That was the question asked "right out of the gate" at Wednesday's town-hall meeting.
Article V Section 7 of the town’s personnel policy states: “An employee of the Town shall not accept any gift, favor, or thing of value that may tend to influence such employee in the discharge of the employee’s duties, or cause the employee to give someone a favor, service, or thing of value.”
Commissioner Chris Carney called the policy “grayer than it should be.”
When it comes to fraternizing with developers or other professionals who do business with the town, Carney said he believes "there's a difference between commissioners and town staff members." Why? Primarily, he said, because commissioners can recuse themselves from voting on matters involving developers with whom they may have friendships or histories.
Carney recalled one issue that he recused himself from because it involved a developer who has gone with him on mission trips. Town staff, he said, can't exactly remove themselves from such a predicament.
Carney said being friendly with developers is one thing - allowing friendships to cloud judgment is another.
“I have business with developers, and I’ve had wine with developers – I’ll be the first to tell you," Carney said. "A glass of wine doesn't buy a vote, and if (it does), that's a bad thing."
Carney said he has also played golf with developers, but that he always pays his own way.
But that wasn’t the case for three town staff members, including Assistant Town Manager Erskine Smith, who played in the 2008 Cops for Kids/DARE golf-tournament fundraiser earlier this year – compliments of a Mooresville engineer.
According to the tournament records, Smith (who was interim town manager at the time), along with a town planner and athletic supervisor, played on a four-man team in the tournament at the town golf course. The fourth player: Mooresville engineer Lee Dowell of Dowell & Company, PC.
Records show that Dowell footed the $200 entry fee for the team, plus an additional $75 to sponsor a hole for the tournament. (Click on the documents for larger versions.)
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Without offering specifics, Carney said Wednesday: “There have been some concerns” about town employees not adhering to the policy about gifts and favors. And if there is proof that an employee has violated that policy, Carney said, that employee should be terminated.
“The prior manager (Jamie Justice) did not uphold that, and he’s gone,” Carney said.
Miles Atkins – the only other elected official to attend Wednesday’s meeting – said he has heard Carney point out to Mooresville's new town manager, Steve Husemann, that certain employees' abuse of the town policy "has to stop."
Husemann, said Atkins, is "very much aware of it, and I am confident that he has a handle on that.”
Now it's your turn to sound off. What do you think about the town's policy regarding gifts and favors? Are our town officials too "cozy" with developers/other professionals who do business with the town? And if so, how does that impact you as a taxpayer? What are the benefits of town officials having strong relationships with such professionals? What are the risks? Do you think it's possible for town officials to be friends with developers and other professionals but still hold them accountable?
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18 comments:
In response to Mr. Carney's statement regarding a commissioner recusing themselves from a vote, I have one question and I hope someone with access to this information will track down the answer.
Did Mitch Abraham (and former commissioner Alice Lee) recuse themselves from the CH2MHill vote?
If not they are responsible, in my estimation, for the fiscal burden we are currently under and the nonstop rate increases on our water bills due to overpricing by this company. We had 2 educated engineers who tried to keep us out of that situation and they were terminated. It's sad when seniors and disabled folks have to seek help paying the water bill and it happens everyday. Just ask the staff at Christian Mission.
Enough is enough. Mr. Husemann, please take control of these situations and we expect the town board to back you. If not, there is an election coming.
The 2004 minutes are not online at the Town's website, but looking through the the coverage available on the blog I have a sneaking suspicion the answer is "no" to recusing themselves. I'll ask Janet Pope to post those minutes on the town's website.
Commissioner Franklin Campbell demanded that Abraham and Alice Lee recuse themselves and they refused to do so. Campbell later resigned from the town board in protest. They will tell you that the law only allows them to recuse themselves if they have a "direct pecuniary interest" in the outcome of the matter before the board. There is basis for this in state law. However, regardless, all relationships should be disclosed prior to any vote so that citizens have the information with which to judge the influence that was had on that vote.
Hey, Jack! I'm reprinting (below) what I wrote for the Mooresville Tribune on April 6, 2005. It's long, but it answers your question and includes some interesting comments from the commissioners at the time.
Hope it helps!
Mooresville commissioners on Monday approved a controversial contract despite strong objections from one commissioner and the town’s engineering and utilities departments.
Despite Commissioner Franklin Campbell’s request for fellow commissioners Mitch Abraham and Alice Lee to recuse themselves from the vote, commissioners voted 5-1, with Campbell dissenting, to award a contract to CH2M Hill in an amount not to exceed $520,000 for the preliminary study, engineering report and environmental permitting for the Rocky River Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion.
The total project is anticipated to cost at least $25 million.
The action came several hours after Director of Engineering Richard McMillan and Utilities Director Wilce Martin sent a strongly worded memo to Town Attorney Steve Gambill and Town Manager Jamie Justice, advising them against choosing CH2M Hill for the project.
