A first-term Jasper County treasurer is suing his own county to get access to 73 bank accounts he says were hidden from him.

Michael Skinner, who was elected treasurer of the county in South Carolina’s Lowcounty in November 2022, said he has taken the extraordinary step of filing the complaint with South Carolina’s Supreme Court after facing disorder and obstruction during his first year on the job.

The complaint, known as a Writ of Mandamus, asks the state’s highest court to order Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulgham and Director of Jasper County Administrative Services Kimberly Burgess to add Skinner as a signatory to all of the county’s bank accounts.

“I am not trying to defame anyone, I am not accusing anyone of anything at all. I simply want access to the accounts to do my job for the people of the county that elected me,” Skinner said at a news conference in front of the Jasper County administration building Thursday.

When contact Friday, county Administrator Fulgham replied in an email, “We have not yet been served with a lawsuit, however when we receive it, we will be consulting with our Attorney to assess the claims. We would expect him to advise what response is appropriate, if any, as the County generally does not comment on pending litigation.”

When Skinner took office at the beginning of the fiscal year in July 2023, he encountered unprecedented “chaos and disorder” in the county treasurer’s office, according to the complaint filed by attorneys Ronald Richter and Eric Bland, best known for representing victims of Alex Murdaugh’s financial crimes.

The situation was “suggestive of efforts to sabotage his ability to perform the duties of his office,” according to the complaint. The office had been held by Verna Garvin, a Democrat, for the previous 22 years, until Skinner, a Republican, defeated her in November 2022.

According to the lawsuit, when Skinner arrived at the treasurer’s office, he found that documents had been removed and placed in storage with no indication as to what had been taken and where it had been stored. The petty cash drawer was discovered three days after Skinner took office locked in another county official’s office. The treasurer’s website had been taken offline and toner cartridges had been removed from the printers.

There were no transition memos or written policies for the office’s procedures, including how to coordinate with the county administration’s finance department.

“’It’s how we’ve always done it’ has been the recurring theme,” Skinner said. “In a small county like Jasper County, that can actually work until it doesn’t.”

An assessment performed by Mauldin & Jenkins, an accounting firm based in Atlanta, described Skinner dealing with “limited typical transition assistance” as well as “limited continuity of staff, reduced staff headcount, and no formal policies, procedures, and/or user guides for performing the operational functions of the Office.”

The State was unable to reach Garvin for comment.

Most alarmingly, Skinner said, is that he was unable to account for the county’s bank accounts and met “stiff resistance” when he tried to track them down.

“When asked by the state authority how many accounts we have, I couldn’t answer. What’s in them? Don’t know. Who has them? Again, don’t know. It was rather embarrassing actually,” Skinner said.

Working with local banks and State Treasurer Curtis Loftis, Skinner said that he was able to identify 96 bank accounts owned by the county. But Skinner said that he is a signatory to just 23 of those accounts.

When he reached out to become a signatory, the banks, which included South State Bank and Bank of the Lowcountry, told him that the other signatories, alleged in court documents to be Fulgham and Burgess, denied his request.

Richter said at Thursday’s press conference that asking why would be a “logical question” but there was no explanation for the refusal.

“Everyone in Jasper County should be doing their level best to make sure that this man succeeds at his job,” Richter said. “The way we got to this point is the treasurer is asking one simple question, ‘May I see the bank accounts of Jasper County?’”

The accounts he was able to access were “not set up to make money,” Skinner said, characterizing the current situation as a wasted opportunity for taxpayers.

“If there is money sitting there not doing any good, I can utilize that and make us more money for the taxpayers,” Skinner said. Since taking office and gaining access to the county’s bank accounts, he has been able to generate $1.7 million in interest for the county, he said.

Since he took over as treasurer eight months ago, Skinner said, the county has twice hired an outside firm to audit his office despite not having performed a single audit in the previous 22 years. A third audit has been commissioned, according to the lawsuit.

While the audits uncovered some discrepancies as he “stumbled around” in his new role, Skinner said he “welcomed the process” and called for a broader look at the county, not just his office.

“I wish it could have been a bigger snapshot, it was a snapshot just of my office,” Skinner said.