Emily Patrick

epatrick@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE - Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene says her government is like family, but if that's true, it's a family that squabbles.

The family scrapbook for the past year alone includes a failed economic development deal that could have brought more than 200 jobs, a commissioner’s abrupt resignation, a rare 4-3 vote on the annual county budget and disagreement about a compensation boost for Greene valued at $34,000.

These events were public, but behind them lurk private grievances and political discord between commissioners, Greene and other county staffers, according to interviews, county documents and statements in public meetings.

Greene, the county's most powerful employee, answers to the Board of Commissioners, but the commissioners answer only to each other — and voters. A Citizen-Times investigation into accusations commissioners made against each other regarding the pay raise reveals a board that's cautious in managing itself, possibly to the detriment of staff.

“It would never have come up if (the Citizen-Times) hadn’t brought it up. It’s kind of like a family. You just kind of keep your secrets to yourself,” Greene said. “It’s a difficult time. It’s a really difficult time with it being an election.”

A recent dispute involved how much time commissioners spend with staff. Democratic Commissioner Ellen Frost told the Citizen-Times in August that Republican Commissioner Mike Fryar was taking up too much staff time, and his behavior necessitated the raise. That pay increase came in the form of 300 hours of compensatory time that could be exchanged for $34,000 cash at the end of her employment.

But commissioners had years to resolve internal problems, including the accusations against Fryar, which include interrupting an arrest, stopping work on a building project and hiring a contractor to evaluate public property.

Instead, the board opted to compensate staff for the extra time. Greene and Kathy Hughes, clerk to the commissioners, who also received the compensatory time, were already some of the state's highest paid county officials.

“Looking back on it, I think maybe some conversations with attorney, Mike, manager, maybe would have been appropriate," said David Gantt, chair of the Board of Commissioners. "My style is just to kind of privately say, ‘Hey, there’s some concerns about this. Probably wasn’t the best move. You might want to go back and apologize.’”

Greene returned the 300 hours of compensatory time in September, and in an email to commissioners said, "I am sorry I caused a distraction."

But the situation was not entirely of Greene's making. Several commissioners contributed to the tensions that resulted in the raise.

Counting the hours

The Board of Commissioners did not ask to see records of the extra hours Greene worked to justify the compensatory time, according to Gantt.

Greene said she doesn't keep records of time spent with each commissioner, and as an administrative employee, she's salaried and not eligible for overtime pay. The compensatory time was a one-time bonus.

But she did record a general summary of extra time and gave the Citizen-Times the log going back to 2009. During that time, she recorded an average of 500 extra hours a year — or about 10 hours per week.

In addition, the Citizen-Times examined records from Greene's mobile and office phones. These records show Fryar's phone time was average among the seven commissioners, but Frost spent more time on the phone with Greene than all other commissioners combined and doubled.

Frost spoke with Greene by phone 857 times during the 536-day period. Frost and Greene said they are close personal friends.

Greene said Frost gets the same information other commissioners get.

"Ellen uses the phone more and directs her questions about anything in the county through me as the manager," she said. "Mike spends more time dropping by our county offices unannounced, asking questions, pursuing his topics, and generally chatting about things on his mind."

To provide insight into the time she said Fryar consumes, Greene saved emails, text messages and a human resources investigation into a heated confrontation. She gave these records to the Citizen-Times when asked to verify the number of hours she spent with Fryar.

The missteps of Mike Fryar

Regardless of a commissioner's politics or philosophy, it's Greene's job to get them the information they need to guide policy making. But some commissioners make her job harder than others, she said.

Commissioners and staff knew Fryar before he ran for office. For years, he attended board meetings and grilled officials on spending and salaries.

In 2012, after the state legislature moved to create districts for Buncombe County elections, Fryar, a Fairview resident, ran as a Republican and narrowly won a seat representing District 2, which covers east Buncombe.

From his early days in office, he acted differently from other commissioners, coming into staff offices and talking for hours, Greene said.

“No one else has ever caused this kind of time requirement," she said. “We in a lot of ways have kind of just grown used to — he’ll just show up and stay all day.”

Greene said Fryar is part of a larger pattern of difficulty involving the commissioners.

“This has been a challenging last couple of years," she said. "Not to say it’s right or wrong. It’s just, philosophies are different."

Commissioners are allowed to question staff, but they are prohibited from interfering with staff workflow.

The board's Code of Ethics reads: "County Commissioners should clearly distinguish legislative, adjudicatory and administrative responsibilities and should refrain from inappropriate interference in the impartial administration of county affairs by county employees."

It also says commissioners "should dispose promptly of the business of Buncombe County."

Gantt said staff contacted him about Fryar's time-consuming habits in 2013. Gantt said he's addressed staff concerns with Fryar, but he doesn't think Fryar has changed.

“Mike had a right to get information, but what I was hearing was that it was hours, not minutes. Not a question about policy, it was about a lot of stuff," he said. “As a group, we talked about it. I don’t remember specific conversations with Mike. I think there’s a balance there that you have to reach, which is the information versus staff has to do their job … I was always hopeful that there would be some middle ground, that they could do things (by email).”

Fryar said he did not consume inappropriate amounts of staff time, and he said he doesn't tell county employees what to do.

"How do I learn anything about becoming a commissioner if I don't talk to them?" he said. "Why do they want to take me out using this newspaper?"

The file on Fryar that Greene gave to the Citizen-Times documents a confrontation between the two that took place in her office on Aug. 28, 2015. Greene supplied a copy of an investigation into the incident compiled by Curt Euler, director of Human Resources.

