Payments to Beaufort County Council members well over legal limits for most of decade
Editor’s note: This story was edited after publication to reflect that holiday pay is part of County Council members’ base salary, not extra pay, and that stipend payments for two council members were above the limit in 2019, but the extra pay was for meetings attended in 2018, and not inappropriate expense submissions.
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Beaufort County Council members have regularly been receiving compensation they never should have received, an examination of county records shows.
The excess includes four raises members received over the past decade using a process that violates state law but was never caught. The raises, and an overage in stipend payments for meeting attendance, meant many council members were making more money than is allowed by county ordinance.
In fiscal 2019 alone, according to the review by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, five of the current 11 Beaufort County Council members were paid more than the maximum the law allows for salaries. The documents also show that three council members were paid more in reimbursements than the law allows, though in two cases, the extra pay was for meetings attended in one budget year and paid in the following year.
At the top of the list is council vice chair Paul Sommerville, who was paid for 93 meetings more than allowed by law, according to meeting stipend documents. When asked about the overage, Sommerville was dismissive. “I’ve got better things to do than worry about what the finance department is paying me for.”
The total overpayment for council members in the past eight years totals approximately $70,000 in base salary. The total of overpayments for stipends cannot be calculated yet, because the newspaper has not yet received all the data it has requested, but about $4,000 in stipend overages were paid in the past year, nearly all to Sommerville.
The findings are yet another black eye for a county government and council that says it’s trying to fix its image and be more transparent. In March, council forced Stu Rodman to resign as chairman after weeks of reporting in The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that detailed the chairman’s repeated circumvention of rules, unilateral decisions and backdoor conversations with employees.
Beaufort County Council members have voted for a cost-of-living increase for government employees four times since 2011. Each time they approved an increase, the raise was automatically added to their own salaries — a violation of state law, according to John DeLoache, a senior staff attorney for the South Carolina Association of Counties.
DeLoache said council members can raise their salaries only by passage of a separate ordinance. Council members cannot add cost-of-living adjustments for government employees to their own salaries, DeLoache said.
“There certainly could be a legal challenge if some citizen wants to say [council members] are in violation of the salary and expense statutes,” DeLoache said. “Both state law and the state constitution say no elected official can be granted extra compensation over and above what the salary is.”
In eight years, in base salary alone, the county overpaid each council member a total of $5,420 and overpaid the chairman — held by Weston Newton, Paul Sommerville and Stu Rodman — a total of $7,045.48.
Under S.C. state law section 4-9-100, elected officials can vote to raise their salaries, but the increase can take effect only after at least two new members have been elected to the council. The law prevents current council members from directly benefiting from a salary increase before an election season.
Beaufort County Code of Ordinances section 2-28 sets a base salary for elected officials. Council members are supposed to receive $11,038 per fiscal year, and the council chairman receives $14,349 a year. On top of the base salary, council members are reimbursed $40 per meeting for up to 144 meetings. By law, council members cannot receive more than $16,798 per fiscal year in salary and stipends. The council chairman cannot receive more than $20,109 each year. That does not include reimbursements for travel and expenses.
When this cap on elected officials’ salaries was approved in 2011, it said council members are allowed to receive annual cost-of-living adjustments. DeLoache said a court “could very well” rule this part of the ordinance a violation of state law.
Every time council approved a cost-of-living increase for employees in the budget — 2% in 2012, 2% in 2013, 3% in 2015 and 3% in 2019 — the county’s finance department immediately added the increase to council members’ salaries. Also, because of the four cost-of-living adjustments to their base salaries, council members who attended the maximum 144 meetings per year have been receiving compensation above what is allowed by county law.
The Beaufort County attorney’s office discovered the COLA violation this month while researching a proposal to increase the number of meetings that council members can be reimbursed for — to 168 from 144. That plan has not been presented to the full council. County Attorney Kurt Taylor informed council members last week that they will no longer receive the 3% cost-of-living adjustment added to this year’s budget.
