‘Family feud’: Hilton Head prepares to sue Beaufort County for police service fee
Hilton Head may sue Beaufort County within the next two weeks for imposing a police service fee on island residents, Mayor John McCann said Monday.
Hilton Head Town Council unanimously approved a motion Monday morning to “take all necessary action to protect the interests of the citizens of Hilton Head Island,” related to the county’s new charge for law enforcement services from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The vote essentially gave the town the authority to file suit against the county.
Although a lawsuit is “a probability,” McCann said, it’s still unclear what actions the town or county may take in the next week.
The town’s vote comes after a nearly yearlong disagreement between the town and Beaufort County on how the island, which doesn’t have its own police force, should pay for policing.
The service charge, approved by Beaufort County Council last week, prompted Town Manager Steve Riley and Mayor McCann to threaten legal action to block the law enforcement fee. They called it “illegal and unconscionable.”
Hilton Head Island used to pay $3.6 million to the county annually for law enforcement, in addition to property owners paying taxes to the county. In July, town leaders offered to pay just $2 million a year to keep the county from assessing property owners individually. The town was poised to take over maintenance responsibilities for some county-owned parks and roads in exchange for nixing the extra payment.
Instead, the County Council voted to impose the fee, which ranges from $33 to $242 per property and would be added to residents’ annual tax bills.
Called about Hilton Head’s vote on Monday, McCann said the town is “considering a lawsuit,” and it could be filed as early as this week.
“We’re being double taxed,” he said.
Beaufort County Council Chair Joe Passiment, who said he did not watch Monday’s virtual meeting, said the county is still willing to negotiate before the fee is implemented.
“This is like a family feud,” he said. “We’re all one big happy family; we just happen to disagree on who pays for the police services. There’s a cost for that.”
Hilton Head leaders argue that islanders pay twice for sheriff’s deputies to respond to calls. In November, citing the double payments, McCann stripped $3.6 million from the amount the town had planned to send the county. County officials responded that McCann’s move created inequities across the board and shortchanged the county’s budget by over $4 million.
County Council voted 9-2 to approve the service fee last week. Hilton Head’s representatives, Stu Rodman and Lawrence McElynn, voted against the fee. Rodman moved to postpone the vote on the fee to mid-September, but his motion failed.
This back-and-forth battle between Hilton Head and the county is important because it shows how the town, which brings in the majority of tourism taxes and has the largest population of the county’s four municipalities, must balance its contributions and demands of the county.
How much money will Hilton Head residents pay?
TischlerBise Inc., the consulting firm the county hired to determine the actual costs of sheriff services, told officials that it costs Beaufort County about $4.4 million a year to police Hilton Head.
Earlier this summer, Julie Herlands, a consultant at TischlerBise, outlined how the county could implement a user fee schedule.
Her proposal, which includes fees for residential and non-residential properties, would bring in an estimated $4.4 million to cover the costs of sheriff’s services to the island.
It includes:
▪ A $101 fee for single-family units
▪ An $88 fee for multi-family units
▪ A $242 fee for 1,000 square feet of retail space
▪ An $82 fee for 1,000 square feet of office/service space
▪ A $33 fee for 1,000 square feet of industrial space
▪ A $90 fee for 1,000 square feet of institutional space
▪ A $69 fee per room for lodging
The fee proposal is subject to change, and council has final say on what it looks like and how it will be implemented, Council member Chris Hervochon said in July.
The fees would likely be added to property owners’ tax bills, Hervochon said. Beaufort County tax bills are finalized in October.
Its own police force?
In a news release last week, Passiment defended the imposition of a user fee when comparing Hilton Head’s contributions to the sheriff’s office.
“The other municipalities in Beaufort County are smaller in population and receive far fewer tourists than Hilton Head each year, but each has its own police department,” he wrote. “As the Town of Hilton Head’s population and daily number of visitors increased, so too did the Town’s law enforcement needs.”
In addition to paying the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for secondary services, the Town of Bluffton pays $6.6 million annually for its own police agency, and the City of Beaufort pays $4.5 million for its department.
How did we get here?
In November, when McCann stripped the payment of services to Beaufort County, he reasoned that Hilton Head taxpayers were shelling out twice for law enforcement services: once in taxes property owners pay to Beaufort County and again in the form of the $3.6 million annual payment from the town’s general fund.
He said the additional payments happened with a “misplaced understanding” that Hilton Head was paying extra for more services in comparison with other towns. After meeting earlier this year with Sheriff P.J. Tanner, McCann said he realized the town was getting the same amount of law enforcement services as other places.
But McCann said the island is getting only “minimal” services from the sheriff’s office on such responsibilities as enforcing town ordinances, so he proposed that the town reduce its payment on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
In return for not paying for sheriff services, McCann suggested that the town assume responsibility of county-maintained parks, the Island Recreation Association and the county-owned roads on the island.
Since that initial letter, the town and county have negotiated several swaps and trades to make up the difference.
In July, Hilton Head appeared to back off from its refusal to pay for policing services. Hilton Head Island’s Town Council voted to pay $2 million a year to the county for law enforcement services and take over maintenance of county-owned roads and parks on the island.
County Council member Hervochon referenced a final offer from the county to Hilton Head this month where the town could have paid less than $4.4 million each year, but he did not elaborate on the details. Hervochon said the town turned down the offer.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 1:24 PM.
