He lived and voted in another state. Why was he allowed to serve on Beaufort County Council?
Gerald “Jerry” Stewart, former Beaufort County Council vice chairman, lived in another state — and was registered to vote there — for at least four months during his term on council, according to documents obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
The records show that Stewart accepted his county salary and stipends, voted on important county issues, and voted in a South Carolina primary despite residing in North Carolina and representing himself as a resident of Beaufort County.
S.C. state law requires council members to register to vote and to reside in the county or district they’re elected to serve. Stewart failed to disclose that he registered to vote in and was a resident of another state during his term on council. In February 2018, he listed the address of his former Bluffton property, sold two months earlier, on his Statement of Economic Interest with the S.C. Ethics Commission.
Stewart served three consecutive terms on Beaufort County Council, from 2007 through 2018. While voting and living in N.C., the chairman of the finance and executive committees attended every council meeting.
When contacted Wednesday by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, Stewart declined to comment.
Full-time resident?
Stewart was re-elected to his third term on the council in 2014 and, until his term ended in late 2018, filed his address with the S.C. Ethics Commission as 1 Schooner Lane, Bluffton, S.C. 29909, off S.C. 170.
On Aug. 16, 2017, Stewart and his wife purchased a house in Lewisville, N.C., with a mortgage that included an occupancy clause which indicated it would be their primary residence within 60 days of signing, according to property records from Forsyth County, N.C. On Dec. 19, 2017, 125 days later, Stewart sold his home in Beaufort County, according to county property records.
In the 2018 Directory of County Officials, Stewart’s address is listed at 20 Huquenin Ln, Bluffton, S.C. 29909, in Sun City. The property is owned by Mark Russell, a Kentucky resident, according to county property records. A call to Russell about Stewart’s lease was not returned Wednesday.
On June 26, 2018, despite signing a mortgage in 2017 stating that his primary residence was in N.C., Stewart voted in the S.C. Republican Primary runoff using a voter registration that listed his address as 1 Schooner Ln — the home he sold the previous December.
Stewart, then vice chairman of Beaufort County Council, officially registered to vote in North Carolina on Sept. 19, 2018, and voted in the Nov. 6 election as a N.C. elector.
However, he continued voting at Beaufort County Council and Committee meetings, chaired the Finance Committee, submitted expense reports and received his full councilman salary through Dec. 31, 2018, according to documents obtained by The Island Packet.
On Dec. 10, 2018, just hours before a county council meeting, former state Rep. Edie Rodgers emailed council members that, “Jerry Stewart is no longer a legal resident of Beaufort County, owns no property here, and for months has been a resident of North Carolina.”
“If this is true, shouldn’t he have made this public and resigned his seat so a special election could have been held, if necessary?” the email said. “If this is indeed true, any vote he casts as a member of Beaufort County Council would seem to be illegal. Maybe this needs to be addressed publicly.”
At the beginning of that night’s county council meeting — Stewart’s last meeting before the end of his term — he recused himself due to “questions raised with respect to (his) residency in Beaufort County.” He said although he has “numerous ties to the county in the form of having doctors here, legal advisors, investment advisors” and property, his lease in the county “was cut short.”
Who Knew?
As council vice chairman and head of two important county committees, Stewart held significant voting power during a contentious period on county council. On one of the biggest issues — the search for a county administrator to replace Gary Kubic — council members were divided. One faction — a group of five members that included current Chairman Stu Rodman, current Vice Chairman Paul Sommerville and Stewart — supported former interim administrator Josh Gruber for the job. A group of six seemed to oppose his appointment from the beginning.
On July 25, 2018, a day before Stewart voted in the S.C. primary election, Rodman sent a personal email to Stewart and Sommerville about Stewart traveling back and forth to North Carolina.
“With Alan turning down our offer, we need to reconvene Council this week being sensitive to Jerry’s travel. Jerry, are you here or back in NC?” the email said.
The Alan in the email is a reference to Alan Ours, the candidate the council had first selected to be administrator and who subsequently turned down the job.
Asked about the email and whether he knew about Stewart’s N.C. residency, Rodman said he knew “absolutely nothing” about Stewart living in N.C. when he sent the email, and that Stewart had just told him he was going on a “trip” to N.C. He said it was only when Stewart’s residency was questioned before the Dec. 10 county council meeting that the issue was brought up.
Vice Chairman Sommerville said he knew Stewart was commuting back and forth to N.C., but not until Dec. 10 — when Rodgers emailed — did he put “two and two together” that Stewart wasn’t a resident of the county. He said Stewart had told some members of council he was going to buy a house in N.C., but that didn’t “ring any alarm bells.”
“I don’t think anybody ever connected those dots,” Sommerville said.
He said County Attorney Tom Keaveny “confronted” Stewart about his residency before the Dec. 10 meeting, from which Stewart recused himself, and Keaveny informed the council that Stewart was not eligible to serve because he was not a resident.
Stewart continued to be paid through his term, which ended Dec. 31, 2018.
At the time, Sommerville said, “it was pretty obvious that people were being fast and loose with residency requirements.”
