Ex-Hilton Head council member, critic going to court. Why taxpayers pick up the tab
The case of a former Hilton Head Island town council member who sued a critic in 2015 for harming her reputation goes to court today. A jury hearing the defamation trial in Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas will determine whether the elected official deserves damages or whether the critic simply exercised his right to free speech.
The verdict also determines whether taxpayers will recoup five years worth of legal bills paid on the council member’s behalf.
The former council member, Kim Likins, is seeking damages from Skip Hoagland, a longtime vocal critic who turned his ire on Likins after she supported the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce’s lucrative contract with the town.
In a series of 2015 phone calls and emails to Likins’ bosses — board members of the Boys & Girls Club of Hilton Head Island — Hoagland, a retired Beaufort County businessman known for his fiery public criticism of local officials, proclaimed Likins unfit to serve as the club’s director.
Already, the town has spent nearly $194,500 on behalf of Likins who, until 2018, was mayor pro tem. The suit was bankrolled by the Town of Hilton Head because town officials said Likins endured attacks solely because of her duties as a public official. Payments for legal counsel for Likins, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2018, were unanimously approved by her fellow council members in 2015.
But the use of public money for a lawsuit against a private citizen raises questions about whether the town should use its financial resources to chill criticism, and whether Hoagland’s public lambasting of Likins actually harmed her.
The town’s own council members as well as government watchdogs have criticized the council for extraordinarily high spending on outside legal counsel. In 2017, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers found that Hilton Head outspent the City of Charleston, the largest city in the state. Hilton Head’s outside legal costs amounted to nearly $2.4 million over five years.
Since the defamation suit’s original filing, both Likins and Hoagland have filed related suits, and the town has paid five separate law firms for work on the suits, which span five years.
Likins will be represented by Alford & Thoreson Law Firm of Hilton Head, a firm contracted by the town, and Walker, Gressette, Freeman & Linton, LLC of Charleston. Hoagland told The Island Packet on Thursday that he did not plan to attend the trial.
What is the lawsuit about?
Likins’ lawsuit, filed against Hoagland in December 2015, contends that Hoagland told her bosses that she was unfit to be director of the Boys & Girls Club of Hilton Head Island.
“In the course of the phone call, (Hoagland) demanded the club fire Ms. Likins because ‘she had lied to the public,’ and ‘she shouldn’t be around children,’” Michael Briggs, board chairman of the Boys and Girls Club of Hilton Head, told The Island Packet in 2015.
“I said I’d look into the matter and get back to him. I met with people here at the club, and we’re obviously not going to fire Kim Likins,” he told the newspaper.
Likins did not lose her job. But her suit alleges that the attacks damaged her mental health and reputation and that Hoagland was illegally trying to influence her vote as a public official.
According to Likins’ suit, Hoagland made that allegation after she voted for a contract with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce — a contract Hoagland had repeatedly criticized.
Shortly after filing her defamation suit, Likins obtained a restraining order against Hoagland that barred him from contacting members of the club’s board of directors, publishing defamatory statements or harassing Likins about her job.
The restraining order, however, did not restrict Hoagland from criticizing Likins’ decisions and work on the town council, and he continued to do so until she left office in December 2018.
Following Likins’ suit, Hilton Head resident and businessman Peter Buonaiuto countersued the town for $10 million, claiming the town was illegally paying for Likins’ suit.
The suit said Hoagland’s critiques of Likins were protected under the First Amendment and that she was using “the Town’s unlimited taxpayer funded resources to sue a private citizen and bankrupt him with attorney fees.”
Town’s involvement
Regardless of how residents feel about the defamation suit, several have questioned why the town was financially involved.
Shortly after Likins’ suit was filed, the town council unanimously approved a resolution allowing it to retain counsel “to protect council members through appropriate legal process from improper and/or unlawful harassment by third parties.”
The resolution does not specifically mention defamation and does not define “improper harassment.”
By June 2017, the town had spent nearly $185,000 for Likins’ litigation. In August 2017, the council changed the way it paid legal counsel, from an hourly rate to a contingency fee agreement.
Under the contingency agreement, if Likins won the case, 30% of any award would be paid first to the law firms that represented her: Alford & Thoreson Law Firm of Hilton Head and Pratt-Thomas Walker of Charleston.
After the law firms were paid, the agreement said the town would be reimbursed for its cost. Any leftover balance would be awarded to Likins.
If Likins doesn’t win the case, she owes no money for legal services, and the town will take the loss.
Town Manager Steve Riley said in February the town is “completely out” of Likins’ suit, and the council would need to vote publicly to spend any more money on the case.
If a council member is involved in a town-related lawsuit in the future, Riley said the council would have to approve a similar resolution to pay for legal counsel.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 4:10 AM.
