Investigating Anderson County pays much better than working for the county.
Only three county employees make as much in a year as the county council’s two private investigators have made in less than seven months.
Calculated by what they earn per day, the investigators make more than twice what the highest-salaried county employee makes.
Interim county administrator Rusty Burns makes $340 per day or $124,000 a year while Steve Smith’s Palmetto Investigative and Consulting Inc. has already been paid $113,204 since starting work April 13.
The other investigator hired for the council’s investigation, Eddie Tallon’s Tallon Group Inc., has been paid $108,827 since starting March 26.
Burns and county Finance Division director Gina Humphreys make more money per year than the two private investigators have been paid, but Tallon’s and Smith’s rate of pay is far higher.
Only one other county employee, deputy administrator Holt Hopkins, gets paid more than Tallon, but not Smith. Hopkins is paid $110,826 a year after he received a retroactive raise of five percent in September.
According to the county’s most recently posted information on its check register, Smith has made the equivalent of $797 per day. Tallon has made $689 per day.
Burns’ payment of $124,000 a year includes reimbursement for his vehicle. Humphries makes $310 per day, or $113,220 a year.
The council voted in January to begin investigating the past administration’s finances and legal matters, an investigation that has now largely been handed over to Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper.
Lawyers from Nexsen Pruet, which hired the investigators after the council hired the law firm to oversee the investigation, have previously said that Skipper is now handling the process although their investigative resources are still available to the sheriff. Nexsen Pruet attorney Grant Burns said Wednesday that the investigation is continuing and he could not comment on it.
Skipper said Wednesday he has handed over at least some material to 10th Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams and Adams has asked for some additional information.
“We are close to having those questions answered for her,” the sheriff said. He declined to give a more specific time frame.
To read more of this article from our coverage partners at the Anderson Independent-Mail, click here: http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/oct/14/two-investigators-paid-more-100000/
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