County manager's bonus debated
Mecklenburg commissioners are debating whether to pay County Manager Harry Jones a $38,400 annual performance bonus, a potentially controversial move in a year of county layoffs, pay freezes and deep service cuts.
Some Commissioners acknowledge that the money could spark questions, but they also feel obligated to reward Jones for meeting goals laid out by the board. If approved, the bonus would keep Jones' overall compensation at the same level as it was this past budget year, according to information obtained by the Observer.
Two other top local officials this year have declined merit raises or bonuses for themselves and many staff members. Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman did so as part of cost-saving moves for the current year.
Jones is eligible for a larger bonus than Walton or Gorman - up to 30 percent of his salary. Based on Jones' $215,655, he could get up to about $65,000 in what commissioners call "pay-at-risk," or performance bonus.
Commissioners have indicated they won't exceed $38,400.
Vice chair Harold Cogdell said there are two issues: whether Jones has earned his bonus and whether it would send the right message to pay it in the current economy.
Commissioners aren't expected to approve a final pay package until next month, and details about Jones' evaluation are being kept secret for now, as allowed by state law.
Commissioners will receive a recommendation on the pay package from a board committee in upcoming weeks.
Jones gave a statement through a county spokesman: "Since the board of county commissioners is evaluating my performance and have not reached a final decision, I feel it is inappropriate for me to comment at this time to your questions."
A CEO-style package
The issue stems from a decision five years ago, when elected officials decided government should act more like private enterprise.
In the new system, commissioner Dumont Clarke recalled, the county manager's pay would reflect a CEO-style package of a base salary with another piece of pay that varies based on how the board judges the manager's performance.
Commissioners had offered smaller bonuses regularly to the county manager since the mid-1990s, including to Jones' predecessor Jerry Fox.
But the new plan called for offering a performance bonus of up to 30 percent of the manager's salary based on four criteria: the percentage of the county goals achieved, called "balanced scorecard objectives," a management plan approved by commissioners, demonstrated leadership, and professional development.
"We even changed the name (from) a bonus that one comes to expect, to a performance bonus," then-commissioners Chairman Tom Cox said in 2004.
The following year, Jones' bonus was $35,586, nearly triple that of the year before.
Jones has never received the full bonus. He received between $35,586 and $40,154 in each of the past four years, according to minutes from past commissioners meetings.
Some board members argue that Jones' performance pay is not technically a bonus. In their view, a traditional bonus is when an employee receives money "above and beyond" their normal pay.
Chairman Jennifer Roberts said with Jones' "pay-at-risk" plan, he could lose a substantial portion of his compensation if he doesn't perform well.
Others also worry that not offering the money would be effectively giving Jones a pay cut, something not done to other county workers. They worried about what message that might send to the manager.
"No matter what you do, you can make a case for doing something else," said commissioner Bill James. He said Jones would be eligible for even more than $38,400, based on his performance, were it not for the economy.
Other large N.C. counties, including Wake and Durham, do not offer bonuses to their manager. Wake County Manager David Cooke earns a higher base salary, at $223,227.
A trying year
Four commissioners sit on the Mecklenburg board's compensation committee: Roberts, Clarke, James and George Dunlap. Dunlap said the committee hasn't decided how much to give Jones.
Commissioners generally praised Jones for his work in the past year, particularly for leading the county through a tough year in which it made deep cuts because of revenue losses. Roberts also cited Jones' leadership as co-chair of the Critical Needs Task Force formed last winter to address growing social-services needs across the community.
"I do think the county manager has performed well in a very trying budget year and has exercised leadership in terms of taking the county in the direction it needed to go," said commissioner Neil Cooksey, who like some other newer board members said he is still learning the details of the review. "All that needs to be taken into account as we look into his evaluation."
The county also has dealt with questions about inadequate accounting practices at the Department of Social Services, sparked by an investigation into possible misused funds in a charity program that buys gifts for foster children. The county has taken a number of steps in response, including putting DSS finances under control of the main county finance department and ordering more employee training.
