What Next in Oriental?

I just learned from Town Dock that an investigation is finally underway into the possible criminal acts alleged in a letter from Oriental's town attorney to the District Attorney earlier this year.

I just hope it isn't too late. Computers should have been impounded long ago for evidence.

One of my main concerns has been possible violation of the integrity of the town's books. I warned of that last January here and here and here and here. It was only later that I learned of allegations about clandestine audio recordings. I also spoke to at least three commissioners last January suggesting the Town should cause a forensic accountant to look at the Town's accounting system files.

My main interest isn't sending people to jail, but finding out for sure what happened. The public has a right to know the truth. The trail is growing cold. More like "Cold Case" than "CSI."

Whatever investigators find, the important question is: "Where does the Town go from here?"

The best approach to a bad experience is to learn from it. Here are candidate "lessons learned:"

1. Audits. If one or more audits list no control deficiencies, be suspicious. The point of an audit is to uncover problems. If none are uncovered and brought to the Board's attention, better check to see if something is being swept under the rug;

2. Hiring. It may be a bad idea for the town to hire a former commissioner for clerical tasks. Sorting out the proper relationships may be confusing to all parties;

3. Hiring and Management. If the Town hires someone for a management position, be sure that person is given the responsibility and also the authority to do the job. Lines of responsibility must be clear. No micro managing or interference in daily operations by elected officials. There is a difference between oversight and interference. The former holds the manager accountable. The latter destroys accountability. To the manager: "manage!" Sink or swim;

4. Avoid a protracted turnover period with the previous manager. Stretching this process out just confuses everyone about who is really in charge;

5. Commissioners must protect the integrity of sensitive personal and financial information of which the town manager is the custodian.

I have some thoughts about management style.

Every leader or manager has his or her own style of leadership. In more than fifty years managing various size organization, both military and civilian, I have come to some conclusions as to what works best:

1. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement;
2. Leaders get better results when they seek cooperation and ideas rather than demanding compliance by ordering it, except in extreme cases;
3. Leaders can delegate authority but never responsibility - when a ship runs aground, the Captain is responsible even if he is asleep in his cabin;
4. Effective leaders delegate as many tasks as possible, exercising oversight by intervening only to keep things from going wrong - that's known as "control by negation";
5. Subordinates also need to understand that they are not and cannot be responsible to the degree that the "boss" is.

Oriental Budget Ordinance Hearing

This evening, June 8, 2010 at 5:00 P.M., the Town of Oriental held a public hearing on the proposed budget ordinance for Fiscal Year 2010-2011.

The budget had been well prepared and explained by the recently fired Town Manager, so there were few questions until local businessman Hugh Grady asked, "How are the taxpayers going to get their $21,000 back from the attorney's fees that had no apparent purpose?"

The mayor hemmed and hawed for awhile without answering. Then Commissioner Jennifer Roe, a slight smile on her face, commented: "we saved enough on sidewalk repair to pay for the legal fees."

The irony did not pass unnoticed. It was Randy Cahoon who researched the options, sought bids and recommended the innovative approach that saved the Town a wad of money. It was just one of his many innovations for the benefit of taxpayers.

South Avenue Missing, Stolen or Strayed

Town property has been stolen.

Crucial pieces of the Neuse Ways Marine Railway which were left behind when Neuse Ways' lease of the Town's street end expired, have disappeared. Under the terms of the lease, the parts were the Town's property.

How did this come about? I intend to find out.

Only the Town Board has authority to dispose of Town property. If the Board acted on this matter, I totally missed it.

The parts could have been used by one of the County's museums to reconstruct a historical device used in boat maintenance and repair.

South Avenue Street End

I thought readers might like to see the layout at the end of the Town's Right of Way on South Avenue, formerly leased by Lacy Henry and blocked off by his fence, even though the town has won its case. The pink wedge is the pavement on a lot owned by Mr. Henry, which allows access to Mr. Fulcher's property otherwise blocked by Mr. Henry's fence.

According to the lease, anything left behind when the lease expired in 1992 belongs to the Town.

