Houdini Harry Escapes Unscathed
After Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones acknowledged misleading the public and his county commission bosses, and wrongfully outing protected personnel information of the county’s former sheriff and current board vice chairman, Jones apologized for his transgressions and walked away without so much as a formal reprimand from commissioners.
Jones was on the hot seat Tuesday night for doling out a $63,000 compensation settlement to former county mental health director Grayce Crockett, who resigned earlier this month with her department under fire for faulty oversight of the county’s largest mental health contractor.
Crockett, who had been on paid leave since September, received nearly $100,000 in final compensation under the terms negotiated by Jones. But after initially leading the public and county commissioners to believe the total amount was for accrued sick leave and vacation, Jones later said that more than $60,000 of it was part and parcel of a settlement he had negotiated in what he claimed was the county’s best financial and legal interests.
In addition to initially keeping commissioners and the public in the dark about the actual terms of Crockett’s settlement, Jones also apparently skirted a county policy that restricts the manager from authorizing settlement claims or lawsuits against the county in excess of $30,000, without approval from the board of commissioners.
Yet in a statement released after huddling behind closed doors for nearly four hours Tuesday, commissioners said that, “the County Manager made a reasoned and sound decision in the best interests of the Mecklenburg County taxpayers and had the authority to do so without prior Board approval.”
“Although the information publicly released involving Grayce Crockett’s negotiated resignation was technically correct and was released in a good faith attempt to comply with North Carolina law,” the commissioners’ joint statement continued, “it provided a misleading impression to the Board and the public.”
“The way it was released was misleading, but the intent was to stay within the law,” Commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts said in a brief interview after Tuesday night’s meeting. With “better communication the misinformation could have been avoided,” Roberts said.
She declined to say what possible legal exposure the county might have averted with Crockett’s settlement, offering only that it pertained to “actions with personnel that aren’t releasable.”
Jones said Tuesday night that he “did not do a good job of communicating the issue” of Crockett’s settlement and he apologized for what he called “this misstep” of providing commissioners and the public with information that they “might perceive was incorrect and misleading.”
Full of apologies Tuesday night, Jones also offered one to Commissioners Vice Chairman Jim Pendergraph for what Jones called “another lapse in judgment that involved the release of protected information” concerning money given to Pendergraph when he retired as sheriff in 2007.
In an e-mail sent to commissioners last week, Jones said that he had approved an exception to county policy that resulted in Pendergraph receiving nearly 150 hours in additional vacation leave payout. The information, Jones said, had been requested by Commissioner George Dunlap.
Pendergraph said last week that he never requested additional money and questioned both the motives behind the information’s release and also whether releasing it without his permission followed proper procedure. Commissioners opined Tuesday night that it did not. From their joint statement: “The County Manager seriously erred when he released information from Commissioner Pendergraph’s personnel file that included some information protected by North Carolina privacy laws, although he did so without malice.”
The additional amounts of accrued vacation time Pendergraph received when he retired were for benefits he earned during his service as sheriff, according to the statement that commissioners released Tuesday night.
Jones said that he had twice apologized to Pendergraph for releasing the protected personnel information, and that Pendergraph had accepted his apologies.
Even as he was dishing out apologies and mea culpas by the handful Tuesday night, Jones said he thought that during his tenure as manager he has “done a reasonably good job of communicating the actions I take,” but that in this instance he had “failed in doing so in a proper way.”
Still, this isn’t the first time Jones has come under fire for his “miscommunication” with commissioners and the public. Jones was roundly criticized for oversight failings during a scandal involving rife misspending at the Department of Social Services’ Giving Tree program, where a former county employee pleaded guilty to embezzling money from the Christmas charity.
Subsequent to the debacle, Jones sent what many perceived as a hostile e-mail to the employer of a man who had questioned Jones’ handling of the Giving Tree scandal. The following year, Jones fired off an e-mail in which he torched members of a library committee.
In all those instances, Jones acknowledged that mistakes had been made and promised improved accountability moving forward. Throughout it all, commissioners not only never reprimanded Jones; they gave the man a whopper of a bonus on top of his $280,000 salary.
This time around proved little different. The board’s official statement on Jones’ handling of the Crockett settlement will be put in the county manager’s personnel file. And commissioners say they will take the matter into consideration later this year when conducting Jones’ annual performance evaluation.
For all the talk of Jones’ misleading the public and committing serious errors, the county manager skated with a tepid admonishment from commissioners to “improve communication with the Board on personnel and matters of public interest,” while continuing to work with the board “to establish clear expectations for how similar matters will be handled in the future.”
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Statement of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, issued late Tuesday night after spending nearly four hours behind closed doors:
The Board has reviewed the actions of County Manager Harry Jones regarding the terms and conditions of former Area Mental Health Grayce Crockett’s resignation, including the payment of a negotiated amount to Ms. Crockett totaling $99,329.18. This involved a thorough review of County policy and the authority provided by the Board of County Commissioners to the County Manager. The Board also received and reviewed information on other negotiated resignations of County employees in recent years.
Based on this review, the Board believes the following:
1. The County Manager made a reasoned and sound decision in the best interests of Mecklenburg County taxpayers and had the authority to do so without prior Board approval.
2. The County Manager should have informed the Board in advance or immediately thereafter about the terms and conditions of Ms. Crockett’s negotiated resignation, including the amount paid to her in excess of what she was entitled to receive in accrued vacation and sick benefits, and the reasons he decided the payment was in the best interests of the County and taxpayers.
3. The County is limited by privacy laws regarding the amount and type of information that can be released to the public.
4. Although the information publicly released involving Grayce Crockett’s negotiated resignation was technically correct and was released in a good faith attempt to comply with North Carolina law, it provided a misleading impression to the Board and the public.
5. The County Manager erred by not timely correcting this misimpression.
6. The County Manager made a mistake by not informing the Board in advance or immediately afterwards about the terms and conditions of Grayce Crockett’s resignation. The County Manager understands and acknowledges this mistake.
7. The County Manager seriously erred when he released information from Commissioner Pendergraph’s personnel file that included some information protected by North Carolina privacy laws, although he did so without malice.
8. The County Manager understands and acknowledges he made a mistake when he released the protected information from Commissioner Pendergraph’s personnel file. The County Manager has apologized to Commissioner Pendergraph and Commissioner Pendergraph has accepted his apology.
9. The additional amounts of accrued vacation paid to Commissioner Pendergraph at the time of his retirement were for benefits he earned during his service as Mecklenburg County Sheriff.
10. The County Manager must improve communication with the Board on personnel and matters of public interest.
11. The Board will work with the County Manager to establish clear expectations for how similar matters will be handled in the future.
The Board will put this statement in the County Manager’s personnel file and intends to take all of the above into consideration when conducting the County Manager’s annual performance evaluation later this calendar year.
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