Rockhead "leadership" delivers slap across the face

Last night's town board meeting felt eerily familiar: like the days when commissioners hijacked the will of the people to instead dole out personal favors and paybacks.

Sadly, it happened while commissioners were voting to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Mac Herring, a commissioner who utilized his role as town historian to build bridges between old and new Mooresville after those bridges had been torched in the early- to mid-2000s.

On Monday, town commissioners voted 3-2 to appoint former Commissioner Danny Beaver - a man who the people of Mooresville ousted from local government in 2007 - to serve the two years remaining in Herring's term. The vote, not surprisingly, was split down an old, familiar line: "old Mooresville" versus "new." Ward 2 Commissioner Thurman Houston, At-large Commissioner Bobby Compton and Ward 1 Commissioner Eddie Dingler voted for Beaver's appointment. At-large Commissioner David Coble and Ward 4 Commissioner Lisa Qualls dissented. And they didn't shy away from explaining why:

"Mr. Beaver served for eight years, and it was not a good time for Mooresville," said Coble after Houston made the motion to appoint Beaver to the board. Coble had made a motion for the appointment of another candidate, Gary West, which was seconded by Qualls but died for lack of support. Coble reminded the board that Beaver, then an at-large commissioner, lost his bid for re-election in 2007 when current-Mayor Miles Atkins ran a campaign against him "centered on ethics in government."

At that time, Beaver had voted to hand a multi-million-dollar contract to a town friend rather than follow the recommendation of town staff in the hiring of an engineering firm for Mooresville's wastewater treatment plant expansion. Town staff said the firm that commissioners eventually chose was too expensive. Those town staff members were later fired. Then the Mooresville community fired back by ousting Beaver and Frank Owens, who was surprisingly also among the town's four finalists for Herring's replacement. Owens made a run against Herring for his seat just two years ago and was rejected by the town's Ward 3 voters.

Beaver's controversial past on Mooresville's town board didn't seem to matter to Commissioners Compton and Dingler or to Houston, who himself was appointed to the board in 2006, thanks to a strong push by none other than - you guessed it - then-Commissioner Beaver.

Houston, Compton and Dingler on Monday cited "experience" in their choice to return Beaver to the board.

But is Beaver's brand of experience in the best interest of the town?

Coble and Qualls said, unequivocally, no.

Using the word "tumultuous" to describe the years Beaver was in office - and reminding fellow commissioners of the many State Bureau of Investigation probes into the town during that time - Qualls said she was "disappointed" that the majority of the town board seemed okay with moving Mooresville "backwards."

Coble said that the citizens he spoke with during the selection process for Herring's replacement "overwhelmingly said they wanted our choice to be about moving Mooresville forward."

Houston said Beaver is "connected" in Mooresville and that the former commissioner's "integrity is very great" and that he's "an asset to this board." He said that Gary West and Michelle Beam - the other two finalists out of the original 13 applicants - were too inexperienced to serve. "They haven't participated in anything," he said, adding that maybe they'd be more qualified after they "get a little more involved in the community."

That didn't sit well with Qualls, who quipped: "Every one of us was brand new once."

Qualls herself was originally appointed to the town board in 2012.

She said that choosing Beaver was "a slap in the face to the new people who planned to get involved."

I would take that a step further ...

Last night's decision was a slap in the face to the people of this town who, when given a choice, ousted Danny Beaver from local government. It was a slap in the face to the residents of Ward 3 who, when given a choice, chose a person like Mac Herring to represent them. Danny Beaver's style could not be any more opposite from Herring's. Though local-government politics are non-partisan, Beaver is known to be a rockhead conservative, while we used to tease Herring about being a "bleeding-heart liberal." Herring was gentle and compassionate: sometimes, I'd tell him, to a fault. He talked often of building bridges and of his respect for town staff and of his love for the Town of Mooresville and of his dream to see the town continue to move forward and away from the scandals and controversies that defined it in the early- to mid-2000s.

For those reasons, Beaver's appointment last night was also a slap in the face to Mac Herring.

Shame on the three commissioners who delivered it.

Owens should have let sleeping dogs lie

Mooresville citizens ousted Frank Owens from the town board in 2005 after two terms, the last of which was wracked by controversy and scandal.

He was sent packing rather quietly, considering the political atmosphere and sentiment at the time.

But now, eight years later, he has tossed his hat back in the ring, targeting the Ward 3 seat currently occupied by Mac Herring.

Owens has claimed that he is running for office because Herring voted to saddle Mooresville residents with MI-Connection, a $92.5 million cable company that Owens says the town had no business purchasing. And I fully agree with him on that.

But then Owens decided to get a little nit-picky. He recently went digging through his opponent's 2012 county vehicle-tax records and then broke his neck tattle-telling to the Mooresville Tribune about a $88.86 delinquency on Herring's part, which even a county collections official called “very common.” The Tribune contacted Herring, who paid the tax bill before the article was even published in the paper.

Owens attempted to use this as a chance to show, even further, that Herring is irresponsible with money, stating in the Tribune: “What does it say about a commissioner that uses tax dollars from the town and the county and does not pay all of his county tax dollars?” 

