It is truly amazing how media outlets ignore the ongoing corruption at the North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics (NCSSM) where in the recent years only blacks have been fired.

Talking about being unethical and stinking fish - I am sure the corruption that goes on at NCSSM smells far worse than stinking fish –imagine smelling sewer contents that have been exposed during recent heat indexes.

I encourage Henson and staff of this outlet to investigate the ongoing corruption at NCSSM and report their findings based upon facts. I am sure an investigation of this matter will never happen.

Additionally, it is beyond my understanding why Commissioner Page did not inform Henson that Ms. Robinson forced three white female managers out of their positions during her tenure at DSS.

Commissioner Page should have remained neutral in this matter and not allowed his personal feelings against Commissioner Bowser cause him to make statements of opinions not facts, which certainly is unbecoming of a minister.

Unfortunately, Commissioner Page has reduced himself to spreading and endorsing rumors although he claims he is a Christian. He of all people should know the power of the “tongue” and how the word of God tells us to chasten it. In addition, he should also know that God wants us to spread brotherly love not rumors and hate.

It saddens me that Commissioner Page and Kennedy are not interested in the truth although both claim to be Christians. Thus, it is not an anomaly why the world is in such turmoil. I am sure neither of them consulted with God regarding their input in matter. I am hopeful in my lifetime blacks will stop being used to destroy blacks.

Certainly, there are rumors regarding both Commissioner Page’s and Kennedy’s preferences, but they are just rumors. Aren’t they?

139,000 !! ?

Cutting that in half would solve a lot of problems.

Shenanigans like this happen all the time, especially here in Durham. Civitas could give a damn about any of it -- unless it happens to support their completely racist belief that social services of any kind are nothing but a front to overpay black professionals and suck the public coffers dry to give blacks money they don't deserve. I cannot believe you played into their hands by giving them credence at all -- the fact that they are uncovering real problems here does not make them a legitimate news source and we would all be better off if we ignored them until they just started being upfront about their agenda and stopped masquerading as do-gooders. They're just desperately in search of the next ACORN and can't wait to find it. They're hacks and should be treated as such.Their goal is ultimately to disable all public services and the public schools. They are going to bring this state down if people don't start paying attention to their agenda and the danger they pose. Again -- the corruption they are exposing is real. But Civitas is far worse than anything they are pointing a finger at. They're trying to buy control of our democracy and use their ability to buy media coverage and elections to ram their extremist rightwing agenda down all of our throats. Don't be distracted by cherry-picking of "corruption." I'm not seeing them looking into the dozens of conflicts of interest between their donors and legislation coming straight out of our General Assembly this year that is anything but in the public interest.

While I agree with the other comments about the political agenda of Civitas, they are on the money about exposing this transparent unethical dirty deed by the DSS Board and the Durham County Commissioners.

Thanks to the N&O for having the fortitude (i.e. balls) to expose these highly questionable actions of elected and appointed officials (see the article in today's N&O: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/27/1439559/dss-ouster-sparks-fight-among.html).

The more you sniff, the worse this smells. You may find some more people who are no longer with DSS had a hand in this. The N&O named at least one today.

I take my hat off to Michael Page for coming forward. I remember Becky Heron's explicit disdain for DSS and former employees Dan Hudgins and Gail Perry. At the time of Gail Perry’s departure from DSS, Heron was very vocal about Gail Perry's alleged mismanagement of funds. She's pretty quiet about this whole mess now, even though she was still on the BOCC in July and was involved in this current matter as one of her last official actions as a Commissioner. This happened in July and she was still on BOCC when she voted in June to appoint Perry to the DSS Board. Reckhow is also implicated, and she too has been mighty silent. It seems that the county attorney and county manager might also be involved in this? Did they know this was going to take place? Did Bowser seek and follow advice about HR policies and procedures? Did the attorney and manager approve of Bowser’s actions, or did Bowser shoot from the hip and take this action solo without seeking the advice of the county attorney?

I hope reporters from the Independent and the Herald-Sun join the N&O in investigating these serious matters. In my opinion, it warrants a much deeper look and perhaps a fuller investigation by the NC attorney general's office or the governor's office. What kind of example is this setting when taxpayers support DSS to help Durham’s vulnerable citizens and instead we get personality conflicts, personal agendas and ethically and legally questionable actions? All of this appears to be orchestrated by an elected official that local papers reported a few weeks ago was tying up the time of our mayor and police to investigate his accusations that his neighbor was firing something like mustard gas through his home air conditioner?

Finally @Lois: You suggested this was racial because three white women left DSS. Let's not play the race card here: one was Asian, one was white, and one was Latina. I agree with Anon above that this has more to do with Bowser's questionable ethics and what appears to be personal agendas and vendettas than with any racial or religious issues or "preferences" you allude to.

