COLUMBIA, S.C. — Officials with Richland County say they have fired the director of the county's transportation department, the agency in charge of the county's penny tax program for roads projects.
News19 obtained an email sent from Richland County Administrator Leonardo Brown to councilmembers late Wednesday afternoon, informing them that Michael Niermeier had been terminated and relieved of his duties immediately.
Brown told councilmembers that Niermeier had been relieved of his duties, saying, "This is an opportunity for us to hire a professional engineer to lead the transportation program and continue to navigate those funds we receive from those citizens."
Brown couldn't address the reasons for the dismissal, but did say he's been working for months to transition the agency to be under public works.
The county's tax program has come under fire for years prior to Niermeier tenure.
Richland County voters approved the penny tax in 2012 with the idea it would generate $1 billion for road, public transit and bike projects.
According to the South Carolina Department of Revenue's final audit report released last year, more $30 million worth of funds were misspent.
Funds from the penny tax program are supposed to be used on highways, roads, bridges, mass-transit systems and other transportation-related projects. SCDOR says Richland County instead spent some of that revenue on ineligible things like legal expenses, hiring outside PR firms, and operating expenses such as buying media ads and cars.
Back in August of 2020, Richland County Council Chairman Paul Livingston said in a response to the audit, "Richland County disagrees with the majority of SCDOR's findings. Those findings and conclusions have not been substantiated by information provided to Richland County and some appear to be based on conjecture."
Flash forward to today. Richland County says they'll continue to try improve the program. "There may be some continued opportunities for us to address and we will absolutely do that," said Brown.
Brown says the Saluda River Greenway is the most recent project to completed using penny tax money.