Herring's delinquent tax bill was $88.86. If Herring's vote for MI-Connection is Owens' only real talking-point during this campaign, which seems to be the case, then we need to compare apples to apples.

In 2005, Frank Owens rubber-stamped handing a $25 million engineering contract on what would later become an estimated $150 million project to a town-board friend, voting against the recommendation of town engineers who said the expansion of Mooresville's wastewater treatment plant should be completed by a more qualified (and overall less costly) firm.

At one point in Mooresville's history, such a decision would have slid right through, possibly without the public even knowing. But decades of backwoods dealings and good-ol'-boy politics came to an end in the early- to mid-2000s in Mooresville, when the sleepy town was rocked by one scandal after another, all while Owens sat on the town board. With support from the local media and new blood on the board, a new plan was created for the wastewater treatment plant expansion, which meant the overall price was lowered. And the firm that had originally been deemed most qualified by town engineers was given a supervisory role over the former board's choice of CH2M Hill.

But that didn't happen before the town's manager – apparently based primarily on commissioners' persuasion, including (by then former) Commissioner Owens – fired the town's engineer and utilities director, both of whom had vehemently stood up for the best interest of the town's taxpayers against Owens and his ilk … and in spite of personal risk. One commissioner said that the personnel files of the two employees were “completely empty” of any prior disciplinary action at the time of their firings. For more on the CH2M Hill scandal, click here and here. 

But the CH2M Hill controversy was just the tip of the iceberg.

Also during Owens' last four years as commissioner:

• In 2001, Mooresville's librarian was indicted and later pleaded guilty to embezzlement for using public money for her private use. But her indictment came in spite of an apathetic Mooresville Town Board and only after an activist blew the whistle and persistently demanded that something be done about it. She also went to the press. An independent review by the Mooresville Tribune raised the possibility that tens of thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise had been stolen from or through the library for half-a-dozen years before the indictment. 
• In 2003, the town's former internal auditor, whose job it was to help prevent financial mismanagement and possible theft like that which had occurred at the library just a couple years prior, stated publicly for the first time that the town lacked financial controls and that her detection of those deficiencies – and her insistence that the town institute change – is likely what led to her firing after only eight months on the job. 
• In 2004, the then-town manager fired the new town librarian, supposedly for spending more than town policy allowed for a meal. This resulted in another black eye on the town because of widespread scrutiny from newspapers and local television news about the overspending habits of Mooresville's government, primarily via travel and dining expenses. 
• In 2005, despite the town having a full-time auditor, a finance director and an outside accounting firm that annually conducted an audit of the town's books, it once again took a concerned citizen – through his own volunteer financial probe – to identify a shortage in the inventory at the Mooresville Municipal Golf Course, which was already operationally bathed in red ink. A follow-up audit of the golf inventory showed about $5,000 of missing merchandise from the golf course pro shop. An editorial in the Mooresville Tribune stated: “The litany of mismanagement gets longer and longer, our town commissioners say little about it, and you, the taxpayers, foot the bill.”
• Also in early 2006 - just after Owens was voted off the town board - the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) visited the Town of Mooresville and confiscated town computers. To date, no one knows what the FBI was looking for, but most assume it had something to do with the town board, against procedure, granting its friend's engineering firm the lucrative $25 million engineering contract for the wastewater treatment plant expansion. One former commissioner said the FBI told commissioners that the agents were looking into actions of prior town-board members. He said he was specifically asked by the FBI if he thought former commissioners were receiving “kick-backs” for preferential awarding of contracts. “I don't believe they received money for it,” he said, “but it certainly showed poor judgment.”

And now word is finally public about a 2001 FBI investigation into Owens for public corruption, following a state probe into a Mooresville gambling hut. 

One former public official, during an interview about the investigation, said: “Frank Owens has a pattern of abusing power, whether it's as a police officer or a commissioner.

“We have gotten past the yahoo-style of government and crookedness and the 'you-aren't-my-friend-anymore' high-school politics.”

I could not agree more. A vote for Frank Owens on Tuesday is a vote to move Mooresville backwards. It's really just that simple.

Two years ago, commenters on this blog resurrected the issue of Owens' gambling and the 2001 FBI investigation. Owens contacted me via private message on Facebook at that time, asking me to remove the comments and to contact him. I did call him, and while stating that he was "just trying to lead a good, Christian life," he insisted that the gambling accusations were false. He offered to meet with me and tell “the truth” about what "had really happened." I saw no need; after all, he was a private citizen at the time, which meant that whatever had gone on in his private life was no longer the public's concern. Still, his behavior while he was a commissioner was and is fair-game for public scrutiny.

Now that he's running again for public office, the fact that he was investigated by the FBI for public corruption has become relevant for reporting; Owens' personal character is once again the public's business.

But Owens has clammed up again. He apparently doesn't want to talk about the scandal anymore; he still has not responded to Report questions sent in mid-October about his involvement in illegal gambling and the 2001 FBI investigation and grand jury. And the only thing that has changed from two years ago, when he wanted to talk about it, until now is that he's eyeballing a seat on Mooresville's town board.

