Beaufort County Council votes to fire county administrator

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - The Beaufort County Council voted to fire the county administrator at a special called meeting on Friday.

During the meeting, the council said that Greenway was terminated – with cause.

Chairman Joe Passiment says council felt the evidence against Greenway, which they are not sharing with the public right now, forced them to make this decision.

The county plans to investigate every single purchase Greenway made this year with taxpayer dollars.

It comes after council voted to put him on administrative leave on Monday at an emergency council meeting.

After that meeting, the WTOC Investigates team found a criminal complaint filed back in May with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s office accusing Greenway of misconduct.

The ‘Public Integrity Unit’ - a third-party agency - is reviewing that complaint.

Passiment says, though they can’t share much right now, taxpayers should have faith in this process.

“Because this is a personnel matter, we can’t talk about it yet. At some time in the future we may be able to talk about it. But we want to assure the public that in the meantime, those things that we said we wanted to do are going to be done. That is going to be carried on.”

Greenway will have a chance to contest his termination.

We tried to reach out to him but have not heard back yet.

Passiment says between these investigations into Greenway and then the search for a new full-time administrator this process could easily drag-out into next year.

During the special called meeting, Beaufort County Council appointed John Robinson as Interim Administrator.

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