BEAUFORT, S.C. () — In the midst of an external investigation into the City of Beaufort releasing 9,000 unredacted records, a key city staff member has announced their resignation.

It’s caused some questions from the public about if their departure is related to the investigation and if they could be responsible.

Deputy City Manager JJ Suave announced his departure from the city Tuesday. While he said it feels coincidental that it falls during the investigation, it is not at all related.

“If anything, the FOIA investigation has kind of delayed how all this rolled out,” said Suave.

Sauve, who joined the city of Beaufort in January of 2024, said he’s been planning his resignation since this summer, when his wife and kids who live in Tryon, North Carolina, decided not to relocate to Beaufort.

He also said another job opportunity became available in Tryon.

“I had an opportunity in private practice to return to the area, and I couldn’t push that back any further,” said Suave.

But he made it clear he was sticking around to work with the outside law firm the city hired to investigate, as well as finish ongoing projects in the city before departing.

“I wouldn’t be leaving this role with all of this going on if I felt that there was anything that could reflect negatively on myself or really the entire city staff from an intentional or gross negligence standpoint,” said Suave.

Sauve said there were failures in many different areas from the city, but he’s confident that the investigation will show there was no ill intention or negligence from he or the staff.

“The city has grown greatly over the past few years, and we’ve been working internally and tirelessly to update our process, to standardize our processes, to increase transparency, to increase accountability,” said Suave.

Suave said he’s proud of many projects he has accomplished while on board, as well as the few remaining projects that are close to being complete before his exit.

He will remain the Deputy City Manager until the end of October, when he believes the investigation will be at a close.

“Hopefully we’ll have all of that done here in the next 30 to 60 days so that that report can go back to council and council can make decisions as far as releasing information to the public, making notifications to people who are affected,” said Suave. “We want to get this resolved and done right as quickly as possible. We can’t rush that big of a process. We want to make sure again, it’s done right.”