Yes, Mac Herring, the Ward 3 incumbent, voted for MI-Connection during his first term on the town board. He made, in my opinion, a multi-million-dollar mistake. And I don't take that lightly. But if Herring's vote was so heinous, why did no one challenge him when he sought (and won) re-election in 2009? If Owens' motivation is to remove Herring from office to, as he claims, protect the taxpayers from a tax-and-spender, why did he wait another four years to do it? He could have run against Herring in 2009, but he didn't. In fact, no one did. Herring ran unopposed.

I was here, with a front-row seat, when Owens was last a commissioner. He and other board members gave the town one black eye after another. Far from being apologetic, they banned together and thumbed their noses at the public, over and over. Visits from SBI and FBI agents became almost commonplace. Shameful reports by newspapers and television news stations were plentiful; in fact, the material that Owens and other town-board members gave the Mooresville Tribune was enough to fill a wall with awards for investigative reporting and community service. The town became a laughingstock, notorious for scandal and controversy.

It was an ugly, politically restless period in Mooresville's history. I don't want to see it repeated, nor do I believe that anyone who was on the board at that time deserves a second chance to govern and shape policy in this town.

Herring voted for MI-Connection. But the SBI has not been in Mooresville since he's been a commissioner. The FBI hasn't visited, either, except – in the first few months of Herring's first term – to look into the actions of Owens and his fellow town-board members.

The public is smart enough to draw its own conclusions about that. And come what may on Tuesday.

Getting Back to Basics

Wednesday night’s “town hall meeting” was an eye opening experience – in many ways.

From fraternizing with developers to the treatment of the town’s elderly and special-needs population – mingled, of course, with lively discussion about some of the town’s more controversial issues – the meeting offered citizens a rare opportunity to speak casually, yet candidly, with their elected representatives.

Two commissioners – Ward 4 Commissioner Chris Carney and At-Large Commissioner Miles Atkins - turned out for the three-hour-long informal meeting, organized by Rev. Larry Green and attended by about a dozen local residents, including Iredell County Commissioner Ken Robertson. Green said every commissioner except Thurman Houston responded in some way to his invitation. Mitch Abraham and Mac Herring said they had previously-scheduled plans, and Frank Rader didn’t respond to Green but told the Charlotte Observer that he wouldn’t attend. Mayor Bill Thunberg, said Green, didn’t respond to the invitation at all.

And that’s unfortunate because even though I wasn’t sure what to expect from the meeting – or if it would be fruitful or productive at all – the free flow of information and the uninhibited exchange of ideas was unlike anything we have ever witnessed in Mooresville before.

I left the meeting with fresh insight. Perhaps the most compelling impression that the meeting left on me was that our town and its government is headed in the right direction. It is progress, not perfection, that we expect. And as long as elected officials are talking to us, and listening to us, we’ll continue to move in that direction.

The open dialogue that transpired at the meeting reminded me of the original purpose of my blog – and it highlighted for me just how far some have strayed from that purpose.

I am a fervent believer in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and I staunchly defend people’s right to speak freely – even when their speech displeases me, and even when their words stand in opposition to everything in which I believe.

Commissioner Atkins and his wife, Kim, have been heavily criticized in the comments section of my blog since last week when the Mooresville Downtown Commission announced that it had hired Kim Atkins to serve as its executive director. I have no problem with people questioning public officials, doubting their motives and/or intentions, and holding them accountable for their actions.

What I do have a problem with is this: Despite sustained attacks on this blog against Atkins and his wife, when he stepped out of Town Hall and sat down willing to face his critics on Wednesday, only one person confronted him about his potential influence over his wife’s hiring. That one person: local attorney Cliff Homesley.

Homesley pointedly asked Atkins if at any time during the hiring process he had discussed his wife’s candidacy with other government officials or MDC board members.

“I have had no contact even with fellow commissioners,” Atkins said. “I’ve had some talk to me, but I have refrained.”

It appears, however, that at least two elected officials did not “refrain” from attempting to interfere in the process. In fact, those two individuals apparently threatened to withdraw the town’s funding of the MDC if it hired Kim Atkins as the new executive director.

Atkins neither confirmed nor denied the information, but he said that since his wife’s hiring he has heard that some of his fellow elected officials were “really opposed” to her hiring.

Carney, however, stated that members of the MDC board of directors approached him, concerned about their funding from the town. He said they asked him if the funds would be “at risk” if they hired Atkins as the executive director “because they had heard that from other elected officials.”

Carney acknowledged that he warned the MDC board members upon their selection of Atkins that “they better be sure their policies and procedures were in place.”

He told those in attendance at Wednesday night’s meeting that it was improper for commissioners to have spoken for the entire town board and to have threatened to pull an organization’s funding.

Carney explained that town commissioners earlier this year agreed to fund the MDC as long as the organization met certain goals that it spelled out in a three-year business plan that was shared with town commissioners in budget talks this year.

Homesley also pointed out that Carney’s brother, Robby, was recently hired as the existing industry and marketing manager of the Mooresville-South Iredell Economic Development Corporation – an organization that, not unlike the MDC, receives annual funding from the Town of Mooresville.

