Surfside Beach settles wrongful termination lawsuits with former directors

Surfside Beach has agreed to financial settlements in a pair of lawsuits filed by former employees who said they were wrongfully terminated from their positions with the town.

The town will pay $115,000 to Andy Christenson, the town’s former public safety director, to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit Christenson filed in 2010 after the town decided to separate its police and fire departments into two separate divisions.

The town also will pay $15,000 to Robert “Ty” Taylor, the former public works director who was fired by the Town Council on Jan. 12, 2010, after he was arrested and charged with an open container violation.

William Luse, the Myrtle Beach lawyer who represented Taylor, declined to discuss the settlement. Jim Duckett, the town’s administrator, confirmed the financial details of the settlement. Taylor could not be reached for comment.

Henrietta Golding, the Myrtle Beach lawyer who represented Christenson, said $85,000 from the settlement in his case will go toward Christenson’s retirement contributions as well as to pay for mental anguish and loss of position. Another $30,000 will go toward attorney’s fees and costs. Golding said the town did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

Christenson could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Christenson was terminated on June 8, 2009, after spending a little more than two years as the town’s public safety director.

Mayor Allen Deaton said at the time that Christenson’s position was eliminated as part of a cost-cutting measure that occurred as the town split its police and fire departments.

Christenson, however, claimed in his lawsuit that Deaton and Councilman Doug Samples conspired to fire him because Christenson reported unethical and unlawful conduct by Samples to the solicitor’s office.

Samples had “required a member of the public to make a monetary contribution in exchange for obtaining zoning consideration from the town’s council,” according to Christenson’s lawsuit.

Samples declined to comment on the settlement agreement.

Christenson said he also was terminated because he refused to interfere with Deaton’s arrest for driving under the influence in January 2010. The charges against Deaton were dismissed in that case. Christenson said he also refused to show preferential treatment to a friend of Deaton’s, who was arrested for defacing a political campaign sign, according to the lawsuit.

Deaton said the decision to settle the lawsuit was made by the town’s insurance company, which is hired through the Municipal Association of South Carolina. Deaton said he had no comment on the settlement.

Surfside Beach separated its police and fire departments on Sept. 15, 2010. Christenson had overseen both departments as public safety director when they had been combined.

In Taylor’s case, police said he had an open beer in a town-issued truck while he was driving it on the beach, with friends in the vehicle, at about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2009. The charges against Taylor later were dropped.

The Town Council voted to fire Taylor even though Ed Booth, the town administrator at the time, already had taken disciplinary action against Taylor by suspending him.