DATA manager allegations draw scrutiny on Cole-McFadden

The Herald-Sun broke an eyebrow-raising account yesterday of the arbitration ruling against MV Transportation, the outsourced operator of the DATA city bus service, in finding that MV fired former DATA manager Tom Hartley both as retaliation for alerting city officials to environmental violations, and -- in what's attracting much more attention -- as a result of "racial discrimination."

That latter discrimination, according to the arbitrator, began after Mayor pro tem Cora Cole-McFadden supposedly told MV executives during a summer 2005 community event that diversity was important to see in city services. According to the N&O's and H-S's reporting:

Cole-McFadden said that MV "needed some diversity in [its] management ranks" and that "we are proud of diversity in Durham, and we just can't have that [an all white management team]," according to Harkavy's ruling....

Shortly after Cole-McFadden's remarks, Harkavy wrote, Russell Tieskotter, an MV vice president, told Tom Irvin, then the assistant manager of DATA, "we need a black manager here."

...

The company fired Hartley that fall and replaced him with a black woman, Yolanda White.

Harkavy said White "did not meet MV's own published qualifications for the job of general manager," as she lacked a college degree and experience managing a contract like Durham's.

The company also failed to discipline her for DATA performance problems [14 days of non-full fleet operations, vs. 1 under Hartley] worse than any during Hartley's tenure, undercutting its claim that it fired Hartley over his job performance, the arbitrator said.

Both the H-S and N&O articles are worth reading. The comments on the Herald-Sun story, sad to say, hew to the racially-tinged banter that comes up so frequently whenever a story like this one breaks.

They also overshadow the other allegations that have come up in this discussion -- such as those that that MV executives groused over the cost of cleaning up an environmental runoff issue, the reporting of which to the city (as required by Durham's contract with MV) was found by the arbitrator to be a contributing factor to the wrongful termination.

(Not mentioned in any of the recent coverage has been the complaints of City staff just before Hartley's last day worked on Sept. 29, 2005; on the 23rd, city staff went to MV Transportation with a list of 19 different complaints requiring addressing. The Herald-Sun's coverage at that time noted that city officials hedged on whether MV's termination of Hartley might have been in response to these complaints.)

The City Council voted last June -- just 11 days before the contract's expiration -- to renew its deal with MV, despite the company coming in second out of five bidders among the City administration's evaluation of qualifications, according to a June 8, 2007 H-S article. Deputy city manager Ted Voorhees and staff suggested continuing with MV to ensure continuity of service and noted they had adjusted the contract to reduce incentives to cut such corners.

Still, the question of race pops up at the front of the pack... an unsurprising item to draw media focus, given Durham's unusual population demographics and given the Bull City's racially-balanced political power.

The City's long-time practice on diversity has been, from what we understand, unchanged: as the N&O notes in today's story, HR director Alethea Bell noted "the city will give preferences to minorities and women if their qualifications are equal to those of nonminority applicants."

Or as Bill Bell put it for the same article:

"You try to be reflective of the community you serve, but hoping to have that and actually achieving that are two different things," Bell said. "There's never been a case where we say, 'You have to have a certain number of males or females or black or Hispanic or white employees.' "

To this observer's mind, there's little objectionable about professing the need for diversity in the workplace, or about seeking to have an employee base that reflects what Durham itself looks like. (A UNC faculty member quoted in the N&O's coverage noted that such activities meet a "laudable goal," but that the legal support for Durham's hiring process remained "unsettled" in the courts.)

Yet the allegations in this case go beyond the wish for diversity, as the arbitrator's ruling finds that MV Transportation terminated a competent employee to replace him with an individual who would match a certain racial profile.

Which is what makes this quite newsworthy indeed, naturally.

Notably, there's nothing in the media reports to suggest that any City official demanded the removal of Hartley; he was an employee of MV Transportation, which had the sole power to hire and fire its management team.

Still, look for the attention surrounding Cora Cole-McFadden's reported comment to deepen around this issue. What role does a suggestion like the one alleged to have occurred in summer 2005 have? Is it an offhand remark wishing to see more diversity in the future?

Does MV Transportation, well-aware that their contract would come up for re-bid, read more into the suggestion than they ought? Or ought they have read so much into it all along?

According to the arbitrator's findings, MV officials may have been concerned about losing their two most profitable contract years -- the back-end years to the deal -- and may have been influenced as such by Cole-McFadden's alleged statement.

Of course, the statements attributed to Cole-McFadden in this event aren't words that the Mayor pro tem has admitted to making.

From an August 2006 H-S story:

[Hartley] claims that two key officials, City Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden and DATA Board of Trustees member Rita Gregory, had opposed his hiring because of his skin color.

Gregory pressed the matter last fall by floating a false allegation that DATA had denied sick leave to a driver who'd been involved in a September accident, the suit claimed. Cole-McFadden, meanwhile, supposedly told Mayor Bill Bell that "we just need a black general manager."

Parallel calls ensued for a city investigation of MV's management, an idea the suit claims Hartley welcomed.

