The sheriff’s involuntary dismissals were ultimately less than half of those that the county’s department of social services witnessed during the 14-month period which the newspaper examined.
Most of the 13 individuals that the department had terminated against their wills were sent off with pithy separation letters that stated their services were no longer needed and that they were responsible for returning all of their professional paraphernalia, such as laptops, bookbags, cellphones, badges, parking passes, and keys.
In the main, the county’s personnel office provided no other records to explain the dismissals of these former staff members. In a few cases, however, there is some additional information in the separation letter or an accompanying disciplinary action form.
The social services department issued its most thorough explanation for the dismissal of Keja Glass. A 26-year-old income maintenance caseworker who joined the department on November 13, 2013, Glass was still in her probationary period when she was let go on April 29 of the following year.
According to the “release” form for this probationary employee, Glass had racked up an unusually large number of absences and sick calls during her short stint with the agency. In fact, the full catalog of her absences is longer than the department’s inventory of the times she was actually working. These gaps in her work log raised “consistent concerns” about her attendance as well as her “numerous requests to work remotely.”
Glass’ release form goes on to note three especially egregious examples of her shoddy attendance. These include one day in March when she “requested an extended lunch break” but “did not report back” or touch base with her supervisor after she left. Then, on April 10, Glass was “sent home to change her shirt due to dress code violation” but failed to return, and on April 25, she received her supervisor’s permission to punch out at 2:00 p.m. only to go AWOL at 12:13 p.m.
According to the county’s personnel office, Glass was making $41,513 a year when she was “released” from her occupational duties.
The department of social services also enunciated some attendance-related concerns in the separation letter it issued to Shante Spencer, a 29-year-old social worker who had joined the agency on November 28, 2022.
In informing Spencer of her dismissal on September 14, 2023, Candice Gobble, the county’s social services director, alluded to her former subordinate’s “alleged misuse of the mobile Kronos application” to clock in to the system when she wasn’t actually working.
“During the months of August and September 2023,” Gobble revealed, “your punches into Kronos occurred at different locations throughout the state, specifically Concord, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Kernersville, and Jacksonville. In two of these occurrences, you clocked in around 8:00 a.m. using the mobile Kronos application and did not arrive at the agency until after 11:00 a.m.”
Gobble also pointed to gaps in the department’s document management system that showed Spencer had been idle on many occasions when she claimed to be working. The county’s social services director went on to conclude that Spencer had “falsified work documents on multiple occasions.” Her salary at the time of her dismissal was $53,762.71.
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Other DSS dismissals
The department of social services offered relatively few words of explanation for several of its other involuntary departures.
On August 9, 2024, Gobble dispatched a separation letter to Tiffany Summers, a 38-year-old income maintenance caseworker, who had joined the agency on February 21, 2022. The county’s social services director went on to inform Summers that she would be fired effective immediately because of “material falsifications” in the various job applications she had submitted to DSS.
According to Gobble, Summers had claimed to have bachelor’s degrees from N.C. State, Winston-Salem State, and UNC-Greensboro. She later admitted that she had “attended” but not graduated from these three institutions. Summers had also reported past work experience at Guilford County’s department of social services, although she couldn’t call up her dates of employment when later confronted about them, and she apparently confessed that some of her other purported jobs had been “volunteer opportunities.”
Summers was ultimately dismissed with an annual salary of $43,934.32.
Gobble issued another separation letter on September 29, 2023 to Cynthia Boele, a 25-year-old income maintenance caseworker who had joined her agency on October 10, 2022. In this letter, the social services director alluded to Boele’s apparent failure to “effectively perform” despite “many training opportunities.” Her salary at the time of her dismissal was $40,994.37, according to the county’s personnel office.
On January 19, 2024, the social services director terminated Brianna Hall, a 23-year-old social worker who had joined her agency just three days earlier. Hall, whose salary stood at $53,409.20 when she left, reportedly “fell asleep in court on her second day of employment.”
Excessive drowsiness also proved the undoing of Shalisha Sawyer, a 29-year-old temp worker who had joined the agency’s staff on October 19, 2023. Sawyer was dismissed on November 13 after she was allegedly caught “sleeping during training.” She was making $19.56 an hour before the county’s social services director told her to go home permanently.
The county’s personnel office provided no explanation, other than the standard separation letter, for the following seven employees who were let go from DSS:
- Carmen Johnson, a 59-year-old child support agent, who joined the agency on March 15, 2023 and was dismissed on July 14 of the same year with an annual salary of $42,760.41;
- Stephanie Brown Shotwell, a 48-year-old social worker, who joined the agency on November 14, 2022 and was dismissed on August 17, 2023 with an annual salary of $52,695.12;
- Angela Kobani, a 31-year-old social work supervisor, who joined the agency on August 1, 2023 and was dismissed on February 2, 2024 with an annual salary of $63,685;
- Usungu Dimandja, a 60-year-old social worker, who joined the agency on June 12, 2023 and was dismissed on October 20 of the same year with an annual salary of $53,410.49;
- Shantell Wilson, a 46-year-old social worker, who joined the agency on February 26, 2024 and was dismissed on June 3 of the same year with an annual salary of $53,409.20;
- Alexandria Brenner, a 27-year-old social worker, who joined the agency on May 28, 2024 and was dismissed on July 10 of the same year with an annual salary of $37,296.12; and
- Shemeakia McCain, a 47-year-old income maintenance caseworker, who joined the agency on October 2, 2023 and was dismissed on July 29, 2024 with an annual salary of $42,758.39.
Read about other departments:
Background/overview (Part 1): 37 employees were fired from various county government departments over the past 14 months:
Sheriff’s office (Part 2): 6 fired, including three who fudged their hours on county’s electronic time clock; and two jailers who helped inmates pass notes to one another: https://alamancenews.com/part-2-sheriffs-office-captain-jailers-among-those-dismissed-for-fudging-their-hours-of-work/
EMS (Part 4): 7 fired, most because they didn’t complete required training: https://alamancenews.com/part-4-ems-personnel-fired-for-not-completing-mandatory-training/
Misc. (Part 5): 11 fired, including two previously-reported employees of the county’s tax office, who changed the tax values on their own properties: https://alamancenews.com/part-5-misc-departments-11-fired-including-tax-office-employees-who-changed-the-values-on-their-own-properties/
