Who's responsible? Taxpayer documents dumped behind old Greenville County building

Tax notices with addresses, ballot boxes, and other personal documents were found behind the old Greenville County building Tuesday night.

Troy Cormier was driving when he made a U-turn near the building currently being demolished and stumbled upon the documents at about 6 p.m. He estimated at least 1,000 documents were improperly discarded.

"It looks like it's just become a dumping ground," Cormier said.

Greenville County Councilman Steve Shaw (District 20) is demanding an investigation by the county to understand who was responsible for the removal of the documents. Shaw sent a letter to all county council members and addressed Greenville County administrator Joe Kernell and county councilman Dan Tripp.

"This is a severe breach of public trust and security with potentially catastrophic consequences for the public taxpayers who are now vulnerable to identity theft and financial distress for years to come," Shaw said in the letter, which was forwarded to the Greenville News. "The documents were in an open pile, unshredded, unsecured, and in an area that was accessible to anyone."

The pile had been cleared by Thursday afternoon. It is unclear when exactly the site was cleaned up. Greenville County officials did not respond to a request for comment.

In the letter, Shaw demanded an investigation into which officials were responsible for disposing of the documents and that the findings be presented at the next county council meeting on April 2. Shaw also requested a special citizen's advocate to assist any Greenville County resident "victimized by identity theft, credit fraud, or financial crimes as a result of this data and personal information breach."

According to South Carolina Code, records containing personal information should be modified by "shredding, erasing, or other means," to ensure the documents are unreadable.

Savannah Moss covers Greenville County politics and growth/development. Reach her at smoss@gannett.com or follow her on X @Savmoss.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville County councilman wants investigation into dumped documents