County Commissioner Ken Robertson chimed in, denying that government agencies “play favorites” with family members of public officials. “They actually get scrutinized more,” he said, because of precisely what is happening right now to the MDC. “The employers are afraid they’ll be accused of cronyism,” Robertson said.

Sometimes, he said, that means the employer will “work twice as hard” to find a reason not to hire the family member.

And the government official, Robertson said, “is scrutinized only because they are related to someone who is trying to maximize their value in this world.”

Said Atkins: “I hope that people will get to know Kim and myself. She is accountable to her board as I am accountable to you as your public servant.

“She has to stand on her own as a professional,” he said.

Simple, straightforward questions. Simple, straightforward answers. A free-flowing exchange of ideas and opinions. That's what Wednesday night’s meeting proved is possible.

It’s also what my blog is about.

Let me make something clear: My reporting is about principles, not personalities. And I expect out of others what I expect out of myself -- that any criticism will be relevant, well-founded and factual. If I ever fail in that, I ask that you hold me accountable for it.

I created my blog just over seven months ago to foster open, uncensored dialogue among and between the residents of Mooresville, southern Iredell County and beyond about issues that are important to us.

At times, certain readers have used my blog as a conduit for outright lies about me and other private citizens. One example: an innocent joke by a reader was turned into an accusation that I was having an extramarital affair … without regard for the fact that my husband, my two young daughters … my mother … all read my blog.

One reader has repeatedly called for investigations of private citizens, including me, accusing us of having “skeletons in our closets,” always stopping short, however, of disclosing just what those skeletons are.

I have even been accused of being “on welfare.” Though I see no shame in human beings who fall on hard times and need a little help, the fact remains that my husband and I chose to make financial sacrifices in order for me to be at home with our children while he earns our living … and pays our taxes.

Many readers who have signed their names to their comments, and others who are simply mentioned in my posts or readers’ comments, have been randomly grouped together despite the fact that some of us would not know each other if we ran into one another in the grocery store.

One reader wrote obscenities and attributed them to me and other community activists. Other readers have gone so far as to ridicule peoples’ appearances, their body shape, their national origin and their religious beliefs. They have stooped so low as to use derogatory and vulgar terms such as “sheep,” “freaks,” and “retarded” to describe readers who have posted statements that are critical of government officials.

I agree with one reader who pointed out that in our system, there is a fundamental distinction between public officials and private citizens. When it comes to criticism, public officials are fair game. Private citizens are not. Why? Because public officials are public officials by choice. If they don’t relish scrutiny and exposure, they can rescind their status, reverting back to being a private citizen. Private citizens don’t have that luxury; they can’t “rescind” their status as a private citizen.

The long and the short of it is this: Like many of you, I have been appalled by the hateful content of some comments that have been posted on my blog. Countless people have contacted me, beseeching me to censor such comments. But I have refused to do so. My loyalty to freedom of speech easily trumps any hurt feelings which may result from someone’s words.

However, I call on those of you who have committed to joining me in my “mission” to refrain from engaging with those whose sole purpose is clearly to personally attack others – that includes private citizens and public officials alike. This does not preclude legitimate, factual and pertinent criticism of public officials.

Let's get back to basics. In the coming days, I plan to post several different topics that were discussed at Wednesday night’s meeting. I will provide a brief synopsis of what was discussed, and, as always, I welcome and encourage your voice in the ensuing discussions and debate.

Among the issues that will be posted:

• Town commissioners and town staff fraternizing with developers
• What ever happened to the town-hall protestors’ demands for the assistant town manager’s firing? Does the town really need an assistant-town-manager position?
• The town’s hiring of engineering firm CH2M Hill for the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant
• The ever-controversial question: Should Iredell County’s two school districts merge?
• Town employees’ use of the municipal golf course

You're invited ...

Have a question you’d like to ask Mooresville's town board? Here’s your chance:

"Citizens for Responsible Government" has invited Mooresville commissioners to join area residents in a “Town Hall meeting” on Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 6-8:30 p.m. in the youth services room of the Mooresville Public Library.

Local pastor Larry Green -- founder of Citizens for Responsible Government -- organized the Town Hall meeting and plans to moderate the event. In addition to general topics "related to the welfare and leadership of our town," Green said, specific topics up for discussion will include Cops for Kids; the town’s hiring of engineering firm CH2M Hill for the expansion of the Rocky River Wastewater Treatment Plant; the town’s purchase of the bankrupt Adelphia cable system (MI-Connection) and a potential recall option.

Of Mooresville’s six commissioners, three have responded to Green’s invitation. Commissioners Chris Carney and Miles Atkins said they plan to attend, while Commissioner Mitch Abraham said he has a conflict that night with another previously scheduled meeting. Additionally, Abraham said he has “church committments (sic) on Wednesday evenings.”

However, he told Green: “If I am able to move the other meeting, I will notify you of my intentions.”

Referencing the open meetings law, Abraham said, “I will also yield to the other commissioners for the reason that if 3 or more of us are gathered at the same place for purposes other than social, it may be considered an official meeting and I believe that may involve town staff be involved for record keeping purposes.” Abraham referred Green to Town Attorney Steve Gambill for a “ruling.”