As you can see, the fence intrudes more than halfway across the Town's Right of Way for Avenue A.

The Trial

`Let the jury consider their verdict,' the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

`No, no!' said the Queen. `Sentence first--verdict afterwards.'

Alice in Wonderland

Closed minutes - South Avenue

Just before last Tuesday's Town Board meeting, Randy Cahoon handed me an envelope containing the minutes of closed sessions of the Town Board about South Avenue. The Board had agreed to release them at their agenda meeting the previous Thursday.

Randy predicted it might be his last official act.

I plan to review and analyze the minutes in conjunction with my own notes I kept at the time. Afterwards, I will share facts and conclusions with my readers.

Local Government Commission and Audit

Conspicuously absent from last Tuesday's Town Board Meeting was any discussion of the town's response to the letter from the Local Government Commission requiring correction of four control deficiencies and eight material weaknesses from the most recent audit.

A new audit is just around the bend. The LGC is unlikely to allow these dozen longstanding deficiencies to continue being swept under the rug.

Town Board Meeting 1 June 2010: Curious Utterance

There were more than a few curious utterances during last night's Town Board meeting.

One of the most curious was Mayor Sage's explanation to Oriental resident Ron Stevens concerning the delay in removing the fence in the town's right of way at the end of South Avenue. The mayor said that Mr. Henry wants the town to remove the paving on his property at the corner of South Avenue and Avenue A and that Mr. Henry wants to remove certain pieces of the former marine railway from the town's property.

Both claims of Mr. Henry lack merit.

The reason the town has pavement on the corner of Mr. Henry's lot is that the fence Mr. Henry placed in the town's right of way otherwise blocks access by commercial vehicles to Chris Fulcher's property. Has the town consulted either Mr. Fulcher or Mr. Fulcher's attorney about this request?

As for any pieces of equipment remaining on the town's property, Mr. Henry should have removed them in 1992, when his lease to that portion of the town's right of way expired.

This is spelled out in the lease, a copy of which was mailed to Mr. Marvin Jennings, Town Manager of Oriental* by Mr. Henry's attorney, Neil B. Whitford, on September 8, 1982. Mr. Whitford's letter and the accompanying lease are included as Exhibit J to PLAINTIFF TOWN OF ORIENTAL'S MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT filed by the Town Attorney, Michael Scott Davis*, December 28th, 2007.

After some whereas's, a therefore and a description of the bounds of the property, the lease goes on to say:
"The terms and conditions of the said lease are as follows:
1. Term of the lease shall commence on July 1, 1977 and shall terminate on June 30, 1992.
2. Lessee [Mr. Henry] will pay to lessor [Town of Oriental] a monthly rental in the sum of Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per month, payable on the first day of the month in advance.
3. All improvements and additions to the property made at the expense of the Lessee and any and all improvements and additions not removed by said Lessee upon expiration or termination of this lease will revert to Lessor."

In plain English, Mr. Henry should have removed his stuff on or about June 30, 1992 when the lease expired. It is now the property of the Town of Oriental.

* Some of my readers advise that I am entirely too subtle. They missed the point of the first highlighted text that the Town of Oriental had a Council-Manager form of government in place as early as 1982 and probably before that.

The second point on which I was apparently too subtle was the fact that the lease in question came from a document prepared by the Town Attorney, Scott Davis, who seems not to have remembered it in connection with his current discussions with Mr. Henry's attorney.

A third point I simply omitted from my post, but on reflection the public has a right to know. I recently raised the fence issue and Mr. Henry's deadline with Mr. Cahoon, who had (correctly in my view) taken the position that Mr. Henry must first remove the fence and then we might talk about the pavement on the corner of Mr. Henry's lot.

Judging from the mayor's explanation Tuesday night to Mr. Stevens, he (the mayor) must have overruled the Town Manager. The word "feckless" seems to apply. You can look it up.

As I understand it, Mr. Henry has been given a deadline and has missed it. The town should remove the fence forthwith and send Mr. Henry the bill.