Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

BREAKING: Griffith resigns


Renee Griffith has resigned from the Iredell County Board of Commissioners.

Here is a written statement from Griffith, courtesy of The Rick Baker Show:


 August 8, 2012

It is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation from the Iredell County Board of Commissioners.  I decided the fight to stay does not outweigh the price my family, my friends, and this community would be forced to pay.  I leave this position knowing there is much work to be done in this county.  During this very difficult time the good people of this county have reached out to me with love, support, and prayers. 

The voter’s of this county are tired of politicians and political parties who rule with an air of self-righteousness.  The Iredell Republican party, in many ways, is much more corrupt and broken than the Democrat party they hate.  This has caused voters to become disenfranchised.  How unfortunate this attitude alienates many very qualified citizens from running for office.  Citizens who, if given the opportunity, could make a difference in this county, state, and country. 

I appreciate the citizens giving me the opportunity to serve them as a commissioner. 

Renee Griffith


Tice: Goal of candidacy is to 'maintain integrity' of county

Sara Tice retired from politics four years ago after a long stint as Iredell county commissioner and chairperson of the board.

But even though she stepped away from politics, politics never left her: "That old political blood is still there," Tice said today, standing in the lobby of a familiar place, the Iredell County Elections Office.

She was there this morning as election officials verified the signatures of 272 county residents on a petition to add a write-in candidate to November's ballot. Only 100 signatures were necessary.

Tice hopes to be the name people write-in on the ballot, and she has the strong backing of the county's GOP.

The petition - created just yesterday evening - had to be submitted with 100 verified signatures to the elections office today for a write-in choice to be added to the ballot. All those signatures - including all six Mooresville commissioners, the mayor and the county's register of deeds - were obtained in less than 24 hours.

Tice said the majority of the Iredell County Board of Commissioners is also "100 percent" behind her: "And that makes me feel good."

The one commissioner who likely isn't behind Tice's bid for county commission is Renee Griffith, the Republican candidate some people are hoping will be squeezed out of the election by adding Tice's well-known name to the list of Republican choices.

Three seats are up for grabs on the county's board of commissioners this fall. Those seats are being sought by Republicans Ken Robertson, Renee Griffith and David Boone - and now Tice as a write-in - and two Democrats, Karen Keaton and V. September McCrady.

The past 24 hours have no doubt felt like a whirlwind of sorts for Tice. She said she agreed to run at the urging of the county's Republican leadership after news became public this week that Griffith, also a Republican, had forged a county-inspection document for Cornerstone Christian Academy, where she is principal, before she submitted it to the state. Griffith also blamed her own actions on a "former employee" of the school, accusing that person - whether fictional or real - of pocketing the inspection fee and never lining up the inspection.

Tice said today: "The goal of my candidacy is to maintain the integrity of the Board of Commissioners and the reputation of the county's employees.

"I have been humbled and am grateful for the trust the leadership and good citizens of Iredell County have placed in me.

"It would be my honor and privilege to represent them again."

With only three months left in the campaign, Tice knows time is not necessarily on her side, and a write-in campaign, she acknowledged, "is difficult."

However, she said, "I have a lot of promises and a lot of great people have stepped in to help. I have been overwhelmed with the support and the phone calls I've received.

"After 18 years as a public servant, (once you step down), you miss it," Tice said. "I look forward to November's election."

Petition signatures verified

The Iredell County Board of Elections has verified 110 signatures so far on a petition to add a write-in candidate to November's ballot.

That means it's official: A write-in option will be printed on the ballot.

Mooresville Tribune wrote an article with a lot of valuable information about how to vote for a write-in candidate and make sure your vote is counted, if that's an option you plan to choose:

Iredell GOP scrambles for write-in option; Sara Haire Tice tabbed

All six of Mooresville's commissioners, and the mayor, have now signed the petition.

Haire Tice will be at the Iredell County Board of Elections at 11 a.m. today.

A lot of news happened yesterday. For a recap of articles posted since yesterday, here's a quick list of links:

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

100 signatures obtained

At least 100 signatures have been obtained on a petition to add a write-in candidate, Sara Haire-Tice, to the November ballot for the Iredell County Board of Commissioners. The petition must be submitted to the Iredell County Board of Elections by tomorrow at noon.

County commissioners call for Griffith's resignation, Mooresville officials sign petition for write-in candidate in November

Iredell County Commissioners called for the resignation of one of their own tonight.

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." 

Apologies aren't enough: A Commentary


I can't count the number of times I have told public officials over the years that the best way to avoid a major scandal in the press is to step in front of the issue, admit to making a bad decision and apologize.

