Laurens County Council has accepted the resignation of Thomas Higgs, the former City Manager of Clinton and County Administrator since 2021.
The first indication came last Tuesday as the council called a closed session meeting to discuss the administrator’s position and to receive legal advice, according to an agenda posted on the county website. A video of the meeting is not on the county website (where meeting videos normally are archived) presumably because most of it happened in closed session.
“It’s been a rough few years with me. I lost my brother, tragically, and then I lost my father, and now I’m left with a mother and a basically adoptive brother now that I’m having to take under my wing and create a good environment for him,” Higgs told golaurens.com and the Laurens County Advertiser. “He needs to see me happy, productive and everything else, just like I am here. But this is an opportunity to kind of get back home, hopefully, will rekindle some of those things that made me happy as a kid and let him experience some of that.
“This is an amazing place. I’ve got people here who are more like family than co-workers and friends. I mean, they showed up when I had to bury my father and my brother. They were there, hand-in-hand, and they were the ones that were calling and checking on me. They’re the ones that are going to continue to do that, and it works both ways.”
Higgs will become the administrator of Colleton County, in the SC Lowcountry, whose county seat is Walterboro.
Higgs’ salary is $155,893/annual, and he has a 3-year contract, serving in year 1 of that contract. He reportedly told council members of his decision to resign last Friday and will stay in the position until mid-May. County Council decided at its April 14 meeting that FY25-26 budget workshops will be conducted on May 12 and May 19, with a final reading and public hearing to be held June 9. The goal is to have the budget in place by June 30.
Clinton hired Higgs as assistant city manager in 2019, and Higgs served awhile as interim city manager prior to accepting the county administrator’s position. Now, the City of Clinton also is in a search process for a new manager, replacing Tom Brooks who replaced Higgs in the position. Several City of Clinton employees have followed Higgs into leadership positions with the County. During his tenure, Laurens County has undertaken ambitious projects to develop Hillcrest East (a former grocery store) into the Veterans and Voting center with plans to build it out for Emergency Management and to renovate the Historic Courthouse in downtown Laurens. He led a county team that was on the job 24/7 during the devastation of Hurricane Helene, coordinating closely with the South Carolina National Guard. He has been the County Administrator overseeing spending of the proceeds from the Capital Projects Sales Tax approved by Laurens County voters in the 2020 General Election. The new Clinton Library, which was dedicated Sunday afternoon, is a CPST project.
According to the County website, “The Administrator emphasizes effective management practices, strategic planning, coordination of resources, internal controls, and transparency in government by County departments in all aspects of public service delivery and day-to-day operations of local government; Directs and coordinates the operation of agencies and administrative activities established by County Council. The complete duties of a County Administrator are outlined in the South Carolina Code of Laws, 1976 as amended. SECTION 4-9-630” Laurens County hasn’t released any information about the upcoming search process.
