Embattled Beaufort Co. auditor fires second in command, blames eroding team atmosphere
A top Beaufort County official is out of a job after filing a grievance against his boss.
Former Deputy Auditor David Cadd, who had worked for Beaufort County since 2014, wrote in his Jan. 23 grievance that his boss, County Auditor Jim Beckert, created an “unfair” work environment. Cadd was fired two days later.
Cadd said he filed the grievance after Beckert told him not to come into the office.
Cadd’s grievance and his dismissal letter from Beckert illustrate the tumultuous relationship between the elected official and his second in command. Each side blames the other for the mismanagement of the department, which has been mired in controversy in recent months.
Beckert did not return a call for comment Tuesday.
A Jan. 25 letter from Beckert to Cadd, obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, details Cadd’s dismissal. In the letter, Beckert said Cadd made leadership decisions that “negatively impacted” the office’s working environment.
The letter alleges that Cadd created an environment that made employees feel intimidated, uncomfortable and fearful of getting fired. Beckert’s letter cites a Nov. 4 email in which Cadd told county employees they could be fired for talking about other employees or supervisors.
“This will serve as your final day of employment in the Auditor’s Office,” the letter says.
In Cadd’s grievance against Beckert, obtained by the newspapers, Cadd describes a “high stress environment” brought on by a litany of problems in the county auditor’s office. They include a tax-rate dispute that led to a months-long delay in the delivery of property tax bills, and a lawsuit against Beckert filed by County Treasurer Maria Walls, claiming he harassed, bullied, verbally abused and lied about her for years.
“Many of the employees in this office have lost friends because of the decisions made in this office by Mr. Beckert,” Cadd wrote in his grievance.
In a phone call with a reporter Monday, Cadd said he filed the grievance because Beckert created a hostile work environment. He said he thinks Beckert has “reached his max potential at this position.”
“All these problems with the bills and lawsuits,” he said. “This is getting crazy. He’s no longer supporting the public. He’s doing things to spite people. That’s not the way to do business.”
Cadd said Beckert did not respond to the grievance. The county considers a non response a denial of the grievance, and although Cadd said he could appeal the denial through a grievance committee, the decision is still ultimately left up to Beckert.
The grievance process, Cadd said, “starts and ends with the elected official, so there is no way to get closure without lawsuits, which costs money. It is a vicious loop that protects employers more than employees.”
Last summer, Chris Inglese, the county’s former deputy administrator, filed a grievance against former County Administrator Ashley Jacobs after he was fired. He accused his boss of creating a hostile and abusive work environment and intentionally trying to make several employees “miserable enough” that they would leave.
Although a committee of county employees found Inglese was “justified” in his grievance, Ashley Jacobs, who had final say, rejected the committee’s determination.
Inglese previously described the grievance process as unfair, claiming that it made the employer “the criminal, the prosecutor, the jury and the executioner.”
‘Stressful work environment’
In September, after County Treasurer Maria Walls and former County Chief Financial Officer Alicia Holland filed two separate harassment suits against Beckert, the auditor was moved out of his office in the county’s administration building.
He has since worked out of one of the county’s satellite offices in the Beaufort Industrial Village.
After that move, Cadd, according to his grievance, was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the auditor’s office.
The multiple lawsuits against Beckert, the grievance says, “created a high stress environment in the office.” The grievance said taxpayers began calling employees names because of the allegations against Beckert.
At one point, the grievance alleges, Beckert asked Cadd whether he had called him “idiotic.”
“I stated if someone told him that, they took it out of context,” the grievance says.
Cadd, according to the grievance, told Beckert he wasn’t surprised that other employees were making statements about him because they were “mad” they were being forced to get work done.
“Due to the delay of annual bills going out the employees have all really relaxed work schedules due to the lack of work,” the grievance says. “Well now, the schedule is very hectic and the employees need to understand that the stress level just went through the roof.”
When Cadd reported “events” to Beckert, the grievance says, Beckert would laugh or respond “what do you want me to do, I can’t do anything because no one will listen to me.”
“This is not the environment I have created in the office,” the grievance says. “Mr. Beckert has chosen how and when to communicate with other offices and staff in the county.”
On Jan. 20, the grievance says, Beckert, “with no explanation,” told Cadd not to come into the office.
Three days later, on Jan. 23, Cadd filed the grievance against Beckert.
Cadd’s dismissal letter is dated Jan. 25.
Beckert’s letter
In that dismissal letter to Cadd, Beckert says that the atmosphere in the auditor’s office “has been so eroded under your leadership that it is clear you cannot remain employed with this office without further undermining the operations of the office.”
Beckert’s letter cites as example a Nov. 4 email sent by Cadd to 15 county employees.
The email, obtained by the newspapers, shows Cadd informing the employees that all conversations are kept in “hidden files on your computer,” and that those conversations are subject to the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.
“Any conversations that are discover and go against good order in the office, i.e ... talking about other employees or supervisors, are subject to automatic dismissal from your job,” the email said. “Be professional and don’t use any programs for personal use.”
Beckert’s letter says Cadd sent this email without Beckert’s approval, and that it intimidated employees.
It also says Cadd made several changes to the office’s “long term working practices.”
Cadd later told a reporter that he supported Beckert “in the beginning,” but said he is no longer “doing what he should be doing for the community.”
“The county deserves better,” Cadd said. “These people need to smarten up.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