That's exactly what Iredell County Commissioner Renee Griffith did this week.

So why am I finding it difficult to drum-up compassion for the embattled commissioner?

Perhaps it's because at some point in time, when a person has made repeated slip-ups, their actions begin to seem less like mistakes and more like a pattern of behavior.

I remember when the editor of a local newspaper called me last year and asked if I would report on Griffith facing foreclosure of her home. Though I understood why it was relevant – after all, most would wonder if a person can't successfully manage his or her own personal finances, how can s/he be expected to successfully manage the county's multi-million-dollar budget? – but having never been blessed with a silver spoon in my mouth – or never having been able to figure out how hard work, alone, can make one wealthy – I could not bring myself to write the story.

That's all to say that I felt last year it wasn't my place to look at another human being and criticize her personal life and choices – even though she is a commissioner. I don't know Commissioner Griffith's personal battles and struggles. Having a home in foreclosure is frightening, and it isn't always the result of improper planning or even careless budgeting. Sometimes life happens, and oftentimes, it isn't fair.

Still, in December 2011, Mooresville Weekly reported on court documents showing that Griffith and her husband were being accused of missing 14 payments just before Griffith started her two-year term on the Iredell County Board of Commissioners in December 2010. “SunTrust Bank sent the Griffiths a notice Nov. 16, 2010, informing them that they were $14,378.58 behind in payments on their 20-year home loan of $101,600,” reported the Weekly. “They’ll have a foreclosure hearing later this month.”

Griffith told the newspaper that her husband's hunting business had suffered because of the economy, and she said that as part of a loan-modification agreement, she and her husband had been advised not to make their mortgage payments, which is why they “missed” 14 payments.

The article was published, people drew their own conclusions – many, no doubt, feeling a great deal of compassion for the commissioner as her personal life was broadcast in a public forum – and life went on.

Now, not quite a year later, Griffith has found herself embroiled in yet another controversy. And after appearing remorseful and apologetic yesterday in a call into The Rick Baker Show, it appeared – based on about half the calls that were made into the show after Griffith hung up – that once again, the Tea Party-branded county commissioner has converted some of the anger and bitterness toward her into syrupy-sweet sympathy.

But this time, I say: Not so fast.

Just three months from an election in which Griffith is a frontrunner for re-election, the commissioner admitted that she falsified documents about a building inspection for Cornerstone Christian Academy (CCA), where she is principal. Griffith altered the documents, which were later submitted to the N.C. Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE), to indicate an inspection of CCA's building had been performed much more recently than it actually took place.

But Griffith took it a step further than just falsifying documents. After DCDEE caught her red-handed for changing the date on the inspection forms, Griffith concocted a story that a former CCA employee dropped the ball on setting up the inspection and instead pocketed the $128.75 in petty-cash earmarked to pay for it. Griffith went so far as to tell DCDEE that CCA would be "calling (the employee) in and pressing charges."

Griffith later admitted to the R&L that the entire story about the other employee was yet another lie.

No one yet knows for sure whether Griffith had the intention to create a fictional name, or – worse – if she used a real person's name and went so far as to accuse that person of being a thief. The Report sent an email to Griffith this afternoon asking her to clarify that, but I haven't heard back from her yet.

It is also bothersome that, ironically, at the same time Griffith's school was under investigation by the state for her decision to illegally forge documents – but before the controversy went public – Griffith took it upon herself, on The Rick Baker Show, to point fingers at the Iredell-Statesville Schools for its own brewing scandal about – you guessed it – forged documents.

Did Griffith, on that show, divulge her clear conflict of interest on all matters relating to document forgery? No. In fact – contrary to the statements of those who are praising Griffith for “coming forward” and “being honest” – it is very likely that she would have never acknowledged or confessed her own misdeeds had it not been for an anonymous e-mail sent late last week to the press, including the Report, that exposed Griffith’s flagrant misconduct.

Griffith has stated that the reason she did not have her most recent building inspection completed and instead decided to write through the date of an old inspection is because she was busy selling fireworks at the time and could not afford the inspection. I have received an overwhelming number of phone calls and e-mails this week – similar to one of the many calls into Rick Baker's show yesterday – from people asking how, if Commissioner Griffith couldn't afford a building inspection, she is driving around in a Mercedes, apparently with a 30-day tag.

I don't know the answer to that question, or even if most would consider it "fair."

