BEAUFORT QUESTIONS DRUG COURT SPENDING, OPERATION

BEAUFORT -- Some Beaufort City Council members are balking at a plan to
give the Beaufort County Drug Court $30,000 this year until Judge Manning
Smith justifies having spent more than $6,000 on a conference in Reno,
Nev., last May. After the council on Sept. 23 passed first reading of a
budget amendment to support the court, Mayor Bill Rauch faxed Smith a
letter asking for information about the national drug court conference.

Rauch said he wanted "to make sure the money's being spent in a way that's
consistent with the city's policies and procedures."

Not having received an answer to Rauch's letter, on Oct. 14 the council
postponed final reading of the budget amendment.

Smith's wife, Elizabeth Smith, the Beaufort County clerk of court, keeps
the Drug Court records. On Friday, she said the court spent $6,230 to
attend the annual conference of the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals.

Both Smiths, the court's program director, two counselors and two Beaufort
County Sheriff's Office deputies attended.

Less than 6 percent of the court's $107,500 fiscal 2003 budget went toward
the conference, according to Elizabeth Smith.

"I'm bulletproof, and so are my people," Manning Smith said last Monday
from his new office on Sams Point Road. He said he hadn't responded to the
council's request for information because he received the mayor's fax late
while in the process of moving from his offices on North Street.

Smith said he doesn't get paid for his time in Drug Court, and hasn't since
it began in July 2001. He said he'll go elsewhere to get the money for this
year's budget if he has to, but the city of Beaufort alone accounts for
between 40 percent and 50 percent of the program participants.

Last year, Hilton Head Island and Beaufort each contributed $30,000 to the
program and Beaufort County contributed $47,500. This year, Hilton Head
contributed $33,500, and Beaufort County $47,500.

The city of Beaufort is the only government entity questioning the court's
operations.

Councilman Gary Fordham has joined Rauch in his concern over the Reno trip.

Council members Billy Keyserling and Donnie Beer have remained supporters
of the Drug Court, and Frank Glover has said little about the court, but
voted to pass the first reading of the $30,000 budget amendment.

The Reno conference, said Beer, is the only Drug Court conference in the
country. "It's like any convention you go to, you go where the convention is."

Drug Court enrollees are nonviolent offenders who agree to plead guilty to
the charges they face in exchange for an opportunity to receive treatment
for their drug-or alcohol-related addictions while avoiding jail time. It
takes 15 to 18 months to graduate from the program.