Commissioners voted 4-1 to ask Renee Griffith to resign from the board in light of news that she falsified a county building-inspection document for Cornerstone Christian Academy, where she is principal, and then later blamed the misdeed on a former employee. Griffith later admitted she lied about the employee, too. Click this link for more.
Griffith was the one dissenting vote tonight.
Griffith had issued a public statement yesterday, saying she has no intentions of resigning from her position on the board. She is up for re-election in November and was the second highest vote getter in the Republican primary earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Mooresville's elected officials are unified in signing a petition being circulated to add a write-in candidate to November's ballot to give voters an additional choice. That candidate? Former long-time Iredell County Commissioner Sara Haire-Tice.
Mooresville's mayor and currently five of the town's six commissioners - with the sixth not being able to be reached tonight - have signed the petition to add a write-in candidate to the ballot.
The petition, a copy of which can be viewed below, must have 100 signatures by the time it is turned into the Iredell County Board of Elections tomorrow at noon. At 8:30 p.m. tonight - only a few hours after the petition was initially launched - one person alone had collected the signatures of 66 Mooresville residents. Many more copies of the petition are in circulation tonight.
Iredell County Commissioner Ken Robertson said that tonight at the meeting of the Iredell County Board of Commissioners, Chairman Steve Johnson read a statement, calling for a vote on a non-binding resolution requesting that Griffith resign. "It's non-binding because we have no authority to remove a sitting county commissioner," Robertson said.
He said the decision to request Griffith's resignation was a result of four factors:
First, "The county deals in documents, whether that's time sheets, expense reports, permits or legal papers. In all of these, there must be integrity," he said.
Robertson said the county holds its employees to "the highest level of standards."
"If an employee is found to have engaged in a deliberate, fraudulent act to deceive for financial purposes, we fire them," Robertson said. "That's the policy of the board.
"If the board had not taken a firm stance on this, it could be argued by an attorney that if we fire somebody for fraudulently doctoring up a time sheet, for example, that employee shouldn't be punished, much less fired."
The second reason the board called for Griffith's resignation, Robertson said, is because "when rating agencies determine the interest rates on our bonds, part of what they do is look at the governing body. The e-mails between Ms. Griffith and (the state representative from the N.C. Division of Child Development and Early Education) showed (Griffith) engaged in multiple lies. And if we do nothing, it would be as if we were accommodating someone who would lie about official business."
The third factor the board had to consider is the county's economic development, Robertson said. "Companies coming from outside our region often do a fair amount of due-diligence prior to asking us for incentives, etc.," he said. "They look at the schools and the governing bodies. If they believe the governing bodies have ethical problems, they will assume there's a likelihood there will be problems when they locate here."
And lastly, Robertson said, the commissioners must consider "the institution of the board."
"We don't always vote the same, but for the most part, we all respect each other because for the most part, we think everybody is trying to do the right thing," he said. "It's hard to respect a fellow commissioner who basically lied and doctored-up a county inspection form in order to save a $120 inspection fee. What do we say, then, to the guy who wants to work on his garage but can't afford the fee?"
It is unclear at this point if Griffith committed a crime when she falsified the inspection document and turned it over to the state.
District Attorney Sarah Kirkman said today that a law-enforcement agency would be the one to investigate that, "and that is ordinarily at my request."
She said in cases specifically of this nature, "The way it usually works is that if someone comes to me to report a crime that I think needs to be investigated, I request an investigation.
"No one has made a report to me in this case as of yet," Kirkman said, "but that would not necessarily preclude me from making the request."
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11 comments:
Sara Haire-Tice? Good golly Miss Molly. Griffith may be a liar but she was right about them bringing in somebody to support their good old boy network! Things just went from bad to worse boys!
Tice? You're better off keeping Griffith! And if the politicos were really interested in reform they'd insert ... Any guesses? ... That's right ... They'd give the citizens the right to recall.
The powers that be apparently broke the glass in case of emergency. Rick Baker watch your ass, they are about to bring in some old school to help circle the wagons. They can see what's coming.
what about fuller. She seemed to have it together.
I'm writing in DJ Loyd-Fuller. I'm voting for the dem candidate against Mr. Stay In Your Lane. Frankly, I think it's time to get rid of one party rule in this county. That may be why we have so much corruption. Given the dirt in this county, I'd love to flush all of them.
I would really like to see Mrs. Fuller as a write in candidate. I have spoken with Mrs. Fuller and she is a woman of integrity, who cares about the condition of our local government. You would never see her pulling anything like this. I would really like to see her get an interview with a real journalist (hint). This county could use a woman like her.
you have until 12noon tomorrow to get 100 signatures for Mrs. Fuller. It can be done.
10:41, I'd love to go out and get signatures, but I'm essentially shut-in with surgery recovery right now. Someone come by with a petition and I'll sign it.
Griffith dissented. Hysterical. I hereby nominate her for Queen of Denial.
And I think it's a hoot that Mr. Stay in Your Lane claims that county workers are held to a high standard. How does he explain Redmond and Jenkins then? And how does he explain their inaction and silence? Pathetic.
Let's present him with charts and graphs of the hypocrisy in this county, shall we?
Write in for recent Commissioner candidate Mrs. Loyd-Fuller!
We need a regular, normal everyday person without any personal agenda to take the place of Griffith. Haire-Tice is not the best option, and we need a fresh new face. Mrs. Fuller has served the county for several years on a Board and I know her from county charity service work. She lives in the Harmony area and is a long term Iredell resident. She would be a great choice for a fresh face and she is not a go-along type of person. We need another write-in candidate!!
"The county holds its employees to the highest level, blah, blah, blah..." That's rich, coming from Big Daddy Robertson, who would run over his own granny to get ahead. There is plenty of crap going on in this county and he knows it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he cooked up the timing of Madame Griffith's resignation with her so that we'd be stuck with the Queen of Langtree.
Thanks for showing us that you are going to continue to stay in your lane and that things are going to continue to be as dirty as ever here in dirty old Iredell. When presented with the opportunity to clean things up, as usual you never fail to disappoint.
High standards, indeed. Excuse me while I go puke on my shoes.
By the way, give Redmond our regards. I'm sure he must be in Your Lane.
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