Anon, While I respect your opinions and you did make some good points, I would like to point out some facts as I see them. While I don't personally know Mr. Bowser I do know it is the duty of an elected official to serve the people. My understanding of this matter is that there has been numerous complaints from the public and DSS staff about Ms. Robinsons' leadership, and these complaints where brought to the attention of other Commissioners not just Mr. Bowser alone. As a tax payer and voter myself when I have a problem with state and local government I contact my representative if I can't get resolve at the lower level and expect the people I elected to get involved. And the history you refer to concerning the firing of County Manager Mike Ruffin I think it took 3 commissioners votes to terminate his employment not just Mr. Bowser's vote.

Anon, Unfortunately because you nor I are elected officials I think ,your perception that Mr. Bowser was the ringleader in the debacle may be a little off the mark. Again I remember at the time of the termination former county commissioners Mary Jacob and Rev. Phil Cousin were the other members who voted to fire Mr. Ruffin and I don't believe they would have gone along with as you call it a maneuver without accessing all the facts in the matter. If this was the case as you see it then I guest you believe the other well educated members who voted with Mr. Bowser couldn't think for themselves. Even if Mr. Bowser desire was revenge do you honestly believe two other intelligent adults would have gone along with that? If there had not been a plan to rehire Mr. Ruffin after the election of Mr. Lewis Cheek when there would be a white majority from what I read and he had remained terminated he would not have had as you referenced an extended vacation at the taxpayers expense. Which of the remaining two commissioner was the ringleader in the plot to bring Mr. Ruffin back?

@PhD: I don't want to rehash the Ruffin business. I brought it up because the seeming irregularities of how that was handled are very similar to those in the Robinson case and because Bowser was central to both. His penchant for politics of personality conflict and what appears to be backroom dealings leaves a sour taste in my mouth. But it is really this most recent situation with DSS that concerns me now.

As I said, I don't know Robinson and wouldn't recognize her if I passed her on the street. If there were complaints made privately to elected or appointed officials, I would have no way of knowing. I don't recall hearing any public complaints. According to Michael Page her performance reviews had been high. I can believe there were some dissatisfied employees and some changes at higher program management levels. There generally are when leadership in an organization changes. These changes can make it difficult to decide where the line is between setting a new direction and divisive leadership.

My point is that the way in which this decision seems to have been made is highly irregular. As I’ve gathered from the reports here, at Civitas, and in the N&O, there were behind the scenes conversations among BOCC members and the county manager about “changes” regarding Robinson. There were also conversations among some DSS board members and conversations among some members of the BOCC about both whether Gail Perry should be appointed to the DSS board and whether she should be appointed acting director to replace Robinson. According to reports, Joe Bowser was involved in all of these conversations on both Boards. There were also conversations with Perry about whether she would consider an acting director appointment. Again, Bowser admits to these conversations. If it walks like a duck . . . .

As significantly, I am simply flabbergasted that Gail Perry would come to her first DSS Board meeting, vote to fire the DSS director, and—at the same meeting—be appointed and accept the appointment as interim director to replace the person SHE HAD JUST VOTED TO FIRE!!!!!! At $10,000 more/year than the fired director had been making. This is—at the very least—an enormous conflict of interest for Perry. That such a thing was allowed to happen at the very least calls into question the ethical judgment of Bowser and Stan Holt, the two DSS board members who supported this process.

Anon, You already rehashed Ruffin business in your 7:15 posting where you made comparisons about this issue and the Ruffin issue. I think your reference to backroom dealings and politics of personality conflict can be found in one form or another in all of Durhams elected bodies. I remember Councilman Brown and former Councilman John Best started there political career off by plotting to fire then city manager Marcia Conner's before they were ever elected. Just recently the city of Durham Human Relations Director was terminated and its been said that several council member behind the scene had pushed for the city manager to fire her. Look how our Republican state leaders backdoor dealed to overturn the Govenors' vetos and I'm not even going to talk about the Washington debt ceiling debacle, my point is while most of us only know what we read on this matter through our local media outlets we should not be so quick to make negative statements about persons or processes that we don't have full knowledge of. I find it strange that with all the negative things being said about Mr. Bowser through the different media outlet about his perceived backdoor dealing he was the top vote getter in the 2008 county Commissioners race. I guest people have short memories.