Carney, responding to Green’s invitation, wrote: “I will be happy to attend and look forward to answering questions from the citizens of Mooresville.

“Also,” Carney added, “I welcome the opportunity to explain any decisions I have made or my position on existing issues facing Mooresville.”

If you have a question you'd like to ask, you can submit it in advance by contacting Green at 704-746-8674 or by e-mailing it to him at admin@cfrgm.org.

Event organizers will consolidate the questions into “thematic units,” said Green, “ to avoid repetition and to promote as much public involvement as possible.”

Green plans to follow a meeting agenda, which includes three-minute statements from each commissioner and a moderator-controlled Q&A session using your previously submitted questions. Commissioners, said Green, will have one minute to respond to each question. If time permits, Green said he will allow questions from the floor, with first priority given to those who did not previously submit questions. Those in attendance who did previously submit questions will be limited to one “open-floor” question, he said.

Green said a video of the Town Hall meeting – as well as the text of all responses – will be made available online at http://www.cfrgm.org/.

Interim Town Engineer Tonia Wimberly resigns

The Report has learned that Tonia Wimberly -- the Town of Mooresville's Interim Engineering Supervisor since former Town Manager Jamie Justice fired Richard McMillan in February 2006 -- has resigned.

Wimberly apparently turned in her resignation shortly after the town offered the position of Town Engineer to a Florida man.

(For more information on Wimberly, see "More on Wasterwatergate: The Poisoned Project," April 8, or click here: http://thegattonreport.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-on-wastewatergate-poisoned-project.html)

More details will be posted as they become available ...

More on Wastewatergate ... The Poisoned Project

The Town of Mooresville’s request to dismiss the case against it by two former town employees was not heard as scheduled yesterday, April 7.

The town’s “motion for summary judgment” was supposed to go before a Superior Court Judge in Statesville. And while it’s unclear the exact reason why the case didn’t make it to court, one could speculate that either the hearing was postponed, or a settlement has been reached.

Either way, in the eleventh hour, the Town of Mooresville amended its motion for summary judgment with a “declaration of Tonia Wimberly,” the town’s current engineering division supervisor. Wimberly began working for the town in August 2004, and she worked beside the two former town employees, Engineering Director Richard McMillan and Utilities Director Wilce Martin, until former Town Manager Jamie Justice fired the two men in February 2006.

Both men had publicly opposed the town’s 2004 hiring of engineering firm CH2M Hill to design the town’s Rocky River Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion. Of all the engineering firms that submitted “Statements of Qualifications” to the town, CH2M Hill was the least qualified for the project, according to town staff -- including Wimberly. The 2004 town board hired CH2M Hill anyway, saying that an official with that firm was a local person who had once worked at the town’s wastewater treatment plant.

That official, David Wagoner, is no longer employed by CH2M Hill. Neither is the firm’s original manager for Mooresville’s project, Mike Osborne, nor (according to new reports) the project principal, Joe Stowe. Engineer Derek Slocum left the town last year. And Justice resigned as town manager in February 2008 per the request of Mooresville’s town board.

These are among the reasons we have dubbed this issue The Poisoned Project … or Wastewatergate -- take your pick. Almost every person who touched this doomed project has either jumped ship or "walked the plank."

In her “declaration,” Wimberly – who took over leadership of the town’s engineering department after McMillan was fired – states that she, McMillan, Martin and Slocum “were responsible for narrowing the Statements of Qualifications down to a ‘short-list’ of engineering firms who were qualified to do the project.

“We narrowed the list to six engineering firms, all of whom were qualified to do the project,” she states.

CH2M Hill “was among the six engineering firms on the short-list,” Wimberly adds.

Stop the bus. What is conveniently missing in Wimberly’s “declaration” is that several Mooresville commissioners in 2004 explicitly instructed town staff to include CH2M Hill on that “short-list.” In other words, the reason CH2M Hill was included was not because it was among the six most qualified. Wimberly also failed to mention that town board members were reportedly pressuring town staff to select CH2M Hill and that commissioners had already decided to hire CH2M Hill before town staff narrowed the field of firms to six.

Moving on…

Wimberly states in her “declaration” that “All of the short-list engineering firms … have performed similar work in the past. Based on their licensing and their experience, any of the six engineering firms on the short-list could have designed the Rocky River Treatment Plant.”

Actually, here’s how three of the six firms on that “short-list” – Black & Veatch (which town staff ultimately recommended to the town board), CDM (which was ranked second by town staff) and CH2M Hill (which the town board ultimately chose for the project) – stacked up to the town’s requirements, based on the firms' own submitted qualifications:

• Black & Veatch listed six projects in which it provided similar services as Mooresville’s in the region within the past eight years. CDM listed four. CH2M Hill listed one, which involved design improvements, modifications and upgrades to a treatment plant, not an expansion which is what the Town of Mooresville needs.
  
• Black & Veatch listed five treatment plant expansions similar in size to Mooresville’s that it had designed in the region within the past eight years. CDM listed one. CH2M Hill listed none.
  
