MeckCo Payout Problems – UPDATE with Pendergraph Response
Adding fuel to the county payout fire, on the heels of revelations swirling around former Mental Health Director Grayce Crockett’s settlement, there’s this nugget dropped late last week. Turns out when Commissioner Jim Pendergraph, a Republican, retired as Mecklenburg Sheriff, he walked away with a little extra in his pocket – almost 150 hours of vacation leave payout, over what was allowed by county policy.
This from an e-mail that County Manager Harry Jones sent to commissioners last week:
To Members of the Board:
On Thursday, I received a request from Commisioner (sic) Dunlap to provide him the sick and vacation leave payout amounts for Commisoner (sic) Pendergraph upon his retirement in 2007. I provided (left it in his office) that information to Commissioner Dunlap on yesterday evening. I am uncertain if Commissioner Dunlap has seen the information yet. Nonetheless, earlier this morning I met with Jim and provided him a copy of the information. I share this information with you for two reasons: (1) because it will show that I provided an exception for Jim’s vacation leave payout; and, (2) I don’t want you to be surprised if you receive questions about this from others.
This exception resulted in him being paid for an additional 147.76 hours above the 240 hours our policy allows.
Please let me know if you have questions.
I’m sure there will be plenty.
UPDATE: Questions, indeed, and it didn’t take long to start. This from an e-mail sent by Commissioner Karen Bentley, a Republican, to her colleagues on the board:
What is the intent of asking for Commissioner Pendergraph’s retirement package details. Should we perhaps see the retirement packages from Commissioner Leake as well as Commissioner Dunlap?
Democrat commissioners George Dunlap and Vilma Leake both have work histories with Char-Meck. Dunlap as a former cop; Leake as a former teacher.
Dunlap’s reply to Bentley’s e-mail:
I would be happy for you to see mind (sic). I support both the city and the county’s policy for retirees. You should be concerned if I benefit from it and then say I don’t like it. You don’t get to have it both ways. If it’s wrong now, it was wrong then.
And then there’s this, from Republican Commissioner Bill James:
I would also like to request Vilma’s retirement package calculation from CMS as well. During the period she was with CMS as a teacher she was calling herself ‘Dr.’ and CMS provided additional pay (and therefore additional retirement money to those that qualified as having Masters or Doctors degrees. Based on what came out later, it turns out she wasn’t a ‘doctor’ and hadn’t finished her degree.
I will copy Peter Gorman and ask him to e-mail the board Vilma’s retirement package details now that it is possible to review them under open records law.
Glad you are OK with folks seeing yours George. Harry – can you ask the City to e-mail George’s retirement package info to the Board please?
As long as we are doing this might as well go ‘all in’. If the County’s packages are public then so are the City’s and CMS’. Let’s see them all.
Let the fireworks commence.
UPDATE II: Boom. That would be the first firecracker. Commissioner Pendergraph’s response, which was e-mailed to his board colleagues and Jones:
Board Members:
This morning, after a meeting at the Ballantyne Hotel, Manager Jones gave me an envelope containing my sick leave/vacation payout info from when I retired November 2007. I was in Washington, D.C. when this paperwork was initiated, as I started a new job with Homeland Security on Dec. 1, 2007. This morning is the first time I have ever seen this paperwork with the attached form titled “Payout Exceptions For Retiring Employees”.
Manager Jones said Commissioner Dunlap asked for this information and it was pulled from my personnel file. I question whether divulging information from a personnel file, without permission, is proper procedure. Manager Jones presented this paperwork to me as an example of other ‘exceptions’ he had made regarding payouts.
Now the facts:
1. This form and my retirement payout has nothing to do with the issue at hand regarding the decision by Manager Jones to payout Grace Crockett and his failure to inform the BOCC. This has nothing to do with his decision to continue to keep this payout of Grace Crockett a secret even after the media was reporting this huge sick leave payout with incorrect information provided by the county attorney and manager.
2. County policy, to the best of my recollection, states that if an employee accrues more than 240 hours of vacation, that on January 1 of the next year, the hours above 240 are converted to sick leave. An employee retiring in mid-year, as I did, is paid out all the accrued vacation hours upon retirement. This is a standard practice according to other county employees. Manager Jones commented to me, when he gave me the envelope this morning, that I had requested an exception for my vacation payout. I have no recollection of this conversation and did not need to make a request because this was a standard procedure. If it were not, why would there be a form for exceptions?
3. I have a concern this is an attempt to throw up a smoke screen to diffuse the issue at hand regarding the County manager. I don’t care to be the smoke.
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