Hilton Head mayor tacks $7K onto salary through meal, travel reimbursements

Hilton Head Island taxpayers picked up the tab for 48 meals for Mayor John McCann between October and April, nearly half of them with other Town Council members to discuss upcoming issues and votes, town financial records show.

Among the $7,200 in reimbursements McCann received for meals, travel and a home fax machine in the past nine months: four meals to discuss town business with both council members Bill Harkins and Tom Lennox, five meals with council member Glenn Stanford, another five meals with council member Tamara Becker, and eight breakfast meetings with council member Marc Grant to talk about issues of concern to native islanders.

The records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, show the mayor ate on taxpayers’ dime at least once per week until restaurants shut down for the coronavirus. He took out-of-state trips and was reimbursed for his time and his mileage, in addition to receiving a $25,000 salary for a job generally considered to be part time.

The records also give a glimpse of how McCann works behind the scenes with other officials to accomplish his goals.

Any meeting of a quorum of town council members requires public notice and an agreed-upon agenda, but McCann’s meetings with Harkins and Lennox are one member shy of being public — so are not subject to open meetings laws and public comment requirements.

In those meetings, the group discussed issues, such as a proposed $65 million referendum long before it went public. In another instance, the men talked about a town council meeting set to take place later that day.

Last summer, McCann was sharply criticized for taking a five-day, $5,600 trip to Italy to sign a “friendship pact” with the city of Verona — a trip taxpayers paid for. In his first nine months in office, McCann was reimbursed nearly $20,000 — $10,273 in meeting stipends, $7,335 for travel and $1,798 for meals.

The town of Hilton Head does not allow its mayor to be paid more than $32,500 each fiscal year — $25,000 in salary and $7,500 in meeting stipends, according to the town code. The town does not cap reimbursements for meals or mileage.

The second year of McCann’s tenure, his reimbursements totaled $7,244.

Travel/ Mileage: $2,014

Despite the criticism of his trip to Italy, McCann continued to travel in his second nine months in office. He went to Washington D.C., for a reception at the White House to welcome the Italian president. He traveled to Myrtle Beach for a floodwater commission meeting, to Athens, Georgia, to visit the city’s housing authority, and to Columbia for a S.C. Municipal Association conference.

The trips cost taxpayers $1,738, records show.

McCann also was reimbursed for car mileage to destinations off Hilton Head. He got $276 for mileage between October and July.

By comparison, previous Mayor David Bennett charged the town $25,414 over his four years in office, averaging $6,300 a year. The reimbursements were for meetings he attended, the website he launched as mayor, a trip to Columbia, and a handful of work lunches, according to records obtained by The Island Packet through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2019.

Meals: $2,046

In his first nine months as mayor, McCann was reimbursed for 27 meals. In his second nine months — five of which were during the coronavirus pandemic when restaurants and bars were closed — he submitted receipts for 48 meals totaling $2,046.

McCann, a retired finance industry executive, kept most of his working lunches under $100. The average cost of his meals submitted for reimbursement is $42, down from the $64 average cost of meals in his first nine months.

On his receipts, McCann often summarized in a single, scrawled word the subject of lunch and breakfast meetings.

His reimbursements show that he coordinated with council members Harkins and Lennox long before some of the town’s biggest projects became public. On Sept. 26, the trio ate lunch at Jane Bistro in Shelter Cove and discussed a quality of life referendum, which was to raise $65 million over five years for parks and arts organizations by implementing a new tax to replace an expiring hurricane recovery assessment.

Lunch cost $87, and the referendum didn’t go public until early December, two months later, when the council announced plans to encourage a vote in May.

In the weeks following the announcement of the planned referendum, McCann ate lunch with council member Tamara Becker, council member Glenn Stanford, now-retired Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra CEO Mary Briggs, island marketing consultant Tom Gardo, native islander and developer Tom Barnwell, and one unidentified person to discuss the referendum, his reimbursements show.

McCann, Harkins and Lennox also met for a $47 lunch at Reilley’s Grill and Bar on Jan. 7 to discuss the town council agenda, McCann’s reimbursements show. Later that day, the council held a special meeting about the referendum where McCann announced how he wanted the $65 million split up — and that he wanted a vote on the matter in May.

The council abandoned the referendum in February, before the coronavirus pandemic, amid criticism that the beneficiaries of the taxes were not decided publicly and the process was being rushed.

McCann’s meal reimbursements stopped abruptly in late March, when most restaurants and bars closed for the coronavirus pandemic. He has not submitted a request for meal reimbursement since March 23.

Meetings: $2,800

The mayor and town council members are given a $50 stipend for each meeting they attend on official town business. It’s supposed to cover extra work they do outside of council meetings, from coffee with a constituent to a ribbon cutting.

In his four years as mayor, Bennett was reimbursed $23,290 for meetings — he wasn’t paid for any meetings in 2015 but exceeded his stipend limit in 2017. In 2016, the council voted to increase the meeting stipend from $40 per meeting to $50.

In McCann’s case, those meeting stipends combined to add $2,800 to his pay between October and January. He reached the stipend limit in January and was compensated for only $100 of meetings, although he reported $1,000 worth of compensation. That means he won’t be compensated for any of the meetings he attended between January and June 30.

Eight times in the past nine months, McCann received the $50 meeting stipend for meals with council members — meals for which he was also reimbursed.

Fax/ printer ink: $384

McCann also submits receipts for reimbursements for printer ink and his home fax machine, which he told The Island Packet in 2019 that he uses just a few times per year.

The Town of Hilton Head Island transitioned to online meetings for the coronavirus pandemic in late March, where town council members are expected to print and prepare their own agenda packets.

Katherine Kokal

The Island Packet

843-560-9158

Katherine Kokal graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and joined The Island Packet newsroom in 2018. Before moving to the Lowcountry, she worked as an interviewer and translator at a nonprofit in Barcelona and at two NPR member stations. At The Island Packet, Katherine covers Hilton Head Island’s government, environment, development, beaches and the all-important Loggerhead Sea Turtle. She has earned South Carolina Press Association Awards for in-depth reporting, government beat reporting, business beat reporting, growth and development reporting, food writing and for her use of social media.