Probate Judge Irv Condon probably should’ve taken the Fifth instead of taking the stand in his own defense.
See, he showed up at a Charleston County Council meeting Thursday to apologize, explain — and justify — $15,000 in suspect probate credit card charges flagged in a recent internal audit.
Mistakes were made, the judge conceded, before he went on to criticize county policies and staff, who said nearly $7,000 in food purchases would’ve been denied had the court followed procedure and asked for pre-authorization.
“All the expenditures benefited the taxpayers of Charleston County,” Condon declared.
His protests, and in particular his remarks about staff and bureaucracy, infuriated county officials. Which led them to publicly ask how, exactly, taxpayers benefited from the judge buying a Chewbacca mask.
Ouch. Wookiee mistake.
The internal audit of Probate Court, County Council members say, has shown just how well county government’s system of checks and balances works.
Budget and procurement staff caught questionable charges on procurement cards issued to the court and reported them to the administration. County Council Chairman Herb Sass then ordered a larger internal audit.
Which found, among other things, that taxpayers last year bought a $75 gift card for the winner of Probate Court’s March Madness office pool.
But Thursday’s council Audit Committee hearing also exposed an ongoing tension inherent in county government. See, County Council funds the budgets of elected officials such as the sheriff, treasurer, clerk of court — and probate judge — but has next to no authority over them.
You know, separately elected officials and all.
That relationship is a quirk of the state constitution and an endless source of frustration in county government.
“Once we give them the money, there’s not much we can do,” Councilman Teddie Pryor says.
Except take grief for politics often beyond their control. For instance: The entire real estate community descended on County Council a few years back to complain about a backlog in the county Register of Deeds office.
It was taking a month or more to process home sales at the time, and people didn’t want to hear about staffing shortages or COVID-related closures — or County Council’s lack of control over the office.
They simply demanded council do something. County officials couldn’t do anything, however, beyond giving the Register of Deeds office more money for additional staff. Which they did.
Once the county hands a constitutional officer a check, however, council has no control over how it’s spent.
“Other than budget setting and internal audit procedures, County Council does not control the activities of elected officials,” Councilman Brantley Moody says. “Their fate is left to the voters.”
Of course, most county officials believe that electing people to largely administrative roles is ludicrous, fractures county government and leads to problems. But that's a whole 'nother story, one that's unlikely to change.
In this particular case, for once, County Council does have a bit of leverage. Because it controls who gets credit cards ... and who doesn’t.
County government, by the way, slashed the number of p-cards it issues by nearly half after an audit more than five years ago found similar abuses in the system. There have been few problems since. Well, other than a few dust-ups like this one.
Once the Probate Court’s questionable charges were uncovered, the county shut down all but one of the office’s p-cards. On Thursday, council said it was putting a minuscule $500 limit on that card — and will make the judge repay government coffers at least $4,500. Maybe more than $12,000.
Truth is, that’s probably a harsher outcome than would’ve resulted from this before Thursday, when the judge argued that Rotary Club lunches and office candy somehow benefited taxpayers.
"All the items were budgeted, and they are all spent on operations for our Probate Court," Condon said. “When you talk about food, you’ve got to look at what we’ve been able to do.”
Condon recounted various outreach programs the Probate Court administers, and said they accounted for a lot of these charges. The argument carried little weight with County Council.
Mainly, council members say Condon didn’t make his situation better by arguing county staff had not made policy clear to his office. Because a not so long, long time ago in a government not so far away, Probate Court was warned to rein in its p-card use.
Repeatedly, the last time only a few years ago.
“This whole thing with staff, that’s not good form,” Moody told the judge. “There are rules everybody has to follow. Nobody’s above the law.”
At least not in this galaxy.
