Beaufort County Council could fire its administrator. Here’s what we know
County Administrator Ashley Jacobs’ future with Beaufort County appears to be in doubt.
On Tuesday, the council held a three-hour, closed session to conduct Jacobs’ annual performance review. However, Jacobs was not in the room for the majority of the private meeting.
Since then, only one council member will confirm whether Jacobs is expected to continue in the county’s top job.
Council member Mike Covert said that at the meeting, a 6-5 majority of the council expressed its desire to move on from Jacobs. He said he did not support terminating Jacobs.
“A decision was made that Ashley would be removed. The word that was used was ‘termination,’” Covert said. “Six people said ‘yes, she would be removed,’ five of us said ‘no.’”
Although the discussion happened in executive session, Covert said “the public’s right to know is more important than me hiding behind executive doors.”
“This is crooked and corrupt, and this is wrong,” he said. “I didn’t take an oath to cover up for this dirty, under-handed stuff.”
Council Chairman Joe Passiment, when asked specifically whether Jacobs might be fired in the coming weeks, deflected the question, saying it was a “personnel matter that will be discussed later on.”
“We don’t discuss employee matters in public,” he said. “You’re just going to have to let us go through what we have to go through.”
Jacobs — who has served as administrator since April 2019 — declined to comment.
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In her short tenure in the county’s top role, Jacobs has consistently clashed with Council member Stu Rodman over Rodman’s continual circumvention of rules and backdoor conversations with employees.
Rodman was forced to resign as the council’s chair a day after The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported that he used his private email and phone to discuss government projects and refused to allow the public access to them.
Jacobs has faced some criticism for high staff turnover in recent months. Although Council member Paul Sommerville called the turnover a “mass exodus,” others have said it’s normal for staff to leave under a new administration.
Some in the community have said Beaufort County Council has been too involved in the day-to-day operations of the county during Jacobs’ tenure.
Over the past year, the county has been hampered by strong personalities, power grabs and an overwhelming desire to look good in the public’s eye despite multiple controversies, mistakes, budget errors and lawsuits.
On top of these issues, Jacobs’ firing would leave the county without an administrator during the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the county to close buildings to the public. The county is under a state of emergency, which gives Jacobs authority to implement an emergency operations plan to protect employees from the virus.
Beaufort County’s calendar indicates a special meeting has been scheduled for Monday. The agenda has not been published online.
Reasons for firing Jacobs?
No council member has publicly stated a specific concern with Jacobs as administrator.
On Tuesday, a bizarre anonymous message was forwarded to all council members just 90 minutes before the private meeting.
“Please really think through the impact on employees as you make decisions about our ‘leader’ and her new deputy who is clueless about our operations and essentially is her henchman who focuses on intimidating and telling people what to do without knowing anything about departments,” the first sentence of the message said.
It’s unclear what the message is referring to or which employee sent it.
Jacobs’ contract
According to Jacobs’ contract, signed on March 18, 2019, she can be fired “for cause” or “without cause.”
To be fired for cause, council would have to prove that Jacobs was indicted on a criminal charge, committed a crime of “moral turpitude,” or refused or neglected to perform the duties of her job.
If Jacobs is fired for any other reason, according to her contract, she is entitled to a “maximum of twelve months’ severance pay calculated at the then existing rate of compensation.”
During this 12-month period, the county would be obligated to pay for Jacobs’ benefits.
If Jacobs had planned to resign, she would have had to notify Passiment, the chair, 90 days in advance.
Because that did not happen, if Jacobs resigns, she would forfeit 90 days worth of her salary and would not be entitled to a severance.
Previous search
The search that led to Jacobs’ hiring was during a period on council that was just as contentious.
Beaufort County’s previous administrator, Gary Kubic, retired in September 2017.
After Kubic left, the county had three different interim administrators.
During that period, the council was split on whom to choose for the job.
One faction — five members, including current council members Stu Rodman and Paul Sommerville and former council member Jerry Stewart — supported former interim administrator Josh Gruber for the job. Six seemed to oppose his appointment from the beginning.
Last year, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette detailed how, during the previous search for an administrator, Rodman orchestrated a detailed plan to hire Gruber, thwarting a public voting process.
Rodman’s private emails outlined how a July 2018 meeting and vote for the administrator should happen. The emails to council members Jerry Stewart, Alice Howard and then-Chairman Paul Sommerville were a line-by-line “strategy” to quell council “dissenters” and get Gruber, who wasn’t a finalist, the top job.
The emails were not sent to seven council members. Several council members said last year that they didn’t know about the emails until they read the story, and that the emails confirmed their suspicions about what went on behind the scenes before the July 2018 meeting.
“That whole episode makes me think that sometimes it’s not about what’s best for the county, it’s about winning,” Council member Brian Flewelling said last year. “That’s not the game I want to play.”
If council pushes forward with a plan to fire Jacobs and look for a replacement, it’s likely that the split among council would continue.
Council member Mike Covert is vacating his District 7 seat at the end of the year. Candidates Logan Cunningham and Jodie Srutek are on the Nov. 3 ballot, vying to replace Covert.
Citing council’s “past history,” Council member York Glover said Wednesday that firing the administrator would be “devastating for the county.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 3:30 PM.
