In 24 hours, Beaufort County hires admin, takes it back, hires another, gets rejected

After more than a year of searching for a new county administrator and a roller coaster ride of a meeting Monday night, Beaufort County Council had finally made its decision.

Josh Gruber, the embattled — and now former — interim county administrator, who was no longer a finalist for the position, had the job.

It didn’t last long.

Less than an hour later, Council members retracted their votes and instead offered the position to Glynn County, Ga., administrator Alan Ours, one of two finalists Council had already rejected that evening.

“In the end, I think Mr. Ours is the best choice,” Councilman Mike Covert said Monday after the meeting. “His time on the job is stellar. He’s done the hurricane, he’s done the flooding ... He understands retirement, tourism. He’s done it.”

The county publicly announced its decision in a media release late Tuesday afternoon.

And just two hours later, Ours, who had watched a live-stream of Monday’s meeting, rejected their offer, putting the county right back where it started.

Ours cited not wanting to uproot his family as his reason for not accepting the position.

“I have a large family, with 10 kids, with one in 10th grade and one in eighth grade,” he said in a Tuesday evening phone call.

While his kids were excited about the prospect of moving at first, he said, the youngest had changed her mind.

Ours said the board’s earlier vote not to hire him did not weigh into his decision not to take the job and that his mind had been made up even before the Council extended the offer.

“While I thought about withdrawing, I thought it was too far along in the process to remove myself from consideration.”

Some council members Tuesday evening were surprised by this development.

“It’s a shame he chose not to take the job,” said Councilwoman Alice Howard, who had voted against Ours. “But, he impressed me as that type of person who would put family first.”

Councilman Tabor Vaux said he wasn’t sure when a good time would be to restart the search process but acknowledged that Council’s difficulty in selecting Ours could deter future candidates from applying.

“It would scare me off,” he said.

Councilman Rick Caporale, who had voted to hire Ours, also did not know Tuesday evening that Ours had rejected Council’s offer.

He laughed when he heard the news.

“I suppose we go back to square one.”

Earlier in the day, Caporale had expressed frustration with five of his fellow council members, who he believed had tried to engineer the vote in favor of Gruber on Monday night.

“It was the strategy of the Gruber supporters (on Council) to eliminate the other two candidates so they could vote on Gruber,” he said.

Covert concurred with Caporale, albeit with less strong wording.

“I figured that everything that took place was going to happen,” he said. “There was a lot of well-orchestrated theatrics tonight.”

Gruber long had been considered to be the successor to Gary Kubic, the former longtime county administrator who retired last September.

Having been deputy county administrator since September 2014, Gruber was named one of three finalists in the county’s first search to replace Kubic in 2017, but the county never voted on him.

Since then, Gruber has been a finalist for the town manager job in Fort Myers, Fla. and city manager role in Marco Island, Fla., but he did not get either job.

He recently accepted a job as assistant town manager on Hilton Head Island after it became clear there was not enough support on the board to hire him.

His last day with the county was July 20.

County attorney Thomas Keaveny has taken over as interim county administrator.

Monday night’s turbulence at the Council meeting began when Ours and Shanahan both came up for votes and were rejected, 4-5 with one abstention and 1-6 with three abstentions, respectively.

Vice Chairman Jerry Stewart then nominated Gruber for a vote, which initially passed 5-4, with councilman York Glover Sr. abstaining. Council then went into executive session. When they returned to Council chambers, they put Gruber up for another vote.

This time they deadlocked at 5-5, paving the way for Ours’ reconsideration, which passed 7-3.

Council Chairman Paul Sommerville, a consistent supporter of Gruber, did not confirm or deny that a plan had been in place to put Gruber up for a vote Monday night, but said he has been extremely disappointed in Council’s failure to hire Gruber.

“The other council members have no idea on the damage they’ve done to the county,” he said. “We need leadership. We had that until we lost Josh.”

Of the six members of Council reached, none were immediately sure where to go next.

Covert said he thinks Council needs to reconsider its approach to the selection process.

“We need to check ourselves, our egos and our personal agendas at the door,” he said. “If that had been done, we wouldn’t have had the performance seen last night.

“Maybe it’ll take four new members on the Council for that to happen,” he added, referring to the seats that will change hands in November.

“I just don’t know.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 9:51 AM.