‘Mass exodus’: Heavily redacted docs show when Beaufort Co. staff left. Some are hidden
Beaufort County released a slew of heavily redacted records Thursday from the personnel files of seven top employees who have left the county in the past year. The blacked-out files reveal little to no information about why they left the county’s employ.
In fact, more information can be found on some of the former employees’ professional Linkedin pages than in the redacted documents released by the county. Some documents, such as employees’ resignation letters and resumes, are entirely bowdlerized in some cases but left largely untouched in others.
“They should be public,” media law attorney Jay Bender said. “These people work for the public. They don’t work for the council or the county manager. They work for the citizens. Citizens are entitled to see this. That’s been litigated. There’s no mystery to that.”
The county says the files were redacted to protect the privacy of the former employees.
The release of records comes as the county’s former deputy administrator, its second-highest leader, is fighting to be reinstated after being fired in early June. Former Deputy Administrator Chris Inglese accuses his boss, Administrator Ashley Jacobs, of creating a hostile and abusive work environment and intentionally making employees so “miserable” that they would leave.
His grievance hearing against Jacobs was held behind closed doors on Thursday.
Before and after Inglese’s highly publicized firing, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported on several top employees who have left the county under Jacobs’ leadership. They include: former Chief Financial Officer Alicia Holland, former Director of Engineering Rob McFee and former Assistant Administrator Monica Spells.
Among the other employees who have left in 2019 and 2020: former Director of Environmental Engineering & Land Management Eric Larson, former Employee Services Director Suzanne Gregory, former Records Management Director Mary Ellen Keough and former Freedom of Information Act Specialist Bill Lisbon.
Inglese’s grievance accuses Jacobs of broad mismanagement, but some in the community, including Inglese, say Beaufort County Council, the county’s governing body, has been too involved in the day-to-day operations of the county.
“Council needs to get back to substantive policy debate and let administration administer,” Inglese said in December.
That over-involvement with staff led to Council member Stu Rodman’s forced resignation as chairman in March.
Council Vice Chair Paul Sommerville said he knows that council does not have authority over county staff, “but at what point does it become a problem for council to deal with when it becomes a mass exodus?”
“My concern is who’s running the county?” he said. “When you start picking off senior staff like this, it creates a huge vacuum in the operations of the county. You can’t let that amount of institutional knowledge out the door. It creates a lot of stress on everybody else. It’s very troubling.”
He said council is currently evaluating Jacobs’ performance as administrator, and the number of employees who have left recently “is going to be front and center in those discussions.”
It “certainly looks like” Jacobs is “cleaning house,” he said.
Council member Brian Flewelling said he doesn’t think employees leaving is a “bad reflection” on Jacobs.
“It’s very common for a whole new cadre of senior people to come in under new leadership,” he said. “It’s no surprise. I’m actually surprised that it’s taken this long to happen. They’re not our employees. Until it negatively impacts the duties of administration, it’s not within our purview.”
The resignation letters, which are public record according to the S.C. Freedom of Information Act, could explain why so many top employees have left their posts in recent months.
The past seven months have been tumultuous for the county government. Rumors, speculation and controversy among county employees and council have been frequent. In the past year, the council’s chairman was forced to resign and a new chair was elected, Administrator Jacobs applied and was named a finalist for a job in another county, government offices have been shut down twice due to the coronavirus pandemic, and several employees in important positions have exited the county.
Personnel records
On June 8, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette requested the personnel files of seven former county employees. The records requested include basic employee information, job description, performance evaluations, compensation, termination documents, disciplinary actions and the employee’s resume and education history.
Although the almost 500 pages released by the county on Thursday include most of these documents, information like performance evaluations, some resignation letters and employment history are redacted.
In an email, Whitney Snyder, the county’s public records specialist, said the information was blacked out because it is of “a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy.”
She cited S.C. law.
But attorney Bender said there’s no such thing as “personal privacy” when you’re a public employee.
“You can’t make a claim of personal privacy for the employment file of a public employee,” he said. “You can redact their medical information, their date of birth and their social security number,” but not performance evaluations, resignation letters or resumes.
“I can’t imagine what justification they have,” he said.
What do the records say?
The records reveal whether an employee resigned, retired or was fired from the county.
Eric Larson, the county’s former environmental engineering director, resigned on July 19, 2019, according to the documents. The documents include Larson’s resignation letter and an email response from Administrator Jacobs: “I accept your letter of resignation, and wish you happiness and success in your future endeavors.”
Larson had previously been named one of the three finalists for the county administrator role before council chose Jacobs for the job.
Larson now works as water resources senior director for the city of Savannah, according to his Linkedin profile.
On Aug. 26, 2019, former Records Management Director Mary Ellen Keough submitted her resignation: “I will be leaving effective December 31, 2019 after working more than thirty years at a job that I love ... Please know that I am a phone call away to offer assistance if needed with Records Management.”
On Feb. 5, former Employee Services Director Suzanne Gregory resigned from the county, according to the documents. Her personnel file includes a “covenant not to sue” form that states she would remain on the county’s payroll until Aug. 1 and would be paid insurance benefits and employee contribution rates through Aug. 31.
The form also states that she can talk about the terms of the document only with her lawyers, tax advisors and spouse.
Records show that on Feb. 10, former Director of Engineering Rob McFee retired from the county, with his last day marked as March 6. A resignation letter was either not included or was redacted.
Eight days before McFee’s retirement, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported that Council member Rodman had exchanged private emails with McFee about his recommendations for the controversial Jenkins Island road project. In the emails, Rodman stressed the conversation be kept between “the two of us.”
The newspapers also reported that former Chief Financial Officer Alicia Holland resigned from the county in late April, just hours after updating the county’s finance committee on the budget process. The resignation left the county without its top financial manager in the middle of budget season.
“I’ve given a decade of my life to Beaufort County and its citizens,” she told the newspapers in April. “I feel like I need a recovery period from the fatigue and to focus on my personal life.”
Holland’s personnel file does not include a letter of resignation. Her personnel change form states that her last day was May 1.
Records show that Bill Lisbon, the county’s former public records specialist resigned on May 4 and his last day was May 29. His personnel file says “letter of resignation attached,” but the entire document is blacked out.
On June 3, Deputy Administrator Chris Inglese was fired from the county. In the weeks since, Inglese has very publicly fought to get his job back. A day after he left the county, he urged council members to remove Jacobs as administrator. On June 15, he filed a blistering grievance against Jacobs.
The county did not provide any documents that show when or how Inglese left the county.
In his complaint against Jacobs, Inglese accuses his former boss of broad mismanagement and intentionally contributing to several employees leaving.
He argued his grievance before a committee of county employees on Thursday, but the public was barred from the hearing due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Neither the county nor Inglese has shared the results of the hearing.
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On July 20, the newspapers reported that former Assistant Administrator Monica Spells resigned from the county and accepted a similar job with Loudoun County in Virginia.
When the newspapers requested her resignation letter and resume, the county sent back an entirely blacked-out document and a heavily redacted resume.
“I thank Beaufort County Council, Administration and all employees, especially my personal team and division, for their dedication and service,” Spells said in a statement to the newspapers. “I wish them all much success while continuing to see that Beaufort County remains a place where people love to live and visit.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 7:30 AM.
