Beaufort County Council moving forward with plans to give themselves hefty raise
An angry and defiant majority of the Beaufort County Council, stung by criticism and a statewide association attorney’s opinion that called into question the legitimacy of the council’s four previous salary increases, has proposed changes to its salary ordinance that would increase base pay next year but eliminate extra payments for meetings.
The proposal would more than double members’ current base pay but do away with its current system of providing stipend payments for meeting attendance, which has been controversial in itself.
County Administrator Ashley Jacobs and some members of council sharply criticized a May 24 story in The Island Packet that showed the council had received multiple pay raises in a way that, according to an opinion from John DeLoache, senior staff attorney for the S.C. Association of Counties, raised serious questions about the legality of the pay raises.
At the heart of the matter is how the raises were implemented. Beaufort County Council members have approved a cost-of-living increase for government employees four times since 2011. Each time council members approved an increase, the raise was also added to their own salaries. But council members in South Carolina, according to DeLoache, must have a separate vote to raise their salaries because they are elected officials.
The county disagrees. For the most part.
Current council chairman Joe Passiment said council was allowed to receive the raises because of a line in a Beaufort County ordinance that allows cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs. He admits, however, that some of the raises were applied immediately when they should not have been applied until months later, when new council members were seated.
Passiment said he believes the total amount of overpayments is “more than $10,000 but less than $11,000.” The Packet estimated the total could be as high as $70,000 if the raises were indeed found to be illegally implemented.
“I firmly believe the COLA was permitted,” Passiment said. “I also firmly believe it was not paid in the correct manner by South Carolina law and needed to be corrected.”
The county’s position was bolstered Wednesday by a letter from Josh Rhodes, deputy executive director and general counsel of SCAC, in which he says, “I have personally reviewed the applicable state law and ordinance and think that it is entirely possible that a court would find the Beaufort County Council compensation ordinance to be valid.”
The Packet has asked for but not yet received council payment histories for the period in question, though it has been more than a month since the original story published. Jacobs told the paper on June 16 that, once administration calculated the payments, those numbers would be provided.
Passiment, however, said the administration has already recouped the amount that was overpaid to council members in 2019 and that administration has told council members who were overpaid in previous years what they owe. Council member Chris Hervochon said the amount that was overpaid to council in 2019 was subtracted from their paychecks.
On Monday, council members began moving to amend their salary ordinance. If the council approves it on second and third readings, the new ordinance would give members a hefty raise starting in January.
In an 8-3 vote Monday, members gave preliminary approval to increase their base salaries to $26,988 from $11,038. The ordinance would also raise the chairman’s base salary to $28,990 from $14,349 and the vice chairman’s to $28,002 from $11,038.
Because it’s an election year, the raise wouldn’t take effect until the next council is seated in January.
Previously, council members were allowed to receive $16,798 — a combination of salary and reimbursements for 144 meetings — and the chairman was allowed to receive $20,109. However, at Monday’s meeting, Passiment and County Attorney Kurt Taylor said they now interpret the previous ordinance to allow for reimbursements for 168 meetings, and council members will be able to get paid for 24 more meetings than previously allowed until the new proposed ordinance takes effect.
Several council members said they voted in favor of the proposed salary raise to attract more candidates and to be more in line with counties that have more than 200,000 people.
Council member Chris Hervochon said he supported the flat salary and removal of stipends because it gives “transparency and certainty to the public as far as what we get paid as elected officials.”
Until last month’s Island Packet article published, many residents in the public didn’t know the stark differences in salary among council members due to stipend reimbursements, Hervochon said.
“It eliminates a lot of the variability and a lot of the overhead headache as far as processing those payments and keeping track of those payments,” he said. “I think it does have some public benefit to do this.”
Three of the 11 council members — Mike Covert, Brian Flewelling and York Glover — voted against the ordinance change on first reading.
“I’m not in favor of [the proposed ordinance],” Flewelling said Tuesday. “I think it’s too much money. I’m sticking to a fundamental principle that service in government is not for self enrichment, and I’m adamant about that.”
Flewelling said he plans to introduce an amendment to the ordinance that would bring their base salaries to between $18,000 and $20,000 without stipend reimbursements.
Covert, whose term expires in December and thus won’t receive the raise if it’s approved, said he didn’t “think this is the time to be giving us a pay raise.”
“Yes, we’re grossly underpaid, but I’m not doing this for the money,” he said. “If the council wants to change the pay rate then so be it, but we need some legal eagle to say ‘yes, you can have a COLA’ or ‘no, you can’t’ and if it’s once every two years then fine, but to continually argue over it and debate it is just a waste of time.”
What’s in the new ordinance?
The proposed ordinance removes the sections about reimbursements for meeting attendance and the previous figures for base salary. Under the proposed ordinance, council members would still be able to receive mileage and travel reimbursements.
The agenda for Monday’s meeting showed that the line allowing council members to receive the “county’s annual cost-of-living adjustment” was to be removed from the new proposed ordinance.
However, Passiment proposed an amendment to the agenda that re-added the COLAs with a line saying that “any cost-of-living adjustments for the county’s elected officials and employees approved in the annual budget shall also apply to County Council members at the same rate as all other county employees.”
The new line clarifies that council members cannot receive these salary increases until the first date in January after the election of two or more council members. Council approved the amendment and added it to the proposed ordinance.
The next full council meeting is scheduled for July 13.
