Beaufort holds special meeting on FOIA investigation. What we know

Beaufort city council members met behind closed doors on Monday to discuss the investigation into the city’s accidental release of 9,000 unredacted documents last year.

During the closed-door meeting, held in executive session, city councillors were scheduled to hear an update on an outside legal counsel’s investigation into the August 2025 leak of over 9,000 pages of information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Charleston-based law firm Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd is leading the external investigation, along with attorney Ross Appel, Beaufort Mayor Phil Cromer said.

No action was taken following executive session, and nothing was said after the private meeting. The investigation is moving along and nearing its final stretch, Cromer said later. But Cromer and Councilman Josh Scallate did not go into detail about what was discussed in executive session.

“We’re near the end, but we still got a little ways to go, but hopefully it’ll be over by summer’s end,” Cromer said. He declined to provide details of the investigation’s findings.

“As soon as we are able, we will provide a public statement regarding the findings.” Scallate added in a text.

Last August, the city of Beaufort accidentally released about 9,000 sensitive documents to Kiel and Autumn Hollis, who had requested information relating to the police department’s handling of their daughter’s missing persons case in February 2025. Their daughter was found a few days after she went missing, but the Hollises were unhappy with how the case was handled.

In response, the family got more than they bargained for. They received unredacted documents with social security numbers, city government legal discussions and information relating to police investigations. Some were completely unrelated to the original FOIA request.

Scallate previously said that he stopped reading the files once he realized they were unredacted and included social security numbers, a pay stub of a city employee and information regarding city litigation.

The city notified the public of the release on Aug. 5. An investigation was originally led in-house, by City Manager Scott Marshall. Cromer suggested the outside review because he believed having city leaders in charge of the probe may taint the investigation in the eyes of some residents.

The investigation launched in September 2025, a month after the FOIA mishap.