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Hampton County, South Carolina’s ongoing financial crisis has taken yet another turn — this time involving the controversial firing of public works director David W. Steinmeyer, whose termination came on the heels of last month’s embarrassing equipment repossession debacle.
In a grievance letter filed on Monday (November 3, 2025), Steinmeyer’s attorney asked council to reverse his termination, alleging his client was punished not for wrongdoing — but for doing his job too well. According to the filing, Steinmeyer alerted county officials that vendor payments had been made but never properly credited by the finance department — the same accounting blunder that sparked the repossession incident the county later dismissed as a mere “payment posting error.”
Rather than being thanked for catching the problem, Steinmeyer was shown the door. The letter (.pdf) contends he was denied due process, never informed of his grievance rights, and made a fall guy for an internal failure outside of his control. His attorney argued that the county’s version of events doesn’t add up — and that Steinmeyer’s professional reputation was “substantially and unjustly harmed” in the process.
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COUNCIL DIVIDES OVER PUBLIC WORKS DECISION
If there were any doubts about how the Steinmeyer situation was handled, Monday night’s Hampton County Council meeting cleared them up — by showing just how divided the county’s leadership really is.
When councilman Marvin Love tried to amend the agenda to discuss a “personnel matter” involving public works behind closed doors, the motion died without a second — an unusually icy silence from his fellow council members. Love, who serves as liaison for public works, made it clear he wasn’t about to take the fall for someone else’s mess.
“I was seeking some information I was not able to obtain,” Love said. “I was legally advised to do this, and I want it on the record — I am detaching myself from that decision that was made concerning public works. I’m not in agreement with it.”
Love went on to note that council had held executive sessions on personnel issues nine times in the past year, calling it “nothing unusual” and questioning why this one suddenly crossed a line.
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Councilman Roy Hollingsworth, meanwhile, wasn’t having it. He reminded everyone that only he and the county administrator decide what goes on the agenda — and claimed the request came too late to be included.
“It wasn’t considered an emergency matter,” Hollingsworth said. “The administrator and I make the final decision.”
Translation: discussion denied.
The exchange laid bare what insiders have been whispering for weeks — that even council members are being kept out of the loop on key personnel and financial decisions, and that “transparency” at Hampton County Hall has become more slogan than standard practice.
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RELATED | HAMPTON COUNTY RESPONDS TO EQUIPMENT REPOSSESSION REPORTS
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CREDIT-CARD CONTROLS AND FISCAL TENSION
The same meeting also revealed sharp divisions over the county’s new financial controls. Hampton County sheriff Anthony Russell pleaded with council to allow his office to obtain its own credit card after deputies were forced to use personal cards for official business — sometimes waiting weeks for reimbursement.
Finance director Chanel Lewis and administrator Lavar Youmans opposed the idea, citing stricter policies implemented after the county’s blistering Eide Bailly forensic audit (.pdf). The county, they said, reduced its credit-card inventory from six to three and placed them under the treasurer’s custody to prevent misuse.
Russell countered that the controls were crippling day-to-day operations, saying, “Without a credit card, a lot of my business will crumble.” EMS leaders backed him, explaining that some vendors no longer accept purchase orders from Hampton County because of late or missing payments.
Councilman Love agreed that the problem was longstanding but pressed for real reform. “We can’t keep passing the buck to the past,” Love said. “We’ve been saying ‘we’re getting there’ for eleven months — we need to arrive.”
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RELATED | HAMPTON RESIDENTS HEAR FROM STATE TREASURER
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FOIA RESPONSE: RECORDS “UNDER REVIEW”
Meanwhile, FITSNews’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (.pdf) for documentation of the payment error — including vendor correspondence, payment records, and the internal-control memos cited in the county’s public statement — remains unresolved.
In an October 31 letter (.pdf), county attorney Joseph D. Dickey Jr. confirmed receipt of the request and said responsive records would be produced “within thirty days,” but warned that certain materials may be withheld under the law’s exemption provisions.
The county has yet to specify which exemptions it intends to invoke or whether it will release the documentation supporting its claim that the repossession was a clerical mistake.
For residents, the unfolding series of crises — from repossession to firing, from credit-card restrictions to budget confusion — is part of a broader pattern of instability and eroding trust.
The county’s forensic audit earlier this year exposed years of sloppy accounting, unauthorized fund transfers, and unbalanced budgets. At a September town hall, state treasurer Curtis Loftis and former councilwoman Maggie Knox warned that until Hampton County professionalizes its financial management, scandals like this will keep repeating.
Two months later, their prediction is proving true.
Between a fired public-works director claiming retaliation, a sheriff forced to plead for credit access, and a council chairman publicly disowning a major personnel decision, Hampton County’s problems have moved far beyond clerical “errors.”
They’ve become a case study of what happens when a local government loses the trust of its people — and struggles to earn it back.
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THE GRIEVANCE LETTER
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
As a private investigator turned journalist, Jenn Wood brings a unique skill set to FITSNews as its research director. Known for her meticulous sourcing and victim-centered approach, she helps shape the newsroom’s most complex investigative stories while producing the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts. Jenn lives in South Carolina with her family, where her work continues to spotlight truth, accountability, and justice.
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