Retiring Hilton Head exec is on vacation. His assistant gets a tryout while he’s gone
As Hilton Head Island searches for a new top leader to replace Town Manager Steve Riley, who retires at the end of the year, Assistant Town Manager Josh Gruber is getting on-the-job experience in the position he has applied for.
Riley will be out of the office until Oct. 5, according to a vacation response email sent from his work email address on Wednesday. While he’s gone, Gruber will be filling in.
It’s customary for the assistant town manager to fill in while Riley is out of town or sick, but the timing is significant because the Town of Hilton Head Island is in the hiring process for Riley’s replacement, and Gruber told The Island Packet he has applied for the job.
Riley is scheduled to return three days after the Town Council chooses a new town manager on Oct. 2 from a pool of three finalists.
Although those finalists haven’t been chosen, the council will have an opportunity to see how Gruber performs as he takes over Riley’s job during the vacation. The vacation spans the final month of the executive search process, which has cost the town $26,500.
Gruber said the timing is purely coincidental. Riley’s trip to Texas and the Midwest coincides with the birth of his newest grandchild there, he said.
In the weeks before he retires, Riley, who has spent 29 years as town manager, will help his replacement transition.
Gruber was named the assistant town manager on Hilton Head in 2018 following his controversial tenure as county attorney and assistant county administrator for Beaufort County.
Appointed interim administrator for Beaufort County following the retirement of Gary Kubic, Gruber was unexpectedly voted to be the county’s new administrator in 2018 — though he wasn’t a finalist. Less than an hour later, council members retracted their votes and chose another candidate, who later rejected the offer.
The next day, Gruber was given a controversial $24,000 consulting contract by the county, angering many on the county council. In 2019, the S.C. Ethics Commission dismissed an allegation that Gruber broke state law when he wrote the contract for himself.
What’s next?
Emails from the executive search firm hired by the town to find a new town manager show the group has narrowed its field to about a dozen candidates.
Those names have not been released to the public by the firm, Colin Baenziger & Associates.
The Town Council will meet Monday and again on Sept. 21 in executive session to narrow the finalists before inviting three to a reception on Oct. 1 and one-on-one interviews. The names of those three finalists will be made public.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 4:45 AM.
