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With 3-2 vote, Sylva officials fire town manager
By Stephanie Salmons
With a 3-2 vote, Sylva leaders last Thursday (Sept. 4) fired town Manager Jay Denton.
After coming out of an almost hour-long closed session to discuss Denton’s yearly evaluation, board member Maurice Moody made the motion to “discharge the town manager with a 30-day severance package.”
No discussion was held in open session about the matter nor was any reason given for the motion. Moody, along with board members Sarah Graham and Stacy Knotts voted in favor, and board members Harold Hensley and Ray Lewis cast the two “no” votes.
Denton has claimed responsibility for two recent mistakes, which he said could have given board members a reason fire him.
The cost for the new Scotts Creek pedestrian bridge, which connects Poteet Park and the new Bridge Park, came in more than $100,000 over estimate.
“It did come in over the estimate,” Denton said in May when he informed board members of the funds needed to complete the project. “I take full responsibility for this project being over the original estimate, because I put those together based on information given to me by a professional with the state Cooperative Extension Service who has put in these bridges before.”
The most recent error came to light when auditors found that some of the money the town received as part of a conservation easement from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund – some $3.5 million – was in accounts not allowed by state statutes.
Denton said during a meeting of the Finance Committee last week (Wednesday, Sept. 3) that he had checked with the Local Government Commission on the use of some accounts, but not all of them. However, when the mistakes were found, immediate steps were taken to correct them, he said.
The premise of that meeting – which may have been illegal since all five board members participated though it was not advertised as a town board meeting – was to discuss a potential investment policy for the Fisher Creek funds.
However, once the meeting started, Knotts focused on the unallowable accounts, which were discovered during the town’s audit.
Nearly $2 million of the funds were put into a Goldman Sachs money market account through Wachovia Securities. During the finance meeting, Denton said he had since learned that the only mutual funds municipalities can invest in are through the N.C. Capital Management Trust.
Board member Harold Hensley asked if at any time the money was unsafe.
Knotts said “yes”; Denton said “no.”
“At all times since (the money) has been in Wachovia, in my opinion, it has not been safe,” Knotts said.
Denton said he disagreed.
“The funds have been safe,” he said. “They’ve been backed by the state of North Carolina, they’re about as safe as you can get. As you note, even with the N.C. Capital Management Trust, that’s held at Wachovia Bank, and Wachovia is one of those that’s rumored to be on the verge of sinking. From what I can tell, if Wachovia ever does go under, there are other problems we’ll all be facing other than just that. So the funds have been as safe as what you can get.”
A certificate of deposit used for some of the funds was backed by the U.S. Treasury, Denton said, but the funds were not collateralized as required by statutes.
Denton said he had been pursuing the highest interest rates for the $3.5 million.
“As finance director and the person that manages these funds, I would never have done anything to jeopardize them,” he said.
The money was invested in Wachovia Securities not Wachovia Bank, Knotts said and asked why the town went with the financial institution.
Denton said that he had called Wachovia in Charlotte, and officials there had put him in touch with Robert Melton of Asheville, who Denton said is his brother-in-law as well as an investment analyst and securities broker.
Mayor Brenda Oliver said that there was no conflict of interest, and Denton agreed.
“It doesn’t seem like Wachovia Securities has experience dealing with public money,” Knotts said. “It seems like the accounts they recommended are not legal for us to be in and the way the money and the interest flows through their system are all in accounts that we’re not allowed to be in.”
Denton reiterated that once the mistakes were found, immediate steps were taken to correct them.
“Mistakes that I made recently – the cost over run on the bridge and then the unallowable accounts on the investments – I think those gave them reason to terminate me,” Denton said Friday.
After sitting out of the closed session for the better part of an hour, Denton was called in.
Board members offered him a severance package if he resigned, but he refused to do so, he said.
“For me to resign would be admitting that I did something wrong,” he said “What I did was make a mistake. To admit to doing something wrong meant that I had intent. I had no intent making those mistakes. Of the thousands of laws I have to deal with, every now and then I’ll be on the wrong side of one.”
In a Monday telephone interview, Lewis indicated that the unallowable accounts could have been what triggered Denton’s dismissal.
“I wasn’t for (firing Denton,)” Lewis said. “I think he’s been beneficial to the town, and he’s given us a balanced budget and made money for the town. We have money in the fund balance that wasn’t there before,” Lewis said.
Within the closed session, there were attempts made to defend Denton, Lewis said.
“There weren’t any criminal actions, (Denton) didn’t do anything criminal,” he said. “It was some violations and they seemed to think he had enough violations against him to let him go. I didn’t think that. I couldn’t see firing someone over a mistake really and when he found out about the mistake he corrected it.”
Sylva will now be taking a step back, Lewis said.
“I think right now, the town will be backing up a little bit,” he said. “We’ll just have to start again. (Denton) was working on a lot of things for the town and as fast as he was working on them, of course he could make mistakes. I look for (the town) to come to a standstill for a short time.
Hensley echoed those sentiments.
“I voted (against the firing) because I don’t have a problem with him,” Hensley said. “He’s the best manager the town has ever had and will be a hard man to replace.”
When questioned about the firing, Mayor Brenda Oliver said that she did not want to comment on the matter. Graham, Knotts and Moody also declined to comment, citing the fact that it pertained to personnel issues.
“We don’t discuss personnel matters in public session,” Moody said. “So as far as the dismissal, it stands on its own. In those type jobs you serve at the will of the board.”
Graham said that she did not want to discuss personnel issues but that she felt like she made her vote “in good conscience.”
Knotts wouldn’t comment but said her decision was based on discussions in the closed session.
Denton had submitted his resignation to the board in January, prepared to accept the Economic Development Commission’s director position, and board members unanimously accepted his resignation.
However, Denton wasn’t hired for the EDC job after “miscommunications” stalled negotiations.
Two weeks after they had approved his resignation, Denton approached town officials asking them to rescind the motion that approved his resignation, and board members unanimously did so.
“Whenever I resigned and had to ask for my position back, there was hesitancy on my part,” he said a day after last week’s town board decision to fire him.
Sylva board members tapped Denton to be their manager on Aug. 18, 2005. He was Jackson County’s commissioners’ chairman from 1998-2002 and served as full-time county manager for most of his term.
Denton, who grew up in the Addie area, attended Scotts Creek Elementary before graduating from Sylva-Webster High School in 1974. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Western Carolina University four years later. He also received a master’s degree in public administration from WCU.
A biology teacher at Smoky Mountain High School when he was elected commissioners’ chairman, Denton worked in the Center for Regional Development at Western Carolina University before serving as Sylva’s manager.
Despite the recent happenings, Denton said he is optimistic and will use his experience to move forward.
Among his biggest accomplishments while working for the town include securing $3.5 million for the Pinnacle Park conservation easement, seeing the pedestrian bridge across Scotts Creek nearly to completion he said and providing the board with three balanced budgets, he said.
That conservation easement will permanently protect 1,088-acre Pinnacle Park.
The park, which comprises the town’s former watershed, was one of the largest unprotected properties remaining in the Plott Balsams; Sylva officials in November 2007 finalized a contract that preserves the property in its natural state.
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