Thompson jury duty leave shows the absence of oversight by the Board of County Commissioners | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The saga continues. The Commissioners were told that Economic Director Tom Thompson was on jury duty the week of June 4. That turns out not to be true. But we'll tell you where he was.

    On June 4, 2012, Commissioner Al Klemm explained to the county board that he was unable to contact Mr. Tom Thompson about the long overdue 2011 annual report from the Economic Development Commission. Mr. Klemm explained to the board that Mr. Thompson had "disappeared on jury duty" in Craven County. County Manager Randell Woodruff confirmed Mr. Klemm's explanation for Mr.Thompson's absence from work, stating that Mr.Thompson's staff had given jury duty as Mr. Thompson's excuse for missing a meeting scheduled with Mr. Woodruff earlier that day.

    However, follow-up inquiries by the Beaufort County manager's office on Friday, June 8, to the Craven County Clerk of Court discovered that Craven County jury pools had been released form service as of June 3 and that no juries were used for the week of June 4, 2012, nor were they used for the prior week of May 28, 2012. So, on behalf of the taxpayers and voters of Beaufort County just where was Mr. Thompson and why has Commissioner Klemm not stepped forward to require a clarification of why the county's $157,000 employee disappeared from work for days on end without offering any explanation to the county manager or the commissioners. What so preoccupied Mr. Thompson that he could not return calls and emails from county commissioners and EDC board members such as Commissioner Klemm? Where was Mr. Thompson and what was he being paid for doing?

    Click here to read Warren Smith's June 11, 2012 letter to the Beaufort County Commission and Washington City Council regarding Mr. Thompson's reported jury duty.

    Now, click here to read where he was. But note the dates.

    Imagine this. Suppose a school system did not have a policy or set of procedures that kept track of when school principals took annual leave, sick leave or other leave such as jury duty. Imagine a bank that did not have a system in place whereby the supervisors over branch managers knew when the branch managers were at work, when they were not and did not track the reasons for their absences. Would you expect that such lax oversight would eventually lead to problems? Certainly you would.

    But that is exactly how county government does it. Not with all employees, but just for some. The Sheriff, Register of Deeds, Clerk of Court, judges, District Attorney and some department heads do not have to report leave to anyone. They just decide for themselves when they will be absent from work and for what reason. And no records are kept of such leave.

    Some of these people contend that they are "constitutional officers" elected by the people. But if no one keeps track of when or whether they report to work--when there are no leave procedures--how is the public to know whether these people abuse the system? The simple answer is that there is no way for the people to know how many leave days these people have taken and for what reason.

    What you have is absolutely poor oversight.

    Commentary

    Obviously this is but yet another example of the dismal oversight the Board of County Commissioners exercises over county government. We view this as a perfect example of what inevitably will go wrong when there are not adequate systems in place to monitor whether people are taking leave and for what reason. The school system has a very good system for having leave approved and tracked and it applies to every employee, including the Superintendent and everyone under him. Those records are public records and anyone can find out whether someone is abusing their public trust. Even the top people.

    That a county department head could believe that if he is summons to jury duty that he did not have to report his leave is deplorable. Even more absurd is the idea that an employee can decide to "take a week of vacation and work at home" without getting anyone's approval.

    Beaufort County is hardly out of the woods with the liabilities Mr. Thompson has created for us. Mr.Thompson has left us with two failed industrial parks, an unsellable QSII, layoffs at PCS and clawback negotiations related to his River Road project. That Mr. Thompson, as an outgoing employee, would use this unapproved leave of absence to work on projects directly relating to his new employer rather than focus on the best interests of his current employer, Beaufort County, is unacceptable behavior. And the inadequacy of the system of monitoring such leave is the direct responsibility of the Board of Commissioners.

    We are not suggesting that the County is responsible for approving all leave. For example, if an elected official such as the Sheriff, Clerk of Court, Register of Deeds or judges decides to take leave that is not something the County Manager should be involved in. But if the County is responsible for cutting salary checks it should have a system in place to monitor and track how much leave, of whatever kind, is taken.

    This debacle with Mr. Thompson shows also just how inept the appointed Economic Development Commission has been in putting into place systems that foster sound management practices. It matters not whether the employee is elected directly by the people, appointed by a board or commission or hired directly by the County Manager, there should be a system in place to insure leave is not abused.

    More specifically in Beaufort County's instance, the blame for such weak oversight rests squarely with the five Commissioners who voted recently not to establish a system of oversight of county government functions. Without a monitoring system that is effectively implemented by management it is eventually going to lead to abuse.

    Whether or not Mr. Thompson abused the system is for his supervisor to determine. But whether the Board of Commissioners has done its job of putting a system in place is for the people to determine. Election day is 147 days away.

    While we know this will sound snarky, nonetheless, we have to wonder: How many of these august businessmen on these boards operate their business like this...allow employees to just decide to take a week off to work at home?

    What a way to run a railroad.