Changes sought in county leadership

The mismanagement of Goochland County's utilities department has prompted two supervisors to try to oust the county administrator and another to suggest adopting a county-manager system of government.

Supervisors Ned S. Creasey and Malvern R. "Rudy" Butler tried to remove County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey from his job at a meeting Jan. 13 before a crowd of about 100 frustrated county residents.

The motion was voted down 3-2, but Creasey and Butler indicated they expect the issue to resurface.

Wolfrey, who has been county administrator for 23 years and is eligible to retire in April, declined to comment. He had previously announced plans to retire this year and said he may do so at any point between April and October.

"It's just time to retire," he said.

The utilities director and another employee were dismissed after nearly $160,000 worth of undeposited checks for connection fees were found in the office during an audit last year.

An ongoing investigation uncovered an additional $33,000 in checks this month, bringing the total to nearly $200,000.

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Creasey made the motion to dismiss Wolfrey but found support only from Butler. "The warning signs were there," Creasey said, referencing documentation dating to 2004 showing that checks were not being deposited.

"The problems didn't get solved, and we've got a real mess now. I can't imagine any logical excuse for this to be the way it is except for gross mismanagement. I'm just mind-boggled."

"I laid my cards on the table," Creasey said. "But it's up to the other three members. One of them will have to come around."

Supervisor James W. Eads says he agrees it's time for a change in leadership but voted against Wolfrey's dismissal.

"At the end of the day, this was a complete administrative failure," he said. "But to make a decision about a person's employment in a public meeting is inappropriate for many reasons. It's unfair to the person, it's unfair to the privacy issue, and it's an inappropriate way for Goochland County to conduct its business."

Still, Eads suggested that sweeping changes to the government may be needed, proposing the county should first hire an accountant to manage the county's financial department.

"I think the complexity of government in Goochland today requires that we have a financial officer divorced from the chief administrator," he said, suggesting the county should explore moving to a county-manager system such as Henrico County's, where the treasurer and the commissioner of the revenue work under a manager.

The attempt to fire Wolfrey came after a closed-session repeal of recently adopted changes, drafted by the administration, that limited communication among county employees, supervisors and administrators.

"I think what brought that on maybe was that they didn't want anybody talking to us from the county to find out any information," Butler said. "That's the feeling I got, and that's the feeling the public got."

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County resident and government watchdog Ann James says the utility debacle is just the tip of the iceberg.

She hopes it will be the catalyst for reform in a government that has for years functioned as an "old boys network," she said.

"The roles had been reversed. The county administrator was running the county and not the supervisors," James said. "People knew about these things, they just didn't know where to start. Nobody wanted to touch it. The feeling for a long time has been that they're going do what they want to do, so why bother?"

Ann Rockecharlie, another mainstay at government meetings, agrees.

"There's not a lot of sunshine out here, and there needs to be," she said. "This time, we're not going to stop."

Meanwhile, the county is dealing with unhappy customers who have received years' worth of bills.

Each year since 2004 the county treasurer's office informed the utilities department and county administration that utilities checks were not being deposited, said Goochland treasurer Brenda Grubbs. She said the practice of not depositing the checks had started before that.

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"People are upset," Butler said. "You've got money missing, checks missing, county employees scared to say anything. We've just got to get it behind us and get on with the show. But we've got to be accountable. We'll account for every penny."

The supervisors have decided to turn the matter over to the county's commonwealth's attorney, who will contract an accounting firm to perform an external audit. Goochland prosecutor Claiborne H. Stokes said he will meet with supervisors and county officials behind closed doors on Wednesday to determine the scope of the audit.

"If there's a criminal aspect to this, I'll have to investigate it," he said.

Don Charles, the county's community development director who has been overseeing utilities since last month, said things would be sorted out but maybe not quickly.

"We'll fix it," he said. "It will take some time, but we'll fix it."

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .