Where’s the money?

The unexpected closure of a Hilton Head Island property management company threw two dozen local communities into financial turmoil and drew the attention of the FBI early this year. Now three former clients say $1.2 million could be missing.

Reporter Dan Burley and I went looking for that cash and the man behind the scandal. What we found indicated a troubled past and a massive vulnerability in Hilton Head’s largest industry that, it turns out, had been exploited before.

Done deal a dumb deal?

With its key advocates already out or leaving their public positions, critics are pummeling the $29.5-million plan to bring a University of South Carolina Beaufort hospitality management campus to Hilton Head Island.

Understanding how we got here, and why there’s no appetite to go back no matter how much outrage exists, requires a lesson in tax financing and a trip back 16 years.