It seems that Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge is taking a page out of the “Nero” playbook as he ignores oversight of county government while being involved in a plot to smear county council chairman Johnny Gardner.

Eldridge was involved in creating a fictitious story about the new chairman and reporting that fiction to SLED while serious issues involving loss of equipment and shorting employee pay were going virtually ignored.

The administrator is charged with carrying out policies approved by county council and creating a smooth running county government organization with good morale.

Several sources within county government say the IT, Procurement and Human Resources departments have been allowed by Eldridge to create virtual fiefdoms outside of the normal organizational chart with little to no oversight.

These same fiefdoms would appear to be at the center of the recent problems.