Jones said in June that he took responsibility for the lapses. He also spoke privately to commissioners at a board meeting after saying by e-mail, "I do not want those concerns to fester between now and my performance evaluation."
Cooksey also said the board should consider the weak economy and "look at the manager's compensation just like we look at funding for other county employees and other county services."
Commissioner Vilma Leake said she would talk about a bonus. "But I'm not sure that I would vote for a bonus during this crisis time in the economy," she said.
County spending got more scrutiny this year as revenues fell and the county and other agencies cuts their budgets.
As the county's two other largest government entities - the city of Charlotte and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools - crafted their budget plans, leaders said they would forgo or eliminate merit raises or bonuses for 2009-10. City spokeswoman Kim McMillan said that declining the merit raises was one of many tools Walton put down "to make sure that he would be fiscally sound."
Gorman said this week that bonuses are an important part of workers' compensation.
"But," he said, "we think in this difficult time it wasn't appropriate and we did that through the lens of what percentage of total compensation the bonus is, and the fiscal crisis, adding those two together."
Gorman, who earns $267,150, is eligible for up to 10 percent of his annual salary as a bonus based on performance on districtwide and individual goals, according to his contract.
Clarke said the economy has not typically been used as a means of measuring the manager's performance. He said the easy thing would be to not award the "pay at risk" so the board doesn't run any risk of being criticized by the public.
"But my view is we need to do what's fair for the manager, and we need to be entirely consistent with the way we have compensated our manager in the past."
DSS hires politically-connected during "Freeze"
While Mecklenburg County is cutting some jobs, the county's Department of Social Services has been hiring.
The NewsChannel 36 I-Team discovered DSS has hired 30-40 positions, many of them managers and several filled with candidates who have political connections.
The DSS hiring freeze was in effect when Mary E. Wilson joined the department as director last July. But in the name of reorganizing the department, DSS has hired dozens of new employees, including the daughter of Charlotte's police chief, the daughter of a Superior Court judge and the wife of a city councilman who is running for mayor.
DSS hired Samara Foxx, the wife of at-large councilman and mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx, last July.
Her salary as Division Director II was $100,000 a year.
Foxx's hiring raised questions among some DSS staffers since the position was posted on July 17 and taken down the very next day.
For months, the I-Team has asked DSS in writing for public records showing when the job was posted. At first a department spokeswoman told us that legal counsel had advised her the records were confidential personnel records. After our repeated requests for only the public portion of the records, DSS sent us a two-page letter detailing the job posting.
The letter says in part, "The creation of Ms. Foxx's position was an initial step in the re-organization of DSS, which was approved by the county's executive team."
County Commissioners Chair Jennifer Roberts told us by phone from Washington, "I did not realize that opening was posted for such a short period of time. It's concerning. We pride ourselves on being open, transparent, equal and fair. I can't imagine why the posting period would not be available to reporters."
After DSS Director Mary E. Wilson gave Samara Foxx the job, Wilson's husband Cornell donated $4,000 -- the legal maximum -- to Anthony Foxx's mayoral campaign.
Foxx Campaign Manager Bruce Clark said Wilson and Foxx had worked together in the past but declined comment on the hiring, saying it was a county decision.
Foxx is not the only person with political connections to be hired by DSS since the "hiring freeze" went into effect.
Public records show DSS hired Hollye Monroe, the daughter of CMPD Police Chief Rodney Monroe, on Jan. 14 as a Management Analyst. Her salary: $46,613.60 per year. Our phone messages to Monroe's public information officer and chief of staff were not returned.
DSS also hired Tracey Evans, the daughter of Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mims-Evans, on Feb. 11 as a Social Services Manager at a salary of $57,380.95 per year. Judge Mims-Evans told us in a brief telephone interview that she had nothing to do with the hire.