Today, the Herald Sun finally decided to get involved with the DSS story. They should ask Robinson was fired just shy of her 2-year anniversary. Why wait so long to take any action if her performance was such a problem? It seems that the decision to fire Robinson came about quickly and with little formal discussion or review of her performance by the BOCC.
According to Michael Page, Robinson had good evaluations and on paper was meeting performance goals. If this is true, why was she fired? Doesn’t the DSS Board meet with her monthly? Isn’t the reason there’s a BOCC representative on the DSS Board to keep the BOCC informed about DSS issues? If there were problems with Robinson’s performance, why weren’t all Commissioners made formally aware of it? Why does it seem their discussions of Robinson’s performance were outside formal meetings and reporting and evaluation processes? Did the DSS board or Commissioners speak clearly and directly with Robinson about complaints they were receiving about her “brazen and vicious style of management” (Joe Bowser, H-S, 8/28/2011)? Were these complaints investigated and evaluated? Were these complaints coming from people in leadership roles who reported directly to Robinson? Were they having difficulty adjusting to change? To new job expectations and demands? To a different style of supervision and standards of accountability? Had they received bad evaluations from Robinson? Had any of them been candidates for the DSS Director position when Robinson was hired? Could there be sour grapes or competition behind some of these complaints or behind Robinson’s so called bad behavior?
Did anyone ask Robinson to respond to the complaints and explain her side of the story? Did anyone ask Robinson why long-term employees were leaving or long term contracts were cancelled? Did the DSS Board ever get Robinson and the email senders in the same room to discuss or resolve the complaints? Was Robinson ever given a letter of reprimand or put on corrective action and given an action plan for improving her performance? Or did the DSS Board and BOCC move straight to firing?
Did the DSS Board ever reach out to DSS line staff for feedback on morale, DSS leadership or other issues related to Robinson’s performance? If not, how do they know how widespread the complaints were? Did they evaluate how much of what line staff heard about Robinson came directly from leadership staff’s opinion of her? Could it be that the same people complaining to the Board were contributing to staff discontent and low morale? Perhaps line staff were less than satisfied with some long-term employees in leadership positions and not so upset by Robinson’s style or some of the departures at issue here? Could it be that Robinson was listening to the people on the front lines who do the heavy lifting of service provision at DSS? This isn’t the first time morale has been bad at DSS—there have always been revolving doors in CPS, Medicaid, and food stamps long before Robinson. This may be the first time upper management has been given a hard look. Service work is hard work—heavy workloads, relatively low pay, and often, poor leadership and supervision. These are chronic issues—not specific to Robinson. Where has the board been up to now?

Kelly--I honestly don't know the answer to your question about why we have this strange structure. Until this came up, I would have said that the county manager appoints and fires the DSS director. The county website says the following:

"The County Manager serves as the chief administrator of the County. The Manager is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Board of Commissioners. The Manager supervises and coordinates the activities of the County departments for the Board, seeing that all orders and policies are carried out. The Manager also works to ensure that the policies and guidelines mandated by both federal and North Carolina state statutes are implemented. The Manager also recommends an annual budget. . ."

How can he "supervise and coordinate the activities" of a department when he cannot appoint or remove its director? About all he can do to influence a department is to reward them or punish them with his budget recommendations. But an ultimate decision on that is in the hands of the County Commission. This is a formula for truly Byzantine politics, and that's what we seem to have gotten in this case.

Now that I look more closely at the County website, I see that there is also a Public Health Board. Do they appoint the Public Health Director? I don't know. But at least the Public Health Board has posted minutes of their meetings. The DSS Board has nothing of the sort posted.

Part of the problem in Durham is that the same twelve to fifteen people seem to perpetually get elected to every office. Bill Bell was a county commissioner for years before he was elected mayor. Joe Bowser is now a county commissioner and is also running for mayor. Steve Schewel was on the Board of Education and is now running for city council. Becky Heron, until she stepped down this year, had been on the county commission since she got off Noah's Ark with Howard Clement, and Ellen Reckow has been a county commissioner nearly as long. I appreciate the dedication to public service these people have exemplified. (And their perennial challengers are worse: Freda Black, anyone? Victoria Peterson?) But it does seem that the county government in particular is overdue for someone to look at it with fresh eyes, and a willingness to change an unintelligible structure.

John,Your right part of the problem is these people in Durham stay in these elected roles so long they become complacent with the duties and believe they own the seat.No one needs to serve in an elected role since they got off Noah's Ark.While I respect there years of service to the citizens of Durham, it's time for new eyes and new vision.Maybe it's time for Durham voters to consider becoming a term limit municipal. And Kelly, this is the chain of command for Durham County DSS. There is a DSS board, two members are appointed by the Commissioners after an application process opens and close. The commission chairperson appoints a commissioner to serve as the liaison to the DSS board and the State has there appointees. The DSS Director is hired by the Board and then the Board present there choice to the County Commissioners. The commissioners liaison reports DSS activities to the remaining four board members that's why its hard for me to believe that the chair had no ideal what was going on with this county service. There has been no other reports from other Durham Co.commissioners that they had no knowledge of DSS problems. Strange.

