A sewer plant operator who was caught using “cannabinoids” is one of four people who’ve been dismissed from Graham’s municipal staff in the past year and a half.
According to Graham’s personnel records, this 13-year veteran of the city’s utilities staff was let go in October under the city’s “zero tolerance” policy for substance abuse in the workplace. Meanwhile, substandard performance have apparently cut short the careers of a police officer and a recreation department staff member while another police officer has been sacked for “conduct unbecoming.”
The Alamance News has obtained details about these four terminations as part of an ongoing series on disciplinary actions by public sector employers in Alamance County. This series, which began last week with a roundup of actions in Elon, follows up on a similar set of disclosures that the newspaper ran in the summer of 2024.
Under North Carolina’s Public Records Law, units of state and local government are obligated to release certain personnel information, including the dates of disciplinary actions such as demotions, suspensions, and terminations. In the case of a termination, they must provide additional information, such as a separation letter, to explain the reasons for the former employee’s dismissal.
In compliance with these statutory requirements, the city of Graham has provided The Alamance News with records of four dismissals, three suspensions, and one demotion that have occurred since the cut-off date for the newspaper’s earlier public records request in 2024. Graham’s city manager Megan Garner has also passed along copies of the dismissal notices of the four employees who were fired during the period covered by the newspaper’s latest request.
Substance abuse
The most recent of these dismissal notices was issued on October 3, 2025 to Timothy Twitty, a former wastewater plant operator who had first joined Graham’s city staff on June 18, 2012.
In this notice, Tonya Mann, the city’s public utilities director, informs the 56-year-old Twitty that he had effectively forfeited his job under city’s zero tolerance substance abuse policy, which forbids staff members from using, selling, distributing, or being under the influence of unauthorized controlled substances while on duty.
Mann adds that a breach of this policy “constitutes grounds for immediate termination,” notwithstanding a mea culpa that Twitty had made at a “pre-disciplinary” a day earlier.
“During the conference, you acknowledged that you took full responsibility for your actions and had a lapse of judgment,” the department’s director goes on to recall. “Based on the facts presented and your acknowledgement of the use of cannabinoids, I have determined that your conduct constitutes a violation of [the zero tolerance substance abuse policy]…Accordingly, the final disciplinary action is termination of employment, effective October 1, 2025.”
According to Graham’s personnel records, Twitty’s salary before his dismissal was about $63,380 a year.”
Unsatisfactory performance
On March 28, 2025, the city of Graham issued another dismissal notice to police officer Lyle Lance, who had joined the city’s police force on September 21, 2020. In this notice, then-chief of police Mary K. Baker asserts that an internal investigation had found the 37-year-old Police Officer I to have “demonstrated inefficiency, negligence, or incompetence” in discharging his duties and to have used city property or equipment in a “careless, negligent, or improper” manner.
Lance had an annual salary of about $57,280 at the time of his termination.
Poor job performance was also cited in a dismissal notice that the city issued on March 5, 2025 to 24-year-old Derrick Evans, who had joined Graham’s recreation department as an athletic facilities technician on April 22 of the previous year.
In this notice, the city’s rec director Brian Faucette stresses that Evans had admitted this substandard performance in a pre-disciplinary conference.
“During the conference, you acknowledged that you had let the city down by failing to report to work on time, not calling, and falling asleep while on the job,” Faucette recalls. “Accordingly, the final disciplinary action is termination of employment, effective March 6, 2025.”
Evans had been making about $44,088 a year prior to his termination.
Conduct unbecoming
On November 27, 2024, Graham’s then-police chief issued a dismissal notice to Ashley Reyes-Mendoza, who had been with the city’s police force since January 16 of the previous year.
In the course of this notice, Baker accuses the 27-year-old Police Officer I of exhibiting “detrimental personal conduct” in violation of the city’s personnel policy and of failing to meet the police department’s own exhortation that its officers “conduct their private and professional lives in such a manner as to avoid bringing reproach or discredit upon the department.” The department’s policies go on to characterize a breach of this code as “conduct unbecoming.”
According to the city’s personnel records, Reyes-Mendoza had an annual salary of about $60,144 before her departure.
Contentious police hire demoted
The city wasn’t obligated to provide any supplemental information about the demotion that occurred within the timeframe of the newspaper’s latest public records request.
According to the city’s personnel records, this reduction in rank was imposed on police officer Douglas Strader, a one-time Greensboro cop whose arrival in Graham had set off a firestorm due to the circumstances of his departure from his previous gig.
Strader’s former superiors in Greensboro had demanded his badge about seven months before he joined Graham’s municipal on March 31, 2021. According to his prior employer, the impetus for Strader’s dismissal had been an incident almost a year earlier when he and three other officers had reportedly fired at a fleeing vehicle in contravention of departmental policy.
Criticism over this incident ultimately prompted Graham’s police department to issue a statement in defense of its hiring process about a month after it welcomed Strader into the fold. This statement also vouchsafed for Strader’s own commitment “to upholding the values of professionalism, respect, integrity, and excellence.”
According to the city’s personnel records, Strader was demoted from Police Sergeant to the introductory rank of Police Officer I on April 6, 2025 with an accompanying 10 percent reduction in pay. His current salary, according to the city’s personnel records, is about $76,713.
Suspensions
The city of Graham has also notified The Alamance News of three employees who have been suspended since the newspaper’s previous public records request in 2024.
These staff members include Miles Acosta, a 29-year-old Police Officer I who received a four-day suspension that began on November 19, 2024. A member of the city’s police force since January 8, 2018, Acosta currently has a salary of about $61,451 a year.
On November 13, 2024, the city benched William Hopkins, a 38-year-old police corporal, for one day. A member of the city’s police force since August 20, 2018, Hopkins presently has a salary of about $72,921 a year.
That same day in 2024, Graham sidelined Mary Griffin, a 35-year-old recreation program manager, for a period of three days. A city employee since June 1, 2020, Griffin earns about $66,790 a year, according to the city’s personnel records.
The information that Garner sent to the newspaper makes no mention of any subsequent change in Griffin’s employment status with Graham. Griffin has nevertheless left her position with Graham, and on July 1, 2025, she began a new gig as Gibsonville’s recreation director.