Before this happens, council members plan to discuss changes to their salaries and stipends at a future finance committee meeting, council member and finance chair Chris Hervochon said. The changes have not been brought up at the two finance committee meetings since the COLA violation was discovered.
County public information officer Liz Farrell said the county is looking at ways of recouping the extra cost of living raises paid to council members in 2020.
“The raises given to council members in fiscal year 2020 happened because of a staff error, and it’s an unfortunate mistake, but it’s being fixed now,” she said.
As far as recouping the money paid through extra stipends and COLA increases in previous years, DeLoache said council members have to either change the county’s salary ordinance or risk a lawsuit. If a council member were reimbursed extra money in expenses, the blame falls on the council member who received the money, DeLoache said.
“Ultimately if a court was to find that [a council member] had been paid more than the ordinance allowed them to be paid, they would be in violation, and they could ultimately be forced to repay the amount,” he said. “It’s ultimately up to the council member requesting the reimbursement.”
So, how much money did they make?
In fiscal year 2019 — July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019 — five of the 11 current council members made more money in salary and stipends than the Beaufort County code of ordinances allows, according to financial documents obtained by the newspapers.
Records indicate several council members also received holiday pay for 11 county holidays in 2019, although County Administrator Ashley Jacobs clarified that holiday pay was simply a payroll code and part of the base salary, not additional pay.
The salaries and stipends for council members Chris Hervochon, Mark Lawson, Larry McElynn and Joe Passiment were significantly lower than the rest of council in fiscal year 2019 because they took office in January — halfway through the fiscal year.
According to the documents, here’s how much money each council member made in fiscal year 2019 from salary and stipends:
▪ Paul Sommerville (District 2): $23,355.56
▪ Stu Rodman (District 11): $19,249.66
▪ Alice Howard (District 4): $17,748.38
▪ Mike Covert (District 7): $17,108.38
▪ Gerald Dawson (District 1): $16,828.38
▪ Brian Flewelling (District 5): $12,268.38
▪ York Glover (District 3): $11,828.38
▪ Larry McElynn (District 10): $8,848.27
▪ Joe Passiment (District 6): $8,728.27
▪ Chris Hervochon (District 8): $8,248.27
▪ Mark Lawson (District 9): $5,368.27
Council members are allowed to be reimbursed $40 per meeting for up to 144 meetings, or $5,760 per year. According to the financial documents obtained by the newspapers, council member Paul Sommerville was reimbursed $9,480 for 237 meetings. Council members Stu Rodman and Alice Howard were reimbursed for four extra meetings in 2019, but the additional $160 was for meetings attended in 2018 and paid in 2019, Jacobs said.
When asked why he was reimbursed for so many extra meetings, Sommerville said he would have to check his W-2 forms to see if he noticed a “large bump” due to the extra meeting stipends. He said he just fills out his stipend forms based on how many meetings he attends.
“I’ve filled it out that way since the day I was elected,” he said. “It never crossed my mind trying to keep up with that and figure that out. I’ve got better things to do than worry about what the finance department is paying me for.”
The top of each form council members have to sign to receive meeting reimbursements reads “(Ordinance 2011/21 - 144 meetings per fiscal year).”
At the bottom of each of his reimbursement forms, Sommerville signed “I, Paul Sommerville, swear/affirm that the meetings, as listed above, are within the guidelines for receiving the stipend as approved by Council in accordance with the requirements for attendance at other meetings.”
‘Asleep at the switch’
S.C. Press Association Executive Director Bill Rogers said it’s clear that council members or county staff broke the law when immediately applying raises to council members.
The law is in place so that if council members vote to give themselves a raise, and the public is upset with it, the council members can be voted out during the election, he said.
“It’s clear somebody was asleep at the switch,” he said.
He said council members who received extra money through the cost-of-living increase and the extra stipend payments should give it back.
“If someone presses it, I think they would have to,” he said. “But, they’re not going to press it.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