• Black & Veatch’s proposed team included 19 employees that had worked together on a project, which was substantially more than the proposed teams of any other firms. Additionally, the teams listed in the proposals from Black & Veatch and CDM contained more professionally licensed individuals than the team proposed by CH2M Hill.
  
• Though it wasn’t addressed in the Statements of Qualifications, we have discovered in the past year that Black & Veatch, had it been hired instead of CH2M Hill, also would have known to consider phosphorous requirements before it began designing the town’s treatment plant expansion. CH2M Hill, on the other hand, said it was "unaware" of the phosphorous limits until its design was 60 percent complete. And that meant that the firm was going to need to go back and change some things in its design – to the tune of a requested additional $2 million from the Town of Mooresville ... as if we, the town's sewer customers, are expected to pay for the learning curve of such an "experienced, qualified firm." Wimberly was fully aware of the pending $2 million request for at least two weeks before she and CH2M Hill presented it to Mooresville's town board in August 2007. Yet Wimberly did not disclose the amount when a town commissioner specifically asked for it at a public meeting. But that’s another soap opera, for another day…

Back to the firm grading process:

So far, we've established that Wimberly, along with the other three town staff members (McMillan, Martin and Slocum), independently reviewed and graded the firms in 2004. Their review and grading was supposed to be based solely on the information in the firms’ own Statements of Qualifications – and how well those listed qualifications met town standards.

Judging from the first three bullet points above, Wimberly’s information in her “declaration” about CH2M Hill’s experience clearly did not come from the Statement of Qualifications that CH2M Hill itself submitted to the town’s engineering department.

And of all five engineering firms selected as finalists, CH2M Hill was ranked last -- that's right, last -- by all four town staff members, including – you guessed it – Tonia Wimberly.

In fact, Wimberly herself gave Black & Veatch a score of 51. She gave CDM a score of 43. She scored two other firms at 32 and 28. And her score for CH2M Hill: 27.

The highest attainable score was 55. The lowest was 11.

But, interestingly, Wimberly doesn’t mention any of that in her “declaration.” Instead, she states: “CH2M Hill was an engineering firm that was and is qualified to perform the work on the project.

“The Town of Mooresville,” she added, “was required to select a qualified engineering firm based on that firm’s demonstrated competence and qualification for the type of professional services required …”

Again I ask: Where exactly was that “competence and qualification” demonstrated? It certainly wasn’t in CH2M Hill’s own Statement of Qualifications submitted to the town, which was the only information town staff was supposed to use in grading and recommending the firms.

Wimberly is correct when stating in her “declaration” that “The Board of Commissioners for the Town of Mooresville had the final say in selection of the engineering firm that the Board believed was best qualified to perform the work on the Project.”

And, indeed, that board in 2004 hijacked the professional opinion of our town staff -- including Wimberly -- who recommended Black & Veatch for Mooresville’s treatment plant expansion. Town commissioners instead chose CH2M Hill, the firm that town staff – and (should I state it again?) Wimberly herself – ranked least qualified for the job.

Wimberly states in her “declaration”: “The Board’s selection of CH2M Hill was in compliance with the requirements of” state statutes. She doesn't mention, though, that the board was supposed to, but didn't, follow state statutes that regulate the selection of an engineering firm.

Even if the town board's selection of CH2M Hill was 100 percent compliant with state statutes, the question is: was its selection the best one for our town?

And Wimberly doesn’t address that either. Why? Well, I could speculate a number of reasons. Among them:

• Wimberly fears repercussions from town administration and/or elected officials. After all, her colleagues, McMillan and Martin, were fired for standing up for the taxpayers of this town. Why would she risk that?
  
• The town’s “Manager of Engineering” position – once held by McMillan – is vacant and currently being advertised.
  
• Wimberly is friends with JD Solomon, the Vice President and Carolinas Area Manager of CH2M Hill. (Solomon is the same guy, by the way, who put on a show at two different board meetings, saying per the advice of CH2M Hill “counsel,” he would need permission from town commissioners to speak to them since the town and CH2M Hill have a communication protocol which states that CH2M Hill will converse about the project only with town staff. Interestingly, Commissioner Frank Rader, in one of those same public meetings, disclosed that he had a lunch meeting with Solomon that week to discuss some aspects of the project. And rumor has it that Solomon at least tried to meet with other town commissioners, also outside the presence of the public, town staff and administrators. Hmph. So much for Solomon’s “above-board adherence” to the communication protocol…)

But Solomon isn’t the subject here.

The Rules of Professional Conduct for Engineers and Surveyors, Section 21 NCAC 56.0701 (d)(1), states that a licensee – which would include Tonia Wimberly – “shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner and ... shall be objective and truthful in all professional reports, statements or testimony."

Is Tonia Wimberly being truthful and objective? You decide.

...or maybe it's March 24...

Though I was told earlier today that the hearing on the Town of Mooresville's motion for summary judgment is scheduled for April 7, the hearing (according to court documents I have since obtained) is apparently actually scheduled for Monday, March 24, beginning at 10 a.m. in Court Room No. 3, Superior Court, Statesville.