County Manager Harry Jones e-mailed us a two-line response saying, "These individuals were hired within our policies and without regard to who their parents or spouses are."
Neither Jones nor DSS Director Mary E. Wilson responded to our requests for an on-camera interview.
But County Commissioner Bill James says the hiring smacks of political patronage and in his words "just smells bad." Commissioner James says the hiring should be investigated.
Failed by system, dead at 15
Tiffany Wright stood alone in the dark, waiting for her school bus.
It was just before 6 a.m., and her foster grandmother had walked back home to get Tiffany's water bottle.
Tiffany, 15, was eight months pregnant but determined to stay on track in school. She wanted to be a lawyer. And after just a few weeks at Hawthorne High, she had impressed teachers as smart and ambitious, despite a difficult childhood.
At 5:51, Tiffany sent a text.
"Wheres the bus?"
One stop away, replied her friend, already on the bus.
At 5:55, as the bus lumbered toward Tiffany's stop, people began calling police to report gunshots.
A school bus dispatcher radioed Tiffany's bus driver: Change course - something's happening ahead.
Tiffany lay dead in the road, shot in the head, that morning, Monday, Sept. 14. Her baby girl was delivered at the hospital and lived a week, but died Sunday.
Nobody's charged in the killings, but police call Tiffany's adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell, a "person of interest."
In the months before she died, local agencies took steps aimed at stabilizing her home life and keeping her safe. But her story exposes failures in the system that was supposed to protect her.
Among the missteps:
•In February, a Mecklenburg court clerk appointed Mitchell as Tiffany's temporary guardian - even though he was a felon who served time in federal prison. He was also tried in 2006 for murder, but found not guilty. And last year, he was accused of domestic violence, though the case was dismissed.
•In July, social workers told police that Mitchell, 36, might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany, but police didn't question him about it for seven weeks, and didn't charge him with the rape until after Tiffany was killed.
•This month, Mecklenburg social services failed to cut off communication between Tiffany, who was in foster care, and Mitchell, said a source close to the investigation.
On the day of Tiffany's killing, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police jailed Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a child, naming Tiffany as the victim.
Police defend their work, saying they followed the industry's best practices - which takes time. Police didn't feel a need to rush, they say, because they believed Tiffany was secure, hidden in a foster home with no threat to her safety.
Police say it's hard to prove statutory rape: Of the 262 reports of statutory rape police received over three years, only 16 percent - 42 cases - were accepted by prosecutors.
Experts say statutory rape cases are complicated because they involve victims ages 13, 14 or 15 who often consider themselves voluntary participants in sex with someone at least six years older. So victims can be reluctant to help police.
But child advocates say in cases like Tiffany's, police should act more aggressively. An immediate arrest sends a signal to a suspect and can persuade them to stay away from victims.
"The cases may be difficult to win, but they're not difficult to charge," says Brett Loftis of Charlotte's Council for Children's Rights.
UNCC criminologist Paul Friday says: "Often, nothing is done in these kinds of cases because they're based on improper assumptions about the rationality of someone that age. But the minors are often unaware of disease, birth control and they can be exploited by someone."
Adopted by foster mother
Tiffany first entered the child welfare system as a toddler in Buffalo, N.Y., when her mother lost custody.
She was adopted at 4 by her foster mother, Alma Wright, an older woman with eight grown children, who was excited about raising another child.
One of Wright's grown sons was Royce Mitchell, a star quarterback in high school who'd gone on to play for a semi-pro team in Buffalo. But Mitchell also was indicted in 1999 as part of a drug trafficking ring and went to federal prison.
While he was in prison, authorities also charged Mitchell with an earlier murder, but a jury found him not guilty.
In 2004, Alma and Tiffany left Buffalo for North Carolina, settling near Kings Mountain. Tiffany made friends easily at school and church. She ran track at Bessemer City High School.
In 2007, Mitchell was released from prison and followed his mother to North Carolina.