According to Justice, who on Tuesday provided the Tribune with a copy of the memo, each commissioner saw the four-page document before Monday’s town board meeting. The memo was not mentioned at the meeting, however.
“As the Director of Engineering with 17 years of experience, and as the Utilities Director with 31 years of experience, neither of us has ever dealt with an engineering firm that conducted themselves in this manner by circumventing (town) Staff on a repeated basis to discuss matters pertaining to scope and fee negotiations on a project with Board members and disregarding instructions and communications protocol repeatedly,” the memo reads.
In addition to requesting that the town halt negotiations with CH2M Hill “and proceed with the selection process … for the best firm for the Project and the Town,” McMillan and Martin also recommended that “CH2M Hill, Inc. be removed from the list of firms that the Town currently uses to request engineering services.”
At Monday’s board meeting, McMillan told commissioners, “Staff’s recommendation is not to approve this (contract).” When asked why, McMillan said “because of the method in which (CH2M Hill) has conducted business since being selected” by the town to negotiate the scope and fee of the treatment plant expansion project.
After asking Abraham and Lee to recuse themselves from the vote due to negative publicity surrounding their friendship with a CH2M Hill official, Campbell told fellow board members he could not vote for CH2M Hill.
“This thing has been tainted from day one as far as I’m concerned,” Campbell said. “This is a black eye to this community. It’s a black eye to this board.”
Campbell has consistently voted against fellow commissioners on the matter, beginning in October when staff recommended the town negotiate with one firm, Black & Veatch – which received the highest score of five firms from the town’s selection committee – but commissioners instead chose CH2M Hill, which ranked fifth.
“I believe our engineering department and utilities director have the best interest of Mooresville at heart,” Campbell told the board Monday.
Abraham said he took “personal offense” to Campbell’s request that he not participate in the vote. “You’ve had five months to speak your mind, and you pick this night to bring it up,” Abraham said.
Added Lee, “I think CH2M Hill’s record speaks for itself. They’re a leader in the industry.”
She said the will of the board “was not honored” by town staff from the beginning of the firm selection process.
Commissioners recommended the selection be made from a pool of five specific firms. But instead, town staff began with 14 firms, she said, adding, “That’s the first thing that nobody honored.”
Martin responded that town staff chose to begin the selection process with 14 firms rather than five so it could choose from “as many qualified firms as we could.”
“I think if you get a project of this magnitude, you’d want to look at as many firms as you could to try to get the best one possible,” Martin said. “We did that to protect this town, this board and this staff so that no one could say that we weren’t being fair to all firms or anybody that wanted to bid on this project.”
Martin added, “Because of some of the difficulties we’ve been having with (CH2M Hill) in violating the protocol for communication and other issues, we as your staff cannot in good conscience recommend going on any further in communications with this firm.
“We’re trying to give you the best advice possible so you can make the decision,” he said. “Ultimately you’re going to make the decision; we’re not.”
Lee asked Martin if he considered himself an expert in wastewater treatment plants.
“Yes ma’am, I do,” he replied.
Lee then seconded a motion previously made by Beaver to award the contract to CH2M Hill.
In the memo to Gambill and Justice, McMillan and Martin documented four pages of “problematic issues” they have encountered while negotiating with CH2M Hill the past five months.
“To summarize this memo,” it reads, “the actions of CH2M Hill have placed the town’s staff in a very precarious position, with issues concerning professional ethics and Professional Rules of Conduct being questioned.
“The actions of CH2M Hill have placed the Director of Engineering in the center between the Town Board, CH2M Hill and the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors.
“As we have discussed, the Town Board of Commissioners has the final say on the awarding of this contract,” the memo continues. “However, if the Board decides to award this contract to CH2M Hill, Inc. and CH2M Hill continues on its current course of actions and tactics, Staff will have no option but to recommend the termination of the Contract each and every time this type of action or activity occurs based on the terms of the contract, placing Town Staff in a frequent dilemma, with not much progress being made on the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant.”
Justice said Tuesday he and Gambill met with the commissioners individually before Monday’s meeting and “shared briefly our concerns and the need for further review (of the staff memo).”
However, he added, “The board has voted, and we are moving forward. We’re planning a meeting with CH2M Hill, and we’re going to move ahead.”
Curtis Pond.
273 home owners in Phase 1 and the town lied to by the developer and the builder.
300 homeowners lied to when the bought $6 MILLION dollars worth of real estate with regard to the validity of their HOA and planned amenities.
Everyone buying in Phase 4 and 5 of Curtis Pond is being told they are part of a HOA when the new HOA created by the developer on March 30th of 2007 is clearly invalid...to everyone except the developer and the lawyer who wrote statute 47f. That lawyer works for the developer.
