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Highland commissioner defends actions
Former deputy commissioner says firing not justified
By Anne Adams • Staf Writer
MONTEREY - Highland commissioner of revenue Bobbie Griffin is once again under fire.
Michelle Smith, former deputy commissioner fired by Griffin June 13, told the board of supervisors this week she has concerns about the way Griffin manages the office, and feels her termination was not justified.
Smith, who had held the job since Jan. 3, was first asked by Griffin to resign. "I did not submit a resignation, believing that I had no valid reason to do so, since I had performed my job in a manner upholding the oath I took when hired," Smith told the board. "I was completely blindsided by this request, especially since I had heard many words of praise for my performance from county officials, customers I dealt with, the public itself, and even the commissioner herself as little as three weeks before I was asked to resign. Before receiving that request, I had never received from the commissioner any sort of reprimand or indication I was performing any part of my job incorrectly."
Smith did not resign; Griffin notified her in writing June 13 she had been terminated immediately, and was asked to collect her belongings and vacate her office in the courthouse.
Though Smith intended to file a grievance, she learned later from county attorney Melissa Dowd that she was not considered a county employee, and therefore the county grievance policy and process did not apply. "I was told that pursuing this would be futile, because even though I was sworn into office by a county clerk, that I had to follow county personnel procedures, that my paychecks were signed by the county, and that I was on both life and health insurance policies provided by the county, I did not have sufficient grounds to have a grievance heard because I was not a county employee," she said.
Smith added she felt she had done "nothing which would justify my termination, and that I have been professionally and personally tarnished by this action, and any legal and procedural attempts to date to have my voice heard have proved ineffective. Therefore, I chose to come before the board this evening to present this statement for the record."
The board did not reply to Smith's statement.
Griffin, who attended the meeting, told The Recorder Wednesday she did not terminate Smith without cause, although under Virginia law, deputies are employees at the will of the commissioners "and can be fired and hired without cause."
"Even though this is what the code states," Griffin said, "if you know me at all you should know that I did not terminate my employee … without cause. Several weeks before the termination letter, we talked about our communication problem. I had hoped that this would solve the problem. Unfortunately, the situation did not improve. I did provide (Smith) a number of the causes for termination … I told her (in the termination letter) that I would not discuss the reasons publicly and I still choose not to talk or write about them."
Documents obtained by The Recorder indicate Griffin felt Smith was insubordinate and had failed to fulfill the duties she was assigned.
Griffin initially gave Smith two weeks' notice in a June 8 letter. Griffin told Smith, "I have spent many anxious hours and sleepless nights in the last three months. I have tried to tell myself that things would improve, but they have not. Because of some of the things I will try to explain later in this letter I feel I must ask for a statement in writing from you that you will resign effective two weeks from this date, which is June 23. I will upon receipt of the letter of resignation give you a good recommendation when used as a reference. I will in return expect all documents and information that you as an employee have placed on the computer to remain. Please take any personal email and the email placed on there as a deputy by you off the computer system by 4:30 today. Also, I must ask that you immediately give me the password to get into the computer. I cannot have a computer in the office that I cannot get into and last Friday I could not get in to look at income tax information for a taxpayer."
Griffin went on to explain she felt she and Smith were "just totally incompatible as a working team," and that other responsibilities she assigned to Smith were not completed.
Wednesday, Smith explained she felt her only avenue to have her voice heard was to address the board of supervisors. "Ideally, I'd like to hope that the supervisors would look into the unfairness of how the grievance policy is written for appointees of constitutional officers," she explained.
Smith has hired an attorney. "My goal is justice," she said. "I would love to have my job back. I truly enjoyed the position. The matter of my professional reputation is extremely important to me. I take great pride in any job that I hold."
Smith had a 20-year career in aerospace before she moved from Florida to Highland. "I was fortunate enough to work on the space shuttle program, several rocket programs, missiles and government communications. I consistently accepted new challenges and took them on with excitement. I applied that same excitement to the position of deputy commissioner of the revenue." Smith worked for companies like McDonnel Douglas and Martin Marietta (Lockheed-Martin) as a material specialist and analyst, with high levels of security clearance for federal contracts.
She believes responsibilities held by the commissioner were not handled properly, though she declined to be specific. "I would first need to consult with my attorney," she said. "However, I would be more than willing to discuss specific questions such as these with the proper governing authorities. I will say that after speaking with many, many taxpayers and hearing their individual tales of woe regarding tax tickets and billing, it needs to be made clear that the treasurer receives her information from the commissioner of revenue office. What the treasurer (Lois White) sends out to taxpayers is only as correct as what she receives from the commissioner of revenue herself."
Griffin told The Recorder there had been a few incorrect tax bills issued in the last cycle and were being corrected.
The trash bills for the enterprise fee were sent in some cases to landowners instead of the businesses on those properties that are responsible for the fee. Griffin explained the county's software computer company, BAI, had made the error, and her office was correcting those.
In addition, Griffin said, about a dozen tax returns filed in her office had not been properly coded, and taxes paid by citizens weren't properly recorded at the department in Richmond. By email to the tax department June 27, Griffin indicated the problem with the returns, saying, "This past Monday I started getting calls from someone there and then calls from my taxpayers about letters of assessment they received that said they had not paid their taxes that were due. These are and were all locally filed taxpayers. I don't know if with the new employee (who was terminated June 13) or whether it was codes or what, but we have been faxing … in customer service copies of the taxpayers' letters and copies of where they paid here in our office and in the treasurer's office. I was told this would take care of the problem for the taxpayer. Some of them were quite upset with our office, thinking we did really wrong and in truth it has never happened before. Also, the treasurer's office told me that they believed the new/terminated deputy was not sending monthly income tax reports as she had been instructed to do."