She and Fryar were arguing in her office, Greene said, and Fryar nearly hit her in the face with a phone.

"When he came around (my desk), he just slammed the phone," she said. "He missed hitting me by this much. He was angry, so I knew I had to be very careful in getting him back around to the other side of the table.”

Fryar said in a statement he "recall(s) the events from August of last year differently."

"I would like to apologize to Ms. Greene and anyone else I may have offended," he wrote. "I’m an old country boy at heart and care about the people. I hope we can move on from this so I can continue to fight for the hardworking people of Buncombe County."

Greene's file says Euler interviewed six county staffers as part of the investigation. Two of them said they heard Fryar and Greene yelling around the time of the incident. Four said Fryar spends too much time in their offices, and two of those described him as threatening or angry. Two said Fryar had never acted inappropriately toward them.

Greene's file also documents the following incidents. These records illustrate the time-consuming tangles Fryar creates within county government, she said. Fryar verified the situations but said none of them were improper.

In 2013, Fryar interrupted an Animal Control officer who was investigating a traffic violation, wondering if the "dog catcher" was authorized to write tickets. Sheriff Van Duncan said he later told Fryar that Animal Control officers are deputized. "What he was doing was definitely kind of delaying the officer in his duty, but at the same time, when he was asked to stop that, he did," Duncan said. Fryar was never charged, nor would most people have been, he said.

On Sept. 16, 2015, Fryar visited the Asheville Middle School construction site and asked workers to stop digging near a property line. He said he was trying to reduce dust blowing onto a neighboring property, which belonged to a friend. Greene said Fryar did not have the authority to stop work and staff spent hours following up on what happened. Greene said Fryar stopped work four times. Fryar said he interfered once.

Determined to build a shooting range atop the former Buncombe County Landfill, Fryar sent a contractor to evaluate the site without the approval of the other commissioners or county staff. Fryar said the contractor had agreed to provide the service at no cost. Greene said Fryar didn't have the authority to send someone to county property. Greene asked Gantt to address the issue with Fryar in September 2015, but discussions about it continued until June 2016, when the board voted against it.

Gantt said the board doesn't have the power to expel members. However, it can publicly censure them if they violate the Code of Ethics, which requires commissioners to make policy through "proper channels" and follow the laws of the county, among other things.

A public censure has never happened in the 20 years Gantt has served on the board, although he considered it once.

"We had one commissioner that actually called someone a son of a (expletive) in public," he said. "I said, 'You need to publicly apologize,' and he did, and I felt that was good enough."

He said censure could fracture the board, making it more difficult for them to reach consensus.

“Because you want to work together, you let a lot of things go that maybe otherwise you would think were very important," he said.

Not all the commissioners perceived Fryar's behavior as problematic, and it's unclear how much they knew about it.

Republican Commissioner Joe Belcher said decorum is important, but he didn't want to get involved in the discussion of Fryar's relationship with Greene.

"My position is I work very well with all of them," he said. "I think commissioners work and put in different hours based on their ability to do so, and I'm certainly in front of staff a reasonable amount. I think that staff is going to be interacting with commissioners at different levels, and I think that's fine."

Democratic Commissioner Brownie Newman said he had heard about some situations, but not in detail.

"It's important that people respect the role of the county manager in directing the county staff, so if people want to spend time talking to Dr. Greene or meeting with her, her job is to work with the county commission," he said. "The county commissioners do not have the legal authority to direct anybody in that organization other than the county manager and the county clerk and the county attorney, so that's a protocol I feel like it's important for us to be respectful of."

Newman said he's not worried about Fryar's conduct.

Frost disagrees. She said Fryar could be unfit for his position.

"It’s almost a question of not knowing where the lines are and not knowing what the role of a commissioner is," she said.

Moving ahead

Change is coming for the Board of Commissioners. Three members — Gantt, Holly Jones and Tim Moffitt, temporarily appointed to replace Miranda DeBruhl — are stepping down. Fryar and Belcher are up for reelection.

DeBruhl abruptly resigned in May to pursue an out-of-state business opportunity, she said. She had faced accusations of being overly involved in efforts to land Deschutes Brewery, which would have brought 236 jobs.

The company instead announced plans to build in Roanoke, Virginia.

Frost said the Board of Commissioners is plagued by party politics. She said the Buncombe County Republican Party seeks to control the Republican board members.

“The division on the commission is up to individuals to be the voice of themselves, not be the voice of other people," she said. “And I think it’s very, very unfortunate to have an outside party dictate what we do on the commission.”

Belcher declined to respond directly to Greene’s comment but said he serves on the commission to represent his constituents in District 3, the western part of Buncombe County.

"How do we best meet the need? That in itself is not partisan," he said. "I'm a Republican to file for election and to vote. I'm a commissioner to make sure I represent all constituents, and it's very doable."

Belcher said he thinks the board could improve if members communicate more and have more access to information. He said there should "not be any surprises."

Increased communication could also ease relationships with staff.

According to guidelines from the International City/County Management Association, the board is responsible for resolving tensions between staff and commissioners, such as the ones between Fryar and Greene.

Martha Perego, ethics director for the association, released a 2010 case study that mirrors the Fryar firing range scenario. If a manager's "low-key, one-on-one approach" cannot resolve the situation, the board should get involved, it says.

The county is a member of the association, and its officials must adhere to its code of ethics. If the commissioners are unable to police violations internally, they can submit their case to the association's ethics board.

"The manager can’t be expected to correct inappropriate upstream conduct," Perego wrote. "Governing body members must police the conduct of their peers and weigh in when it crosses boundaries."

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