Beaufort County leaders were overpaid by more than $70K. What will they do about it?
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.
In the wake of an Island Packet story that questioned the way Beaufort County Council members have been compensated, the body has its first opportunity to address the issue in a series of meetings Tuesday night.
On Sunday, the newspaper reported that County Council members received compensation they never should have received. In salary alone, the council members were overpaid by more than $70,000 in taxpayer money over eight years.
The newspaper found that several council members made more money in 2019 than is allowed by county ordinance.
County Council has three meetings Tuesday evening: A Communications and Transparency Committee meeting at 4 p.m.; a County Caucus at 5 p.m.; and a full County Council meeting at 6 p.m.
Salary and compensation could be addressed in any of these meetings though the issue is not specifically on any agenda, which were posted Friday before the story published.
However, the Communication and Transparency Committee agenda includes an item about meeting reimbursements, which would allow a discussion to take place.
A call to council Chairman Joe Passiment for comment about tonight’s meetings was not immediately returned Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the newspaper asked John DeLoache, a senior staff attorney for the South Carolina Association of Counties, what the government can and should do to get the money back.
He said the onus is on County Council.
Council can pay for an audit, find out how much members were overpaid in salary and then try to retrieve the money, DeLoache said.
In the event of a successful lawsuit, council members could be forced to pay the money back, he said.
“It could be recouped without a lawsuit,” he said. “I think an audit is going to have to be done just to figure out how much money we’re talking about. The council needs to take the lead and request that audit.”
Retrieving the money paid to council members through meeting stipends — over $4,000 in fiscal year 2019 alone — is a “grayer area,” DeLoache said.
Council members can be reimbursed only $5,760 for meetings in a fiscal year.
One council member was reimbursed $9,480 for meetings last fiscal year.
“We’re talking about violation of a local ordinance, and I think council is going to have to figure that one out for themselves,” he said. “Are they going to retroactively figure out which council members may have been reimbursed for meetings above that ordinance? There could be some former members of council who were overpaid. Are you going to require them to repay?”
It’s the individual council member’s responsibility to keep track of how many meetings he or she requested reimbursement for, DeLoache said.
“Ultimately, it’s their ordinance that they passed. They should know what the consequences are,” he said.
“However, at the same time, they may want the finance department to come up with a plan to notify a council member that they’ve reached their limit.”
For the overpayment of stipends to be considered a criminal action, a court would have to find that there was an intentional plan to continually violate the law, he said.
“A lot of that is going to be more of a political issue,” he said. “It’s going to be up to voters to make up their mind. If there’s no plan to repay it, do they keep reelecting them?”
Tuesday’s meetings will be streamed live on the county’s Facebook page and on The County Channel.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
