Horry County Administrator’s employment back on a County Council Agenda

Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge’s employment is back on a county council agenda.

The agenda released Friday afternoon has council going into executive session at the end of Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting. Executive sessions are not public and typically deal with contract negotiations or information only privy to council members and senior staff.

“Discussion of employment, appointment, compensation, promotion, discipline, or release of an employee,” the agenda reads.

There is expected to be a public vote after council comes out of executive session.

Horry County Chairman Johnny Gardner said the agenda item is for council to review a deal made with Eldridge in anticipation one will be struck before the meeting. If so, the vote following the executive session will be to accept the terms if a majority of council approve. The chairman added negotiations are going well.

This marks the fourth time Eldridge’s employment will be on a council agenda, with the most recent time being on Monday. Gardner ended up dropping this discussion after Eldridge’s lawyer called him saying the administrator is willing to negotiate a deal for him to resign.

Gardner said negotiations are better than outright terminating Eldridge’s contract. He hopes these talks end well for all parties involved and allow the county to move on from this chapter of Horry County history.

“The most important thing for our administrator form of government is that the administrator and the chairman have a good working relationship,” Gardner told The Sun News on Monday. “We haven’t had that in three months.”

Eldridge did not respond to requests for comment.

This story was originally published March 29, 2019 at 1:35 PM.