Observing the Proprieties: Elected Officials

I have strong views on how it is appropriate for government officials to act. These views flow from my studies of American Government, more than a quarter century in the US Navy (including eight years service on headquarters staffs) and fifteen years or so performing government contracts. Last November I tried to distill those views into a post on leadership and management. This post wasn't targeted at any particular individual but was prompted by my growing concern over organizational issues at town hall.

During my two years as a town commissioner, I never had any illusion that I possessed authority over the town manager with respect to daily operations. I certainly offered advice and suggestions. They were often ignored. I found that appropriate. After all, I was only one of five commissioners. The only authority I possessed was as a part of that body.

I never possessed a key to town hall. I saw no need. I never possessed a key either to the outer office or to the manager's office or to any of the file cabinets or safes. I never possessed any passwords to any of the computers in town hall. Had a town manager offered such things to me I would have declined.

In our country, even at the level of town government, we have a wall of separation between legislative, executive and judicial functions. Yes, there are occasional shared functions as when the town board acts in a quasi-judicial capacity. But that is a tightly governed exception.

Regrettably, in the Town of Oriental, over the holiday period, the separation between legislative and executive functions was breached. At least twice.

This is beyond rumor. On Christmas weekend, Commissioner Venturi was seen in town hall, in both the outer office and in the town manager's office, accompanied by a town employee. She appeared to be rummaging through the town manager's files. Whether she removed any original documents, I don't know. I do know that a day or two later, she appeared with a bundle of financial records at The Bean and went over them with one of our citizens.

On New Year's weekend, Commissioner Venturi was seen in town hall again, in the outer office, printing out records from the town's accounting system. I do not believe Commissioner Venturi has a password for the town's accounting software. I believe she is not an authorized user. She could not have performed such an operation without breaching the integrity of the town's accounts.

The witnesses in both cases are absolutely reliable.

By the way, if any town employees provided assistance for any breaches, I hope the Town Board will make the rules absolutely crystal clear and enforce them in the future.

The town needs to make an assessment as to whether personal information required by law to be protected has been compromised by a security breach. If it has, there may be a requirement to report the security breach to individuals and to the NC Attorney General. This is serious stuff.