Charleston County Attorney Natalie A. Ham’s new employment contract, which was signed April 22 by county officials, sets her annual salary at just over $300,000, making her the highest-paid employee in the county government — and that doesn’t even account for myriad extras of the job.
Including usual benefits like health and medical insurance and not-so-usual benefits like a $2,000 monthly vehicle allowance, Ham’s employment package adds up to more than $400,000 per year.
She was originally hired in March 2021 at a starting salary of $225,000. The salary has steadily climbed every year, with room to continue, according to her contract.
“People get too comfortable spending other people’s money,” said Charleston County Council Vice Chairman Larry Kobrovsky. “It’s like monopoly money.
“This isn’t a criticism of the person holding the job. This would apply to anyone.”
Neither Ham nor Charleston County Council Chairman Kylon Middleton, who signed her contract, responded to requests for comment. County spokesman Chloe Field declined to comment, saying that the position was a direct hire by the council.
Kobrovsky said it felt wrong to him for one person to be paid so highly when so many county residents struggle to make ends meet — especially when you compare her position to similar ones around the country. The U.S. attorney general, for example,makes $250,000 per year; the S.C. attorney general gets a little over $200,000.
“It’s kind of insulting,” he said. “People work hard every day just to make ends meet, and now to throw money like this around … it’s outrageous.”
Kobrosky said the best way to address the controversy would be to decouple the county attorney’s position from the nine-member council that seeks her professional expertise.
“It’s like a bidding war,” he said. “Either make it appointed by the supervisor and have the salary set by the legislature, or make it elected like the state Attorney General.”
As long as the people paying the attorney’s salary are simultaneously depending on that attorney’s decisions, Kobrosky said, there will be trouble.
“There needs to be an institutional change,” he said. “There’s a structural issue there that’s independent from who the players are.”
Past county controversies
Kobrovsky said the pay rate is extra concerning after the previous county attorney, current U.S. District Judge Joe Dawson, was embroiled in controversy for his financial dealings with county government.
Dawson was paid more than $200,000 plus a percentage of any opioid pharmaceutical litigation settlement money in exchange for services to the county while serving on the federal bench. The deal prompted a nonprofit watchdog group to file an ethics complaint that ultimately resulted in an uncommon public reprimand of a sitting judge.
Following public criticism of the deal, Dawson entered into an amended contract in May 2021 in which he gave up his right to the opioid contingency fee and specified that the $216,000 was for past, not future, legal work.
“I remember reading about the previous county attorney,” Kobrovsky said. “That’s what got me interested in running for council in the first place. I was outraged.”
More recently, Charleston County leaders were handed a decisive defeat during the 2024 election when voters largely rejected a proposed referendum to fund county projects. The biggest reason for the “no” votes: a lack of faith in county government to be fiscally responsible with taxpayers’ money.
“Do you know of any other issues that unite people in times of extreme political tension?” Kobrovsky said. “It was a united refutation across party lines. It didn’t matter if you were a Democrat or a Republican, they didn’t trust the county.
“We still have projects that need to be done, and I fear that people will look at this now, and it hurts their belief that we are using their money judiciously,” he added. “It jeopardizes our ability to conduct good governance.”
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