Case Explained: ‘I ain’t for sale, folks’ – Coastal Observer – Legal Perspective

The group leading an effort to create a town in the Pawleys Island-Litchfield area offered the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office $600,000 to provide law enforcement for the proposed town, Sheriff Carter Weaver said at a forum last week.

He said the sheriff’s office received a proposal last month from the study group’s lawyer, Ginny Bozeman.

Weaver has declined to provide a letter to the Pawleys Litchfield Municipal Study Group saying his office will provide law enforcement for the new town. He made it clear that his stance will not waver on the matter.

“I ain’t for sale, folks,” Weaver said to the audience at St. John AME church last week. “I don’t want your $600,000 because you can’t even tell me what it’s for.”

Weaver said that’s the amount the town of James Island pays the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, which may be the model the study group is looking at. He said he has not received an answer as to what the funds are for.

Weaver also criticized the study group and its chairman, Andy Hallock, for being “cavalier about public safety.”

The Rev. Norvel Goff, pastor of St. John AME, invited Weaver to share crime statistics from 2024-2026 to area residents.

Goff said he thought the meeting went well.

“Let us not avoid having additional meetings like this,” Goff said. “We were well informed about what’s going on.”

“We’ll talk about some everyday crime, things that really matter. Incorporation doesn’t matter,” Weaver said.

There are nine zones within the county, he explained, and Parkersville is within zone 5 that includes Pawleys Island and Litchfield. Zone 5 alone saw 18,485 calls for service in the two years and the Parkersville area made up 2,200 of those calls.

He said the Parkersville community had no reports of breaking and entering, 13 burglaries, 53 larcenies, six narcotics cases, no weapons law violations, 166 animal calls, 183 suspicious activity reports, 10 trespassing calls, 200 alarm calls and 521 traffic calls.

There were 516 incidents classified as “crimes against society,” 116 crimes against another person and 66 crimes against property, he said.

Zone 5 made up 11 percent of calls for service of the entire county, Weaver said.

“It just so happens, that’s the zone they’re talking about incorporating,” he said.

He added that crime in the Parkersville community has decreased in the last 20 years.

“You are the most needy zone in the county. You’re the busiest, and you know that,” Weaver said. “You’re dealing with unknown issues and the fear of what is to come with growth.”

Last week’s meeting was the first time Weaver made a presentation about crime statistics in the Parkersville area. He also dove into his stance on incorporation after attendees asked him to discuss it. 

Last year, Weaver sent a letter to the Pawleys Litchfield Municipal Study Group that said the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office won’t enter into a two-year agreement to provide “the same number of officers, working the same scheduled shifts and performing the same law enforcement services” for the proposed municipality.

State law requires that the proposed town show it can provide “a substantially similar level of law enforcement services” to what currently exists as part of its application to the S.C. Secretary of State’s office to hold a vote on incorporation.

The study group cannot file an application with the state without an agreement from the sheriff.

“I’m going back down to the legal reasons from Nov. 4 on why it’s a ‘no,’ and why it will always be a ‘no’ by your sheriff,” he said.

Weaver cited four reasons in his letter: legal authority, limited resources, financial liability and municipal autonomy.

Other than the legal reasons he listed, Weaver was insulted by the study group’s approach to reach a negotiation on law enforcement.

“He’s sitting right here in this room in that yellow coat,” he said, pointing to Hallock. There were about 30 people in the audience who all turned around to look.

Hallock declined to comment.

“How dare you be cavalier about public safety? How dare you treat public safety like it’s fast food? How dare you spit in my face after 40 years of unwavering service to this state and this county?” Weaver said. “That’s what burns me up, and that’s why I’ll never waver, and I will always stand on those four legal reasons on why it’s a no.”

Weaver said he and the sheriff’s office supports the study group’s goal to incorporate and will cooperate with its future police agency as needed.

He said the members of the study group have another option – sit back until there’s a new county sheriff.

“Are you going to retire?” one woman asked him.

“I ain’t going nowhere,” Weaver said.