I've heard that the trial date (if it comes to that) is tentatively scheduled for April 7.

Additionally, Richard McMillan and Wilce Martin -- who were originally suing the town for defamation and wrongful discharge in violation of state public policy -- have voluntarily dismissed their claim of defamation against the town. The wrongful-discharge claim remains.

Hearing rescheduled for April 7

The hearing on the town’s motion for summary judgment in the Richard McMillan/Wilce Martin vs. Town of Mooresville case has been rescheduled for April 7 in Superior Court, Statesville.

The hearing was originally scheduled for March 10 but was continued because McMillan and Martin’s lawyer, Jenny Sharpe, was sick.

The town is hoping that a judge will dismiss claims made by McMillan and Martin, who are suing for wrongful discharge in violation of state public policy.

Former Town Manager Jamie Justice fired McMillan (the town’s engineering director) and Martin (the utilities director) in February 2006 amid controversy over Morrison Plantation developers (on which I will elaborate in a later blog entry) and the town’s hiring of CH2M Hill to design our wastewater treatment plant expansion.

The town contends in its motion for summary judgment that McMillan and Martin "did not engage in any protected activity and there is no causal connection between any alleged protected activity and the termination of their employment from the Town of Mooresville."

In a phone conversation on Wednesday, Sharpe declined to provide details about the case but said, “We can directly refute all of that. We do think there’s a cause-and-effect relationship. Obviously, that’s something we’ll develop in our brief when we file it.”

That brief will be filed sometime before the April 7 hearing, she said.

Hearing to be continued

The Town of Mooresville is hoping that a Superior Court judge will dismiss claims made against it by two former department heads, Richard McMillan and Wilce Martin.

The two men are suing the town for defamation and wrongful discharge in violation of state public policy.

A hearing on the matter was scheduled for tomorrow (Monday) at 10 a.m. in Superior Court, Statesville, but it will likely be continued due to illness.

The town -- represented by Patrick H. Flanagan and Melody J. Canady of Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog LLP of Charlotte -- asks that the claims be dismissed because McMillan and Martin have "no genuine issues of material fact."

Specifically, the town's attorneys state that the defamation charges should be dismissed because "there is no evidence that (the town) made or provided any statements to the local media or anyone else that were defamatory as to either (McMillan or Martin) and because the substance of the communications at issue are true."

The wrongful-discharge claims should also be dismissed, according to the town, because McMillan and Martin "did not engage in any protected activity and there is no causal connection between any alleged protected activity and the termination of their employment from the Town of Mooresville."

McMillan and Martin's attorney, Jenny Sharpe of Charlotte, has not yet filed a response to the town's motion for summary judgment.

Adage: rats abandoning a sinking ship?

What’s that old adage about rats abandoning a sinking ship?

A call to CH2M Hill’s Charlotte office on Tuesday confirmed that David Wagoner and Mike Osborne are no longer employees of CH2M Hill, the engineering firm that Mooresville’s town board hired in 2004 to study and design the Town of Mooresville's multi-million-dollar wastewater treatment plant expansion.

Osborne was the original manager for Mooresville’s project. Wagoner was the original project director and the initial reason that town commissioners offered for hiring CH2M Hill against the professional recommendation of the town’s engineers and utilities staff.

I was the investigative reporter who covered this issue for the Mooresville Tribune. Here’s a little background, gleaned from my 2004 and 2005 articles:

Of the five engineering firms selected as finalists to enter into negotiations with Mooresville for the expansion project, CH2M Hill was ranked last by all four members of the town’s engineering and utilities departments who independently reviewed and graded the candidates.

The five firms were asked a month before the town board’s decision to submit qualification packages with additional information about their firms to help the town select the most qualified firm for Mooresville’s project.

According to the grading sheet, Black & Veatch – which then-Engineering Director Richard McMillan ultimately recommended to the town board – received a significantly higher score than the other four firms.

CH2M Hill, which the town board ultimately chose, was ranked last by all four people who graded the firms.

The average score for Black & Veatch was 49, while the average score for CH2M Hill was 27.7. The highest attainable score was 55. The lowest was 11.

Despite that, and McMillan’s recommendation, then-Commissioner Alice Lee made a motion that the town instead approve the recommendation of fellow Commissioner Mitch Abraham to hire CH2M Hill because Wagoner, a CH2M Hill official, is a resident of Mooresville and worked at the town’s wastewater treatment plant, Lee said. (As an aside, Abraham had not made that recommendation in a public meeting; Lee later said that the commissioners had discussed the matter during a home visit and telephone conversations.)

Following the Oct. 18, 2004 vote to hire CH2M Hill, Abraham justified his decision, saying: “We feel real comfortable with that firm, and especially David. Everybody’s familiar with him and his work in the past.”

Added Lee: “The fact is that David Wagoner is a local person and was the superintendent of our waste treatment plant for seven years. He has a vested interest in the town, and he would make himself available to us at anytime. Under the circumstances, I feel they would do us the best job.”

Neither Lee nor Abraham mentioned that they are close personal friends with Wagoner and attend his same church. It was only later that Lee said another reason the town hired CH2M Hill was because the Engineering News Record had ranked the firm as the number-one wastewater design firm in the nation.