The legal powers and duties of county social services boards are defined by state statute (by North Carolina’s General Assembly – not the County). See, G.S 108.

There are 5 members on the DSS Board. The Durham County Board of Social Service Board members are appointed as follows:
2 – Durham County (one seat is reserved for a county commissioner)
2 – NC State (state appointees)
1 – At-Large (selected by the 4 appointed members of the DSS Board)

Thanks to Newman for pointing us to the NC statute that dictates how this board is set up and what its responsibilities are. However he is not quite correct in stating that "one seat is reserved for a county commissioner." The statute actually says: "The board of commissioners shall appoint one member who may be a county commissioner. . ." This does not obligate the county commission to appoint a commissioner, and this case well illustrates the perils of doing so.

The statute also says: "The board of social services of every county shall appoint a director of social services in accordance with the merit system rules of the State Personnel Commission. Any director dismissed by such board shall have the right of appeal under the same rules."

"Merit system rules." That's a good one. If MIchael Page is correct about Ms. Robinson's performance evaluations, the Board will have a hard time sustaining their decision on appeal. I suspect the county will end up agreeing to a monetary settlement to make this whole mess go away.

Mr. Hyman, I think your statement on why Mr. Bowser did well in the 2008 election borders on being a little racist. To say that black voters only voted for Mr. Bowser because of the Durham committee endorsement is like saying the only reason white voters voted for Reckhow and Heron is because of the Peoples Alliance endorsement . I've been actively voting since the age of 18 and I've voted for black candidates as well as white candidates without the help of the Durham Committee, Friends of Durham, nor the Peoples Alliance. Are you saying that in the 2008 election people of color only voted for people of color because of Obama and the Committee? I think not. Unless you personally contacted every person that voted for Mr. Bowser in 2008 then your statement is incorrect. And one more thing did Rev. Page and Ms. Howerton also win because of black voters and the Durham Committee?

@Kelly & John Martin: Yes, a big purse for Robinson and a big salary for Perry. This board is amazing. In just a single DSS Board meeting, they can fire one director, hire an interim director and find an additional 10K to beef up the salary of the interim director--and she didn't even come in as an experienced director. Wow,you would think the county is rolling in money. And how many years did county employees go without a raise? Hardly seems fair.

One more question: Did Perry retire from DSS or resign? If she retired, has she been collecting a pension? Can you retire and receive a pension and a salary at the same time from the county/state?

I just want to know why THE REVEREND Michael Page isn't discussing how he has helped several people from his church get jobs in County Government. We should discuss this too.

Or we could talk about how he was bent over Rev. Height's desktop at Greater St. Paul, taking it in the rear until he sued the church after Height kicked his @ss for cheating on him with another gay preacher. But potential corruption is only relevant to the media when it relates to Joe Bowser. Let's talk about Page's dirty laundry since he wants to go after Joe.

@The Exposer: You comments are offensive and out of place. If you want to be hateful and spread homophobic gossip, I'm sure you can find forums where people like that sort of thing. This generally isn't one of them. This entire discussion string has been mostly discussion of the policy and legal and ethical implications of the issues at hand.

Please take your personal, hateful, bigoted ad hominem attacks someplace else.

I'd bet THE EXPOSER wouldn't write that hateful screed if he (or she) had to sign his name to it.

His mother would be ashamed of him.

Why should we care who Michael Page is having sex with? That’s his personal business. I'm concerned about the county getting screwed. The issue here is the underhanded way this DSS deal went down and the number of people who are implicated in it. The commissioner's job is to make sure the county's business is taken care of in an open and above board and nondiscriminating way. The DSS Board & other commissioners (Bowser, Stan Holt, Heron & Reckow) and the county manager are all scrambling and back peddling now and probably will throw each other under the bus before this is all over with.

Joe Bowser quoted in today's N&O: "It is obvious that the intelligent people understand exactly what we were doing in trying to protect the community," Bowser said. And those "that were not intelligent did not know" and continue "rattling along" about the process, he said.

Here's a word of advice for Joe Bowser: "The process" you speak so dismissively of--the ethically questionable way in which Gail Perry came onto the DSS board, voted to fire the director, and then was offered and accepted her position all in a single DSS Board meeting, the behind-the-scenes discussions you had with some DSS Board members & Durham commissioners & Ms Perry--is important. Those who expect our elected and appointed officials to adhere to ethical processes are not "rattling along." This is not the first time you've accused those who don't agree with you of being unintelligent or stupid. You were accusing the entire DSS board of this just over a year ago. We are not unintelligent. We are engaged citizens and voters. Do not insult us.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/14/1486396/durham-leaders-call-for-investigation.html