The county’s family justice center wasn’t the only one to attract some unexpected flack when Alamance County’s commissioners gathered together on Monday.
A minor flare up also arose that evening when county commissioner Pam Thompson tried to abstain from the decision about the family justice center’s ill-fated grant application to the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission.
A second-term Republican who has served on the county’s governing board since 2020, Thompson is also a longstanding member of the state-level commission to which the family justice center had planned to apply for funds to provide victims services for local Latinos.
Thompson’s colleagues had previously given her leave to recuse herself from matters related to the Governor’s Crime Commission. In his case, however, her request raised the eyebrows of fellow commissioner Ed Priola, who joined the county’s governing board after November’s general election.
Ed Priola second-guessed Thompson’s recusal based on some guidance he received from a training session that UNC’s school of government put on for newly-elected county commissioners.
“We were told [during training for new county commissioners] that we have an obligation to vote, and we’re not allowed to recuse ourselves.”
– County commissioner Ed Priola
“We were told that we have an obligation to vote,” he went on to recall, “and we’re not allowed to recuse ourselves.”
Priola’s more experienced peers informed him that this obligation is null and void when board members or their relatives have personal financial interests in particular items. Alamance County’s attorney Rik Stevens added that state law contains another nonnegotiable reason for a board member’s recusal.
“In addition to self benefit,” he said, “there’s also prohibition on voting…when a board member serves on a board of a nonprofit…So, self-dealing and dealing on behalf of a nonprofit where the person has an interest [are solid grounds for recusal]. I don’t think either of those come into play here, but I’m also sensitive to a board member’s feelings about not wanting to be perceived as having self-interest.”
“I just don’t want to have the appearance of doing anything wrong. . . I don’t think I should be voting on something that I serve on in Raleigh.”
– County commissioner Pam Thompson on her request to be recused from vote on application to Governor’s Crime Commission on which she serves
Thompson, meanwhile, recalled that she had been explicitly directed to abstain from matters related to the Governor’s Crime Commission by a well regarded lawyer who had formerly served as Alamance County’s interim attorney. She went on add that her own sense of ethics has consistently steered her away from any potential conflicts of interest.
“I just don’t want to have the appearance of doing anything wrong,” she exclaimed.
Priola, for his part, insisted that he had merely questioned Thompson’s recusal request in the interest of clarity. He went on to join the 3-to-1 vote that allowed his fellow commissioner to step back from the family justice center’s application.
In the end, the only flat-out objection to Thompson’s recusal came from the board’s chairman John Paisley, Jr. Paisley told his fellow commissioners that he opposed the fellow commissioner’s abstention “simply as a matter of procedure.” Paisley’s dissent did not go unanswered by Thompson, even though she scrupulously held her peace during the subsequent debate about the grant application.
“If that’s the way you want to play, that’s fine,” she told the commissioner’s chairman, “but I don’t think I should be voting on something that I serve on in Raleigh.”
(The consent agenda also contained a second application to the Governor’s Crime Commission which the county’s IT department had presented to obtain funds for “cybersecurity.” On Monday’s meeting agenda, this particular item had the commission’s name abbreviated as “GCC” rather than spelled out in full as it had been in the family justice center’s proposal. As a result, Thompson and her fellow commissioners overlooked the role of the Governor’s Crime Commission in the IT department’s request until after they had approved the consent agenda. Thompson nevertheless declared that it had been her intention to recuse herself from both of the items pertaining to the Governor’s Crime Commission.)