She failed to mention, however, that the ranking was based on annual sales revenue – or how much money the firm made in a year.

If the money that CH2M Hill intended and attempted (and, at times, succeeded) to make from the Town of Mooresville is any indication – and it is – it’s no wonder the firm was ranked number one in sales revenue.

For example, after the town board hired CH2M Hill, the firm attempted to charge Mooresville sewer customers $564,500 lump-sum for a preliminary engineering report, meaning the town would pay that amount regardless of the actual time CH2M Hill spent on the work.

McMillan baulked, though, telling CH2M Hill that the town would pay the firm on a cost-plus basis, meaning it would reimburse actual hours worked, out-of-pocket expenses and other reimbursable items.

Interestingly, after all the media hype – including a Tribune investigation into the costs that other cities and towns across the southeast paid for similar studies (which wasn’t even close to the amount CH2M Hill tried the charge us) – the Town of Mooresville ended up paying about $244,000 less than CH2M Hill originally tried to charge.

In other words, had McMillan not fought on behalf of Mooresville’s sewer customers, we would have ended up paying CH2M Hill $244,000 more than it actually cost the firm to complete the study.

Then, of course, was the August 2007 Tribune investigation that showed the Town of Mooresville had reimbursed CH2M Hill more than $150,000 for expenses ranging from airline tickets and $176 hotel rooms to chewing gum and $4.65 Starbucks coffees.

Many of those expenses had no receipts and non-itemized receipts, but the town reimbursed them anyway, against its own policy.

From August 2006 to June 2007, CH2M Hill billed the town:

• nearly $49,000 in air transportation,
• almost $49,000 in hotel rooms from Charlotte and Raleigh to Florida, Oregon and Ohio,
• three months’ rent for two Florida condominiums, each at $1,750 per month,
• nearly $23,000 in car rentals,
• about $17,000 in travel and business meals,
• about $3,200 in auto mileage,
• almost $4,000 in gas and parking, and
• thousands more dollars in grocery-store purchases, breakfast and catered lunches for CH2M Hill’s “working meetings” (including those held in Charlotte);
• Starbucks coffee purchases,
• Brachs candy at $5.61,
• "Cowboy cookies” at $2.99,
• $15 tips to hotel housekeeping,
• and other “travel-related” expenses, such as toll fees and cab fares.

In addition to hundreds of undocumented meal expenditures, CH2M Hill submitted:

• An expense for $603.04 in lodging, with a note stating the receipt was lost.
• Another submission from CH2M Hill stated: “Lost receipts for travel-parking & gas in the amount of $244.88.” The town paid them anyway.
• Another CH2M Hill employee submitted to the town a handwritten note for lost lodging receipts totaling $561.77.

The firm also submitted a parking expense with no receipt for $22 and

• $56.31 and $22.90 expenses with no receipt for “supplies,”
• an $8 expense, with no receipt, for “water plus snacks for field work,” and
• a $2.31 expense, with no receipt, for bottled water.

One CH2M Hill employee in particular, in one month, submitted 70 expenses – ranging from 64 cents to $36.36 – with no receipts. Those expenditures were included in a two-page itemized list of 126 meal expenses with lost receipts. Atop that list, CH2M Hill added: "Lost receipts for meals in the amount of $321.16."

In the midst of public scrutiny, CH2M Hill and Mooresville Mayor Bill Thunberg announced they both would launch individual "internal investigations." CH2M Hill eventually "wrote off" $2,500 in undocumented expenses that the town had originally reimbursed. The lavish hotels and other travel expenses were never addressed by either CH2M Hill or the town.

In February 2006, our town manager, Jamie Justice, fired McMillan and Utilities Director Wilce Martin, who also staunchly opposed the town’s hiring of CH2M Hill.

Justice, who was our town manager for only three years, resigned last month per the request of the majority of our town board.

As for the other key players in the CH2M Hill debacle, Lee chose in the midst of the controversy not to seek re-election when her term expired in 2005. That same year, Commissioner Mitchell Mack also chose not to seek re-election, and long-time Commissioner Frank Owens was ousted. Franklin Campbell, who consistently voted against CH2M Hill, resigned from his Ward 2 seat during that time due to family issues. Then in 2007, veteran At-large Commissioner Danny Beaver lost his bid for re-election. Mitch Abraham, however, was re-elected as Ward 1 Commissioner in a virtually non-contested race.

So, in a nutshell, one commissioner remains from the original five who hired CH2M Hill. And the primary reason that the town said it hired that firm – David Wagoner – is apparently no longer employed by CH2M Hill. Neither is the original project manager, Mike Osborne.

Where does that leave the Town of Mooresville sewer customers? Holding the bag in a relationship with a “local firm” that, come to find out, isn’t so local anymore.

There are reasons that government entities are not supposed to make decisions that financially benefit their friends. This, no doubt, is one of them.

So, back to the old adage about the rats being the first to abandon sinking ships: does anyone know the exact wording of that adage? ‘Cause I’ve googled the heck out of it today and can’t seem to find it. I’m just curious.