But last fall, Alma Wright got sick. Friends at church helped out with Tiffany, inviting her for dinners and weekends. Tiffany spent time with Mitchell and his wife, too.
Alma Wright died Jan. 25, and Tiffany moved in with the Mitchells in Charlotte.
On Jan. 30, Royce Mitchell asked a Mecklenburg court to appoint him and his wife as Tiffany's guardians.
On his application, he wrote: "We are seeking guardianship because we were requested to do so by Mrs. Alma Wright before she died."
He wanted to transfer Tiffany to West Mecklenburg High School.
The court set a hearing for Feb. 5 and appointed a child advocate to study the situation and look after Tiffany's best interests in court.
There's no transcript of what happened in court, and the clerk who handled Tiffany's case declined to discuss his decision.
Frederick Benson, a Mecklenburg assistant clerk of superior court, appointed Mitchell the temporary guardian of Tiffany's welfare.
It's unclear if Benson, a lawyer, knew about Mitchell's criminal background. Court clerks are not required to perform background checks in guardianship cases, says Clerk of Superior Court Martha Curran. It's up to each clerk to decide what checks are necessary, and they often rely on court-appointed child advocates to advise them in such cases.
Tiffany's advocate, lawyer Martha Efird, declined to discuss her actions in the case.
It was in the weeks surrounding the Feb. 5 court hearing that Tiffany got pregnant, if hospital estimates are accurate.
But friends say Tiffany, who started at West Mecklenburg High in February, wouldn't realize for four or five months that she was pregnant.
On Feb. 27, clerk of court Benson ordered DSS to conduct a "home study" of the Mitchell household. Officials won't release their findings.
But Mitchell didn't keep custody long, according to several of Tiffany's friends in King's Mountain.
In late March, Mitchell left Tiffany at a group home called With Friends in Gastonia, according to Marlene Jefferies and Cruceta Jeffeirs, two adult family friends who watched Tiffany grow up.
The group home wouldn't confirm that. But the friends say the home reported to social services that Tiffany was abandoned. And she was soon back in foster care.
On March 31, Jeffeirs, a Shelby pastor, wrote a letter to Benson seeking custody of Tiffany: "My desire is to see Tiffany accomplish all the goals that she has set for herself and I believe she can do that in a stable environment with lots of guidance and love."
DSS officials in Gaston and Mecklenburg won't discuss Tiffany's case or answer questions about what steps they took to protect her.
But friends and family say Tiffany was eventually placed in the care of foster parent Susan Barber, in a townhome off Mallard Creek Road in Derita.
By July, it was clear Tiffany was pregnant, friends say.
Barber tried to shield Tiffany from talking to those she believed might be bad influences, according to Tiffany's cousin Brittany Page. But a source close to the investigation said Tiffany and Mitchell continued communicating.
Despite repeated attempts, Barber could not be reached.
As the school year approached, Tiffany prepared to change schools again, this time to Hawthorne High in Charlotte, which offers a special program for pregnant students.
Delayed investigation
On July 27, social workers reported to police that Royce Mitchell might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany.
It took eight days for a detective to look at the case, and three days more for it to be officially assigned to Teresa Johnson, a detective with CMPD's youth crime and domestic violence unit.
Another 12 days passed before Johnson interviewed Tiffany.
It's unclear when detective Johnson discovered Mitchell's background, but it wasn't enough to ramp up the investigation. Investigators say they believed Tiffany was safe in a foster home and faced no threats from Mitchell.
Police say their performance in the case followed procedure and met standards.
Police interview alleged victims immediately if the crime has occurred within the previous 72 hours, so they can gather evidence that may remain. But in cases like Tiffany's - where months had elapsed since the alleged offense - police try to arrange just one interview when children and teen victims of abuse are involved.
Police acknowledge that strategy takes time but minimizes trauma and reduces the chances that young victims might be led into inaccurate testimony by repeated questioning.
