. At $6 per hour, Beaufort Elite is benefiting from a rate well below the going rates for facilities under parks and rec even with the nonprofit 50% discount.
But the use of the facility may not be exclusive to Beaufort Elite, Greenway said. “Anyone that’s willing to, enter into a similar lease and use that facility in accordance with its availability, would be welcome to use it,” he said.
Leadership questions continue
Beaufort County leadership has been nagged by questions surrounding decisions by its top people for several years. In 2018, then-administrator Josh Gruber signed a contract paying himself a $24,000 consulting fee. Gruber was eventually fined after an ethics compliant was filed against him. Gruber’s replacement, Ashley Jacob, had a tumultous 19-month tenure that saw heavy employee turnover and council discord before she resigned when it was clear she had lost council support.
Greenway replaced Jacob and faced questions of his own when he created a new six-figure, director-level position within the county and re-hired a man he described as a friend and who had previously sued the county, claiming a hostile working environment and that it had discriminated against him for being an “older white male.”
Other off-the-court filing challenges dog Beaufort Elite Volleyball
On February 15, 2023 the volleyball club’s non-profit status expired, according to Shannon Wiley, General Council and Public Information Director for the Secretary of State’s office. Their office returned the club’s filings to Elite on May 4 for corrections. The state gives organizations 15 days to amend forms and resubmit. From February 15 until the future date when the state approves the amended filings, Elite does not have the benefit of nonprofit status.
Wiley said the state office received the club’s revised filings by the deadline on May 18 and the forms are currently going through review and processing.
Coach Dixon did not respond to subsequent questions regarding the issues with the clubs 501c3 status with the state.
Dixon often holds practices at his house, which has a full-sized sand volleyball court in the front yard. His neighbor Greenway says he is aware that Dixon lives down the street, but said the two didn’t know each other before this project with Beaufort Elite Volleyball began.
This story was originally published May 22, 2023 at 12:29 PM.
