SC DEW Director Abraham Turner Steps Down

The Associated Press has reported that Abraham Turner, the Director of SC Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) has given Gov. Nikki Haley his resignation.

Turner is the second agency head to step down in the past three months. The former head of the Department of Revenue, Jim Etter, resigned in the wake of the cybersecurity hack.

Turner's resignation is effective March 1. He was on the job since September 2011. The DEW has been under fire since it announced it was reducing person-to-person services in 17 rural counties and laying off more than 100 people. It was subsequently reported that Turner was scheduled to receive a pay raise and that staffers had used resorts for meetings with taxpayer money.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford (D-Richland) released the following statement upon hearing of Turner's resignation:

"Governor Haley has allowed her agency, SC DEW, to become an absolute embarrassment. In the last two weeks the governor's agency has made news because of crippling layoffs, massive pay raises, lavish taxpayer funded beach retreats, the closing of seventeen unemployment centers in rural counties, and now the resignation of the Executive Director. Governor Haley must regain control of her agency before it is too late. Millions of South Carolinians depend on this agency to be functional and effective. As it stands today, it is the opposite."

State Senator Creighton Coleman (D-Fairfield) issued the following statement:

“This news shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. We've seen a pattern of incompetence with Governor Haley’s Cabinet officials. The Department of Employment and Workforce has been plagued by mismanagement for too long. The recent revelations of staff pay raises and a taxpayer-funded beach trip while the agency is laying off employees and closing unemployment services to rural communities are appalling.”

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