Police also let such victims decide when they want to be interviewed at the county's child-victim center called Pat's Place. There, specially trained interviewers talk to victims, while social workers, psychologists, police and others watch from another room.
Tiffany chose an Aug. 19 interview. She didn't say much during the formal interview. But later that day, Johnson won her trust and obtained enough information to move forward with the investigation.
No response from Mitchell
The next day, Aug. 20, the detective made her first call to Mitchell to ask him about the charge, she says. Johnson left a message and gave him a few days to call back.
When Mitchell didn't respond, she made calls over the next two weeks to social workers and a federal probation officer to ask Mitchell to come talk to police.
Police say they didn't immediately arrest him because they believed they could get better information if he talked voluntarily.
On Sept. 9, a federal probation official told Johnson that Mitchell was not coming in.
On Sept. 10, a team of social workers, police and other agencies held a standard follow-up meeting to discuss how to proceed in Tiffany's case.
On Friday, Sept. 11, detective Johnson phoned Mitchell's wife and left a message. She asked her to call back to discuss Tiffany, Johnson says, but didn't give details of the rape allegation.
That Monday, Tiffany was shot and killed.
As emergency vehicles rolled to the scene, Tiffany's school bus was diverted from its normal route. But the students could see flashing lights. Tiffany's friends on the bus, Cimone Black and Tamia Corpening, began to worry.
"I kept texting her phone...," Cimone said. Then she started calling, but all she got was voice mail.
The bus continued on to Hawthorne. For Tamia, the hourlong ride was excruciating.
Nobody said a word.
Charlotte-Meck. DSS accounting practices criticized
Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners said Tuesday they likely will never know what happened to untold thousands of dollars from the Department of Social Services.
The remarks came after commissioners listened to a report critical of accounting practices at DSS spending programs meant to help children and poor families.
An investigation into alleged misspending at a DSS Christmas charity has been broadened across the entire agency. Officials recently said they cannot say how much money might have been misspent during the last five years.
During a meeting Tuesday, commissioners said it might be impossible to determine how tens of thousands of dollars were spent because receipts are missing or altered.
"I doubt we will ever find out all there was that went wrong," Commissioner George Dunlap said.
A report from the commissioners' Audit Review Committee sharply criticized DSS for "insufficient" financial controls and management.
"At present, it is unclear why or how the lack of controls developed or how long they have existed," the report said.
The findings prompted Commissioner Karen Bentley to ask about accounting safeguards in all the county's agencies.
County Manager Harry Jones said he is "confident" the county has adequate financial controls in place, but added there is "a risk in saying this."
Jones said officials previously have discussed whether the county has "the right financial structure."
Before the public meeting, commissioners met in closed session with Jones to discuss whether he and other top county managers should share some blame for the problems at DSS.
Afterwards, some voiced support for Jones. The committee's report said management's response to the concerns raised in the audit were sufficient.
The DSS accounting failures became public this year when Director Mary Wilson said she and an employee uncovered questionable expenditures and bookkeeping.
Since then the county has suspended two DSS employees who were suspected of taking $110,000. One of them has been cleared of wrongdoing and reinstated, while the other is on medical leave.
County officials say the two oversaw a Christmas charity which cannot fully account for $162,000. That includes a $10,000 check made out to an employee.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are helping the county investigate. No criminal charges have been filed.
Dunlap and other commissioners debated whether they should continue to spend money to investigate what happened and who's to blame. The county paid $93,000 to outside auditors to examine DSS.
Some officials noted that commissioners recently passed a 2009-10 budget that includes cuts in county services, layoffs for hundreds of educators and closing libraries on Sundays.
"The commission has to take the responsibility to make sure we don't pour money into a dark hole," Dunlap said.
But Commissioner Bill James disagreed, saying it is important that the county find out whether managers failed to enforce policies.
"The real question is what's going on at DSS finance," James said. "Who (was) in charge of DSS finance?"
