Former Beaufort Co. director accused his boss of discrimination. Now he’ll get $40K
This story has been updated to reflect that the deputy county administrator approved the settlement.
Beaufort County last month quietly agreed to settle with a former director for $40,000 after the director sued the county’s then-administrator and accused her of creating a hostile work environment and discriminating against him for being an “older white male,” according to a settlement agreement obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
The civil lawsuit filed in August 2020 by Eric Larson, the county’s former director of environmental engineering and land management, accused Ashley Jacobs, who was administrator at the time, of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She discriminated against Larson’s race and age, retaliated against him and created a hostile work environment, the lawsuit alleged.
Although Larson’s lawsuit accused his former boss of discriminating against “white older males,” almost all members of Jacobs’ top leadership team were white males. Two months after Larson filed the suit, Jacobs was forced by a majority of County Council members to resign — a move that was heavily criticized by many in the community.
The lawsuit, later transferred to U.S. District Court, also named Beaufort County as a defendant. Jacobs was dismissed from the lawsuit with prejudice on Oct. 8, according to court records.
The suit was settled by Deputy County Administrator Whitney Richland after a discussion by Beaufort County Council in closed session, said spokesperson Chris Ophardt. Administrator Eric Greenway recused himself from the discussion because of a “personal relationship” with Larson, he said.
The council did not vote in public.
Called Wednesday, Larson said he was not allowed to speak about the settlement.
“My only comment is that the recorded document for the case speaks for itself,” he said.
Jacobs’ attorney, Wilbur Johnson, reached by phone Wednesday, said his only comment was that Jacobs was dismissed prior to the settlement.
On Oct. 11, the same day the suit was settled, Beaufort County Council discussed a “status of employment related claims” in executive session but took no vote in public.
Asked why the county agreed to settle the suit with no mention or public vote, Ophardt said the $40,000 settlement was within the administration’s authority to spend without formal approval from the County Council.
He said he would meet with Greenway to determine a threshold of when to release settlement information to the public without anyone having to file a public records request.
The county, he said, is “continuing to look for ways to be more transparent with the public.”
The settlement with Larson, signed Oct. 11, indicates that the South Carolina Insurance Reserve Fund will pay Larson $40,000. Ophardt told a reporter that Beaufort County will pay $8,000 of that sum.
As part of the settlement, Beaufort County has agreed to remove all “negative references” from Larson’s personnel file, including references to a 2019 suspension and grievance and a 2019 performance assessment.
The settlement fully releases Beaufort County from Larson’s lawsuit without admitting liability, according to the documents. Larson’s attorneys will work to dismiss all claims against the county with prejudice, the settlement said.
Larson’s lawsuit against Jacobs illustrated a contentious period among the county’s elected officials and administration. In 2019 and throughout 2020, controversies, mistakes, budget errors and lawsuits dogged the county.
Supporters of Jacobs argued that County Council members had been too involved in the day-to-day operations of the county during the administrator’s 18-month tenure and abruptly forced her to resign without giving a public reason.
“This is crooked and corrupt, and this is wrong,” then-council member Mike Covert said at the time. “I didn’t take an oath to cover up for this dirty, under-handed stuff.”
Larson’s suit, however, accused Jacobs of broad mismanagement.
Larson worked for Beaufort County from 2013 until his resignation in 2019, according to his personnel file. In early 2019, County Council named Larson one of the three finalists for the county administrator role before choosing Jacobs for the job.
Larson filed a discrimination charge against Jacobs with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Aug. 8, 2019 — less than a month after resigning from the county and a year before he filed his lawsuit.
The EEOC closed the case with a ruling that it was “unable to conclude” that his complaint violated the law.
In Larson’s lawsuit against Jacobs, he contended that he was “constructively discharged” — or resigned amid a hostile work environment — from the county on Aug. 2, 2019. His personnel record indicated he submitted his letter of resignation on July 19, 2019.
Larson’s lawsuit accused Jacobs, along with former Assistant Administrator Monica Spells, of entering “into a conspiracy to ruin” his reputation. Spells, according to the suit, used her influence with Jacobs to discriminate against Larson based on his sex and race.
Among the other accusations in the 28-page lawsuit:
▪ After a poor job performance evaluation, Jacobs “intentionally excluded” Larson from meetings and changed his job duties and responsibilities to encourage Larson to resign;
▪ Larson filed a grievance against Jacobs in which he told County Council members that he was leaving because of Jacobs’ “continued targeting, harassment, discrimination, circumventing of his authority, unfair disciplinary actions, and favoritism of other staff members.”
▪ Larson argued that Jacobs and Beaufort County caused him to suffer lost pay, benefits and other economic losses, emotional pain and suffering, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, personal indignity and other “intangible injuries for all of which he should be compensated.”
▪ On April 1, 2019, then-interim County Administrator John Weaver told Larson, who wanted to apply for an assistant administrator role, that he was a “whiner and complainer and that no one likes working with” him, the lawsuit said. Larson alleged that other employees, including Spells, told Weaver this.
▪ On April 10, 2019, five days before Jacobs started as administrator, interim Administrator Weaver told Larson and Rob McFee, another director, that they had been “pouting long enough” and “need to get ... over it or go find another job.” Larson alleged that this was an example of Beaufort County discriminating against “older Caucasian men and forcing them to resign in order to extricate them from their positions.”
In the settlement, Beaufort County and Larson agree that Larson voluntarily resigned and was able to get a new job at equal or greater pay.
Since leaving Beaufort County, Larson worked at a Georgia-based utilities company for 11 months before becoming the City of Savannah’s water resources senior director in June 2020.
He left that job after seven months, his Linkedin profile shows, and is now the assistant county manager for Effingham County in Georgia.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 11:52 AM.
