What conversations led to SLED investigating Horry County Chairman Johnny Gardner?

It’s been two weeks since the Horry County Council debated if Administrator Chris Eldridge deserved to be fired for requesting a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigation into new Chairman Johnny Gardner.

Eldridge narrowly kept his job after a tied vote.

The whole ordeal began Nov. 30 at a lunch meeting Gardner attended. Eldridge thought something illegal or immoral happened at the lunch, based off what he heard from a portion of a recording from the lunch.

Six council members believed Eldridge acted improperly in reporting the dinner conversation to law enforcement. Eldridge said he was instructed to do so. The other six council members thought he acted within his role.

With the administrator’s job up for discussion next month, results from a Freedom of Information Act request made by The Sun News give more insight into the conversations Eldridge had leading up to him notifying SLED.

‘Brushed under the rug’

Eldridge wanted the entire recording of a Nov. 30 lunch at The Rivertown Bistro. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce Gardner to the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation. Gardner’s associate Luke Barefoot, who previously worked in economic development, also came to the lunch and did most of the talking.

MBREDC President Sandy Davis asked her colleague Sherri Steele to takes notes, but Steele decided to record the conversation because the table was too small for note-taking.

After the dinner, Davis texted Eldridge to say she thought the dinner went well.

In the recording, acquired by The Sun News, Barefoot mentions political consultant Donald Smith, who worked on Gardner’s campaign, as a guy who gets things done on council. Smith is not a registered lobbyist.

“If I were y’all, I would meet with (Smith) and think about retaining him for political cover to protect your funding,” Barefoot said in the recording. “If you can, I think it would be a good fit, and again, I call it political cover.”

On Dec. 6, Steele sent an email to Eldridge asking when “people” would come by her office, she wanted to make sure to be there when they arrived. An Information Technology employee was expected to pick up the tape and bring it back to Horry Government offices.

Originally, the emails imply Davis and Steele agreed to allow the administrator to hear the tape.

On Dec. 7, MBREDC Chairman Neyle Wilson recommended that Eldridge listen to the recording before taking action. Wilson had reviewed the conversation and didn’t hear anything that sounded like wrongdoing. According to the SLED report, which was reviewed by 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, Wilson never heard back from Eldridge on this request for several days.

“Sandy and Sherry has agreed for you to listen to the recording,” Wilson wrote. “Therefore, I suggest you listen to the recording first and then decide whether you need to go any further.”

Despite an offer to let Eldridge listen to the tape, he did not get to until a week later. Even then, Eldridge never heard the full recording, nor did he get a copy of it like he wanted.

“An unwillingness to share the taped recording of the conversation raises even more concerns — a taped recording, I may add, that you and Sandy and Sherri acknowledge existed.”

On Dec. 12, Eldridge sent an email to a group of county leaders. He thought something about the conversation was being hidden. This email was made public when the memo written by County Attorney Arrigo Carotti was leaked to FITSNews.

“Something of this nature can’t be swept be ‘brushed under the rug,’” he wrote in his email. “Doing so jeopardizes the credibility of the MBREDC.”

The leaders included former County Chair Mark Lazarus, County Council Member Gary Loftus, Wilson and Carotti.

At this time, Lazarus and Loftus were the only Horry County Council Members who knew about the recording. Both sit on the MBREDC board, which is why Eldridge included them.

‘Sled?’

Lazarus responded directly to Eldridge’s email on Dec. 12. At the time, Lazarus was out of the country. He told the administrator to be cautious moving forward.

“Think about how to handle. SLED? Carry it out?,” Lazarus wrote. This is the first time SLED is mentioned in the emails.

Lazarus was puzzled why Davis told Eldridge about the tape but then wouldn’t hand it over. He told The Sun News that he didn’t want any part of deciding what to do next, especially without hearing the tapes.

“If it’s just borderline, I’d lay low and know what your dealing with in the future. Glad I’m not there,” Lazarus wrote Dec. 13.

By this point, Eldridge was becoming “pissed” that he had not yet heard the tape.

“She is refusing to give us the tape,” he wrote. “Some spooky shit.”

Lazarus and Eldridge agreed that when the tape was played, Eldridge should insist on a copy of it or record it himself. They were worried it would later be deleted.

Eldridge told the outgoing chairman that he did not trust Davis anymore. He said Davis’ husband works for Donald Godwin, the owner of Southern Asphalt, who Eldridge said was business associates with Gardner and Barefoot.

“Godwin told her he head paid Donald Smith and Paul Gable in the past to not print things about him,” Eldridge wrote.

In the Dec. 12 email, Eldridge said from what he had heard from Davis, the agreements could be unethical or even illegal. Paying for favorable coverage was at the center of what Eldridge thought could be wrongdoing. He said Barefoot might be trying to “funnel” money to him.

Smith has worked on several local politicians’ campaigns. Barefoot said in the recording he knew for a fact Smith worked behind the scenes and could influence council votes.

Lazarus said he told Eldridge to formally request the recording from Davis and Wilson from his Horry County email one last time. If they did not comply, he recommended Eldridge call each council member to individually briefing them.

The Dec. 18 council meeting was Lazarus’ last. At this point he had not heard the tape, he said he was worried if he was a part of the discussions that he would be seen as trying to undermine the new chairman. Since he had not heard the tape, he asked Eldridge to not bring it up at his last meeting.

“I wasn’t trying to cast a cloud over anything,” he said.

On Dec. 19, Eldridge, Davis, Steele, Wilson, Loftus and Carotti listened to the tape. According to Davis, Eldridge was the only person who thought the tape sounded like wrongdoing.

Lazarus said he went to hear the tape because he figured if it was handled publicly, people would blame him.

By that afternoon, Carotti wrote a memo recounting the events leading up to the the group listening to the tape. He also relayed what he heard, saying his account was written to the best of his ability. Neither the privileged memo nor the email conversations mention the following day being Gardner’s swearing-in ceremony.

Carotti’s memo was emailed to the county council later that evening.

The next morning Eldridge sent an email to SLED at 9:58 a.m., a few hours after FITSNews published its story. The email, which was copied to Police Chief Joseph Hill, had Carotti’s memo attached.

“This information was provided to Horry County Council Last night,” he wrote. “If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at my office or on my cell phone.”

On Dec. 20, Spokesperson Thom Berry verified to The Sun News that Eldridge had requested SLED to investigate.

Later, on March 5, Eldridge said council members Harold Worley, Loftus and Tyler Servant told him to go the law enforcement agency. Once the memo went public, he felt compelled to act, he told the county council.

Gardner did not respond to requests for comment. Eldridge declined to comment.

This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 5:47 PM.