But MV officials were afraid of what a probe would find, and headed it off by dismissing Hartley and replacing him with a black woman, Yolanda White. Cole-McFadden and Gregory responded by dropping their demands for an investigation, the suit claims.

Asked for their reaction, Bell and Cole-McFadden both denied that the councilwoman had said what the suit alleges.

"I have not said anything like that, to the mayor or anyone else," Cole-McFadden said. "I am really surprised. I am surprised to hear that. I'm surprised that someone would make up that kind of ... I don't know what to call it. It is untrue, and I am sorry he has stooped to this level. I am not going to go there with him."

Bell said he's "not aware of any pressure to hire someone black" to run DATA.

Asked specifically about Cole-McFadden's alleged comment, he said, "I don't remember Cora ever telling me that."

In the most recent round, Cole-McFadden hasn't returned calls from the Herald-Sun or the N&O.

If there's any real damage to come politically out of this event, it'll be next year, when Cole-McFadden stands for re-election to City Council -- or, as is often rumored, runs for mayor in place of the expected-to-retire Bill Bell.

If that's the case, she mght not expect these questions to stop anytime soon.

Comments

[Adam]

Isn't this the same Cora Cole-McFadden who pushed for the dismissal of a Weed and Seed Employee due to racial and personal bias? The City Council should consider asking the internal auditor to examine the MV case and Council and the DATA board's involvement. AS Kevin points out, while McFadden's behavior is deplorable and predictable there are other issue that seem to go without question. Can the City Council censure one of their members? They can always remove DATA board members or staff if the auditor finds something amiss. Does anyone on Council have the spine to put this forward?

[CocoNut]

Cora Cole-McFadden is RIGHT -- we shouldn't have an all-white management team for any city agency, especially in a town like Durham where the population is so diversified.

The people who are wrong are all the people who participated in hiring the replacement and apparently took the first black woman they could find, regardless of qualifications --that's not diversity hiring. That's window dressing. Finding solid and well-qualified minority candidates takes longer because there is a much smaller pool of applicants and people should be prepared to work harder to find someone who fits the bill. You don't just put the first token person in there. if you can't find someone qualified, you keep looking.

But I doubt Cora Cole-McFadden singlehandedly went out and hired Yolanda White.

I also know that Hartley was not fired because he was a white male.

Why do people keep letting lawyers cull out the facts for them and tell them what the truth is around here? You'd think people would be smart enough to know that lawyers who use the media to affect the outcome of their cases are the least reliable sources of information.

[CocoNut]

P.S.:I've now read this article three times and nowhere do I see anything to support this statement:

"AS Kevin points out, while McFadden's behavior is deplorable and predictable"

If Kevin was trying to depict McFadden's comments as "deplorable and predictable"... he did a poor job of it. It seems to present both sides of the issue very fairly and imply nothing more to me.

[TarHeelz]

Good point. I think it was the independent, third-party arbitrator, agreed upon by the parties, who determined that the actions of our bus contractor and our local race-baiting councilwoman were what was "deplorable and predictable."

[Adam]

Good Catch CocoNut. I did not mean to say that Kevin was painting McFadden's actions as deplorable and predictable. That was my editorial and I stand by it. I meant to suggest Kevin pointed out there are larger issues in this case than the racial motives surrounding the firing and hiring of these employees. These issues don;t get any further attention or questioning. These larger issues in addition to actions taken by Council and DATA Board should be reviewed by the City's Internal Auditor.

[Larry]

Adam wrote:

Can the City Council censure one of their members? They can always remove DATA board members or staff if the auditor finds something amiss. Does anyone on Council have the spine to put this forward?

They can do more than censure. See below. But they won't.

From the city's code of ordinances:

(2) The city council by a vote of four (4) of its members, in meeting assembled, shall have power to remove from office the mayor or any council member for misfeasance, malfeasance, corruption, neglect of duty or other misconduct in office, but the person to be proceeded against shall have at least ten (10) days' notice in writing of the motion to remove him, accompanied by a copy of the charges alleged as the grounds for his proposed removal. He shall have the right to be heard in person or by counsel in his defense. In case of the removal of the mayor, or any council member, the vacancy shall be filled by the city council or the remaining members thereof.

[Mike]

I agree with CocoNut and I also wonder if White was hired over someone who was qualified? If she was, I certainly would have a problem with that. I really like the diversity of Durham and I agree this should be reflected in our local government, but please make sure they are qualified.

[jeff]

How does Kevin know Hartley was not fired because he was a white male? I understand MV had nearly 10 days in front of the arbitrator to put forth evidence to the contrary, and evidently they couldn't. MV should have had Kevin on the stand to present his "knowledge" of the events.

[jeff]

sorry, I meant Adam. How does Adam know Hartley was not fired because he was a white male?

[jeff]

Sorry again----I meant CocoNut. How does CocoNut know Hartley was not fired because he was a white male? CocoNut, your knowledge of what MV was thinkning could have helped them.