The department replied to Griffin's questions saying it had incorrectly coded some tax returns in Richmond, and told Griffin she had done nothing wrong and the department was making corrections.
Last fall, Griffin had been criticized for being late in getting tax information for property tax bills ready, and failing to send reports to the town of Monterey and county supervisors in a timely manner.
Treasurer Lois White told The Recorder this week that tax bills were nearly late again this round. White said she does have some concerns about the commissioner's processes, and that she had expressed those directly to supervisors.
"One of my concerns is that the treasurer's office is getting the tax information from the commissioner of the revenue office later and later each tax billing period," she said Wednesday. "In 2006, the first half billing was mailed May 5; in 2007, it was May 10; in 2008 it was May 16. As for the second half of 2006, it was Oct. 17 and in 2007 it was Oct 26 … I received everything approximately three weeks before they were due for the first billing of 2008. We then had to run the bills, process them, stuff and seal the envelopes. If our printer would break down, there would hardly be enough time to get them ready to meet the mailing deadline. Also, I like to mail the taxpayers their notice way before the two weeks before they are due."
In this most recent mailing, White said Griffin had not been in her office much, and Smith came to her for assistance, since this was Smith's first time preparing the information for the tax tickets. White said she helped Smith because the deadline for mailing the bills was getting so close.
"Our offices affect each other," White said. "It's a difficult situation."
On June 16, Mayor Janice Warner wrote a letter to the board of supervisors expressing similar concerns. "As you will recall," she told the board, "the town of Monterey and I as mayor, and the town's clerk/treasurer, had many unpleasant encounters with Mrs. Bobbie Griffin … At the meeting that was held on Oct. 10, 2007, Mrs. Griffin was severely reprimanded by not only you as a board, but also by the county attorney. By the Code of Virginia, she could have been fined and her pay withheld. However, the board gave her yet another chance. Finally we did receive our tax information with many errors which needed either an abatement or supplemental from the commissioner's office … She has been most difficult."
After Smith was hired, Warner said she had hoped to see improvement. "The dealings that I had in the commissioner's office with Mrs. Smith were quite satisfactory, even though there seemed to have been no one to advise the new deputy on procedures. Mrs. Smith was most cordial and professional. My enterprise fee assessments were not correct and I do not know if they have been corrected. Had Mrs. Griffin checked what was being sent to the treasurer, this would not have happened.
"I feel that you as a board have been very lax in dealing with Mrs. Griffin," Warner continued. "She pledges to do things that she does not carry through. Taxpayer money has been spent to train one new deputy, while Mrs. Griffin continues to be constantly out of the office and remains accountable to no one."
Warner also said she felt the personal information stored in computers in Griffin's office may not be secure - such things as Social Security numbers, vehicle identification numbers, and income tax information. "I am also aware, having seen personally, that both her grown daughters and her husband are constantly in that office both during office hours, after work, and also on the weekends. May I also note that they could very well be using the computers."
Griffin said her family does spend time in the office, but does not access the computers, although she said one of her daughters did use the computer to help her edit a job description.
Griffin says she does not want citizens to be afraid of submitting their tax returns to her office, and says the software system for sensitive data is password-protected. After Smith was fired, that password was changed by county administrator Roberta Lambert, who serves as security officer. Griffin's husband, she said, does not access the computers. "I think it's very secure," she said, although she said she could not be sure whether Smith had removed any information. "Several things did not come to light until she was gone," Griffin said.
Wednesday evening, Griffin sent a letter to Lambert. "I understand that in the Thursday, July 3 edition of our local newspaper, I will once again be under attack by other public officials," Griffin wrote. She suggested supervisors be prepared to offer a statement about the trash tickets that she said were incorrectly prepared by BAI. "I did not ask BAI to revamp this program. I do not administer this program other than at the direction of the board of supervisors, and am not at fault for any real estate/business owner ticket problems."
Further, she explained that she had personally reviewed all the enterprise fund accounts when the county converted to BAI, "and with all the information due to the treasurer (with twice a year billing) there was no time to check all the accounts personally as I did one whole month in 2005. A person should take 'credit' for their mistakes, but I will not let other people and public officials blast me for something that I do not personally have control over, such as the enterprise system. I can't make the board of supervisors tell the public that I am not in charge of this program and its problems, but I can certainly let the public know. Smith says that by alerting supervisors, "I truly hope that eyes have been opened, that more questions are asked by the public and governing officials … I would like to be asked this question by the local governing authorities. There are issues that should not be ignored any longer. The integrity of the commissioner of revenue office should be of paramount concern."
Griffin told The Recorder, "For over 20 years I have upheld my oath to (taxpayers) and constituents of Highland County. I continue to discover serious duties that were neglected or left undone. I alone made the mistake in the person I hired to be my deputy. I alone have the responsibility of correcting any errors. I spent many sleepless nights and hours of stress deciding that in the best interest and integrity of the office, I had to terminate an employee, something I had never done and pray never to need to do again. Termination is a hurtful thing for all concerned and in an area like we live in, it serves to divide us. For over a year now a number of things in my job … have been hurtful to me and to my family, but I pledged to do my best for you, all of you, not just people that voted for me. So this is the one and only time I plan to speak about this. All I can do is spend the rest of my term trying to do what I promised (taxpayers), which is treat (them) fairly and equitably and be here to serve (their) interests and needs in any way I can, even when the going gets very tough."
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