DSS Mishandled, Misused Funding Allocated Specifically For Foster Care Children
Mecklenburg County leaders are promising reforms after a financial audit found widespread problems in the Department of Social Services, including unauthorized use of county credit cards.
A separate report also revealed the county may launch another investigation into whether DSS workers misspent money.
In March, officials said they suspended two workers suspected of taking $110,000 from a charity that solicits money to buy holiday gifts for kids. In a report to the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners this week, administrators said they had turned over the findings of an internal probe to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
“This shows DSS has serious internal control and cash management problems that (County Manager) Harry Jones and (DSS Director) Mary Wilson need to fix,” commissioner Bill James said.
DSS is one of the county's largest agencies with more than 1,200 employees and a roughly $180 million budget.
Wilson, who took over DSS in July 2008, told commissioners that she ordered the audit after learning this year about accounting irregularities in the charity program.
The county paid $93,000 to Cherry, Bakaert & Holland, which studied records from July 1, 2007 through March 31 of this year.
Among the findings:
DSS workers used two credit card accounts without proper authorization from the county finance director or commissioners.
In 99 percent of financial transactions studied for one program, there were missing receipts, purchases for unauthorized products, a lack of supervisor approval or other problems.
DSS issued checks without two different authorized signatures, a violation of a state statute.
Harry Jones, the county manager, said the county has already implemented new procedures in response to the audit.
“I am very disturbed by the findings,” he said in the report to commissioners. “I can assure this Board and the public that we have fixed and strengthened our fiscal controls ... We also will pursue aggressively any evidence of suspected misappropriation to the appropriate conclusion.”
The report says that DSS will no longer be able to write checks and that all checks will be processed and written by the county finance department. Administrators, the report says, will review DSS financial policies to ensure they match county rules.
The audit focused on a voucher program in which DSS provided financial assistance to help foster parents or caretakers buy needed items for foster children. The program operated on a $167,500 a year budget before officials discontinued it this year.
Wilson said in January she reviewed expenditures for the effort and found some “transactions seemed high in terms of dollars” and often there were no receipts.
Now, officials are working with auditors to determine whether to conduct a more extensive review. The review would try to determine whether workers violated fiscal policies.
The audit also studied transactions involving the Giving Tree program, which takes public donations to buy gifts for foster children and other DSS clients.
Among the well-known supporters of the program is Project Joy, the holiday fund drive initiated by Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson.
In March, the county said it found multiple checks from November 2008 through January 2009 were made out to an employee who helps with Giving Tree. Other checks were authorized payable to the relative of another DSS employee. The relative is not a DSS worker.
Wednesday, the county said one of the workers suspected of taking money remains on paid administrative leave. The other is on extended family leave.
An internal agency audit found two instances of possible misappropriation. “Other instances of concealment were found, but misappropriation could not be determined due to poor record keeping,” a report says.
County officials are working with police to obtain receipts from vendors, but a spokesman said Wednesday there is no criminal investigation at this time.
The Giving Tree program has been suspended.
DSS Also Mishandled Social Security Money
Mecklenburg County officials paid for "various programs" out of an account for recipients of Social Security benefits, according to an audit of the Department of Social Services.
The practice, auditors say, is a violation of Social Security Administration regulations.
According to the report:
"The non-guardianship expenditures made from the account are in an inappropriate use of the guardianship funds and may be in violation of North Carolina general statutes."
Click here to read the full audit of cash receipts and disbursements.
In response, county officials say they have changed their use of the account.
Officials say effective March 31, "Only expenses related to Social Security guardian funds are expended from the Social Security account."
Click here to read the full response from Mecklenburg County.
DSS Director Mary Wilson, who took over in July 2008, ordered the audit after learning earlier this year about accounting irregularities in a charity program. Read more about the report in today's story, "Audit reveals more DSS problems."
The county paid $93,000 to Cherry, Bakaert & Holland, which studied records from July 1, 2007 through March 31 of this year.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WCNC, Charmeck.org, Google Maps
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