I do know a question is arising about why Griffith apparently did not report a campaign contribution from Lake Norman Republican Women in her 2010 bid for office. According to state election records, the political group donated $50 to Griffith's campaign in October 2010. But Griffith did not record that donation in any of her quarterly filings.

I also have reason to believe that Griffith may be using her personal e-mail address – the one she once used for county business – to circumvent the N.C. Public Records Law.

Until recently, all county commissioners – including Griffith – listed their personal e-mail addresses as contact information on the county webpage. After a citizen pointed out that the commissioners should be more transparent and use a county e-mail address, Griffith – to her credit – changed her e-mail to a county address.

The Report was unaware of the change earlier this year when sending questions to the commissioners about a sexual-harassment lawsuit filed against an Iredell County sheriff's deputy.

I sent the email to reneegriffith@hotmail.com – the same address once listed on the county webpage and the one used by Griffith as recently as last month to correspond with DCDEE.

After a brief e-mail exchange, Griffith asked the Report not to misrepresent her statements as the combined statement of the entire board, and I agreed, stating, “When I write an article about this, I will absolutely attribute your comments to you.”

Griffith replied to that, providing answers to additional questions I had asked of her, but also stating: “I do not want any of my comments to you to be part of an article … ”

I reminded Griffith that I had identified myself as a blogger and listed my blog address in the original email of questions, Journalism Ethics 101. I also reminded Griffith that our e-mail exchange was/is a public record. And I told her I would not agree to keep her comments confidential in the event they would become relevant for an article.

I was floored by Griffith's response: “This is my private email account. I have a public email through the county. I would appreciate you respecting the privacy of my private email. You can email the same questions to me through the county email. IT is listed on the county webpage.”

Griffith's response made clear that she believes e-mailed conversations through her “private email” - even if those conversations are about county business – are “private,” and that only conversations she holds via her public account are public record. She could not be more wrong. And she should know better.

Several supporters of Griffith called in to The Rick Baker Show yesterday and cited Matthew 7:3 from the Holy Bible, which reads: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” They also cited John 8:7: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone ...”

Judging Griffith's personal life is not my job. But learning about someone's character by watching their behavior is not “judging.” And what's more, it is time we stop using something as sacred as Christianity to give a free pass to our elected leaders for unacceptable behavior, regardless of whether they are Republicans or Democrats.

Some callers yesterday also gave Griffith a free pass by saying if other “corrupt” government officials can stay in their positions, Griffith should be able to as well.

It is also time, as another caller suggested, that we stop justifying and excusing one elected official's bad behavior by pointing out examples of other officials' bad behavior.

It is not our place to judge others, but it is absolutely our right – indeed, it is our duty – to fully scrutinize whether an elected official has the capacity, the decency, the transparency, the honesty and the integrity to honorably carry out the business of our towns/cities, counties, states and nation.

Elected leaders – in their political and personal lives – are held to a higher standard than private citizens. If they are unwilling to accept this higher standard, they must be willing to step down from the positions entrusted to them by their constituents. And if they refuse to step down – as Commissioner Griffith has – then they should be fully prepared to deal with the political ramifications of that choice.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Griffith will not resign and will remain on November ballot

This just in from The Rick Baker Show's Facebook status:


Commissioner Will Not Resign, Will Finish Out Term

"After much thought, deliberation and with the support of my family I have decided to complete my term on the board of commissioners. I will remain on the ticken in November and allow the voters who placed me in office to decide if I remain in office. Removing my name from the ballet would take the control of the decision from the citizens of this county and place it in the hands of a select few. 


"It would be much easier to walk away but the right thing to do is to face the voters. A leader doesn’t take the easiest path. A leader faces their critics. A leader admits when they are wrong and takes steps to correct it. It will be a challenge to restore public confidence but I will work hard to do so.


"I will stand for the people who elected me and not turn and hid even if it means I stand alone.”


Renee Griffith, Monday 8:30pm, August 6, 2012.

Will Griffith resign?

Renee Griffith tells The Rick Baker Show that she will decide by this evening if she will resign from the Iredell County Board of Commissioners.

Commissioner Griffith to be guest on Rick Baker Show today



Posted on The Rick Baker Show's website:

Commissioner Renee Griffith will make a special appearance on The Rick Baker Show, Monday, August 6, to tell in her own words what happened with the falsifying of documents. Listen and then call in and give your opinion of whether or not she should resign.

Stop reading the newspaper, or listening to others opine on Commissioner Griffith’s future.  Hear her own words.

Monday, 3p-6p.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Commissioner Renee Griffith admits to falsifying documents

Click here to read the full story from the Statesville Record & Landmark.