After improper pay increases, Beaufort County leaders may give themselves hefty raise
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 because of meetings attended in 2018.
Beaufort County Council members are considering a plan to increase their own salaries days after a report detailed how they received improper payments for almost a decade.
Since 2012, County Council members have been paid compensation they weren’t supposed to get, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported Sunday. In salary alone, council members were overpaid by more than $70,000 in taxpayer money between 2012 and 2020. The newspapers found that several council members made more money in 2019 than is allowed by county ordinance.
At a council meeting Tuesday evening, Larry McElynn of District 10 suggested nearly doubling each council member’s maximum yearly compensation — to $30,000 from $16,798. Under McElynn’s proposal, the council chairman would make $32,000 a year, and the vice chair, $31,000.
“It has been determined that Council salary can only be adjusted in the year after a general election where at least two positions on council are on the ballot,” McElynn said. “It’s 2020. It’s an election year, and there’s an opportunity that will not be available again until the year 2022.”
If approved, the raise would mean that Beaufort County leaders would make more than their counterparts in Charleston, Greenville and Horry counties, according to the S.C. Association of Counties Annual Wage and Salary Report.
On Wednesday, District 5 council member Brian Flewelling said he supported McElynn’s idea of eliminating council stipends but did not agree with the large salary increase. He said he would support adjusting council’s current base salary to include a flat rate for meeting attendance.
The plan comes as the county is preparing its budget for the next fiscal year while expecting a major revenue decline due to the coronavirus pandemic and at least a $1 million annual loss of sheriff’s service fees from the Town of Hilton Head Island. As the council members consider raising their own salaries, they’re planning to make several substantial cuts, including a $1.7 million reduction to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office budget compared to the current fiscal year.
The proposed raise would end the county’s current policy of reimbursing each of the 11 council members $40 per meeting, for up to 144 meetings, in favor of a flat salary — $2,250 a month — and a $250 per month car allowance.
“A limit has been set for meeting attendance at 144 meetings per fiscal year, although members frequently attend meetings in excess of that number,” McElynn said during the meeting.
The newspapers reported Sunday that council members gave themselves four raises over the past eight years using a process that violates state law. One council member also received substantially more than the limit of 144 meeting reimbursements, the newspapers found. Two others were paid for four more than allowed, but the county administrator said the $160 was for four meetings attended in one year but paid for in the next.
Behind closed doors, council member Flewelling said, the council directed administration to calculate how much was overpaid to each member and “define exactly what went wrong.”
Flewelling was reimbursed for only 11 meetings in fiscal year 2019, according to county records. But if staff finds that he was overpaid due to the four raises, he said he will pay that money back.
“I absolutely have a plan to repay any amount of money I was overpaid,” he said. “I firmly suspect and I absolutely hope each council member will handle that in the most timely manner.”
He said the amount overpaid to each council member should be public when staff calculates the total.
McElynn, in his presentation to council on Tuesday, did not address the newspapers’ report, the previous four raises council gave itself or any plan to recoup the extra money paid to current and former council members. He referred only to a “discussion of that issue within the community.”
Council deferred discussion of McElynn’s proposed raise to Thursday’s finance committee budget work session.
Finance chair Chris Hervochon of District 8 said he would support a discussion at a future council meeting about council overpayment. He refused to comment further.
Pay raise?
Beaufort County Council members have tried, and failed, to legally raise their salaries several times over past few years — in 2008, 2014 and 2015.
In 2015, council members’ plan to add more than $3,000 to their own salaries by increasing their attendance stipend to $50 per meeting for up to 180 meetings per year failed in a divisive 6-5 vote.
“This is not the time to be doing this; it’s not like we have a lot of money to throw around,” Council member Brian Flewelling told the Island Packet in 2015. “Knowing that the school board is going to be coming to us for a tax increase, knowing our employees really need and deserve a pay increase, I just think this is not the right time.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 3:32 PM.