The Town of Mooresville should have pulled the re-zoning approval of Phase 4 once it was learned that there was no HOA. The Town of Mooresville, the Planning Department, could care less.
Why?
And why won't a reporter investigate this and write a story that the state and federal prosecutors can't ignore? Since the Mooresville Town Attorney and DA won't do anything?
Curtis Pond has always been about Why.........and about Fraud and Lies.
Mr. Carney says that he always pays his own way. He most likely does I do not dispute this. He should not play golf or socialize in any way with a devolpher or anyone one else that does business with the town.
If you ride by the golf course and see him playing with devolpher you have no idea who is paying or what they are discussing. This is why he should refrain from even remotely giving a bad impression.
Erskine getting his golf paid for by a developer??? Why blow me down with a straw! This is but one of hundreds of rounds of golf he has played at someone else's dime, mostly developers, and a couple in particular for many years. We have heard from town employees that Erskine Smith REGULARLY accepts golf tickets from these couple developers and flaunts them in front of other town employees - big man, big US open tickets.
The sad thing is that everyone knows it, all town employees, other developers that are upset that they do not get the favors from Erskine because they do not cough-up golf tricks, even the mayor and commissioners know, but nothing is done.
Why bother now!
By the way, where do we stand on the sewer plant? I have read nothing in almost a year. After the cowboy cookies and condos in florida hit the papers last summer, nothing since.
I thought this sewer plant was to be completed in about four years. From reading your article posted above from April '05, sounds like we are just standing still and paying big monthly water and sewer bills.
How much has this company billed us for so far?
What do we have for the millions that Mitch A and Alice Lee committed us to?
Sounds like this company has taken the town for a ride. The funny thing is, google this company and add corruption and see what you get from around the country.
Sounds like we are there. Thanks Alice and Mitch! Next time, sing the hymns, do not talk sewer!
Why does not the newspaper just come right out as ask Erskine Smith if he has ever played golf with developers or accepted tickets? Ask all town employees as a public records request. No employee should be taking gifts from any developer or contractor... these are not gifts, they are favors being seeded, waiting to bloom at a future time.
Ask several local developers if they have ever paid for tickets for Erskine, or any other town employee.
If it is as bad as everyone claims it is, just ask. Erskine may not tell the truth, but then he is on record as denying if it is found to be true.
Is the town's HR Director in charge of policing the ethics and standards policy that Miles Atkins helped form before becoming commissioner? Or is the town manager in charge? Could anyone be brought up on disciplinary actions due to violations or is this just a guideline for one's own moral compass.
In other words, what recourse do we have at present. How is the recall petition going? I think we need to post petitons at grocery stores if they'll aloow it. Why can't someone solicit signatures at the polls or place a copy of this document to collect signatures at the library? Just curious about progress...
It is common knowledge in Town Hall that Erskine Smith uses his position to garner favors. He is a despicable abuser of power. He is a poor reflection on this town in every possible way, and he has been so for many many years. He is also an embarrassment to our town in each and every situation where he is called on to represent us. Regionally, he is a laughing stock and sadly is not aware of it. There is just no kind way of putting it. Sorry.
Question for Jaime:
What do you do when people are asking some pointed questions of your friend that you failed to ask?
Answer:
You change the subject.
Comment:
Well played Jaime. Well played!
I agree wholeheartedly with Commissioner Carney that "if there is proof that an employee has violated that policy...that employee should be terminated." No if's or but's about it.
What's interesting to me is that Carney and Atkins made themselves available in a "no holds barred" Q & A session and apparently none of the people who are so critical of Atkins and Jaime on this blog had the simple courage to show up and ask Atkins their questions to his face. This is at the root of the former power structure led by guys like Thunberg--they simply want to operate in the shadows instead of engaging about the issues in public. Note that the mayor not only failed to show up, he did not even give Green the courtesy of a reply. No matter where you stand, you can't ignore this fundamental problem with the position of the former "insiders". This is why they are no longer in control. Those like Atkins and Carney who are willing to answer the tough questions have earned the respect of the public and they are very deservedly running this town now.
I kind of got a sick feeling when I read here that Mr. Carney wines and dines (and plays golf) with developers. I mean nobody but the developer would get a good feeling about that right? Mr. Carney answered a person's question about it though and I don't guess he had to be honest but since he was, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I would rather have somebody like him than somebody who wines and dines and plays golf with developer and hides it. Does that sound like anybody else we know? :)
let me guess. He's lanky, tall, bald and looks like Big Bird and makes $100,000 a year off of our tax dollars.
Alice Lee was a highly regarded member of this community until she was elected to town commissioner. Then she let power and influence go to her head. What few people seem to realize is that these people are public servants. They should act with humility abd caution. Alice was highly thought of in her position with Alltell, but will be remembered in part for the disgrace of a performance she gave as a commissioner. I'll never trust her again.
You and me both.
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