Politics and taxes
If you missed it, here is one inside perspective on the turmoil in the county tax office.
The op-ed is authored by Lonnie Groendes, a Guilford County tax appraiser, and it ran Thursday in the News & Record.
As an ardent Democrat who campaigned heavily for the Kerry-Edwards ticket, this is very difficult for me to write. But I strongly believe in the two-party system and have never considered my Republican family and friends as traitors or enemies.
I do not want Republicans to shut up or go away. I welcome the integrity of their thought, their beliefs and their action in open forum discussion. That bicameral discussion is critical to the health of this county and this country.
I am an appraiser in the Guilford County Tax Department and have experienced the disruption that continuing, misguided persecution of Director Jenks Crayton has caused within the department and for the county. One investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation has already cleared the director and the department as none of the allegations could be substantiated.
The recent rush to judgment by the six Democratic commissioners on the board in launching a new investigation of the director and employees of the department with yet another state agency has little to do with Crayton.
Their divisive action is far more reflective of a more insidious cancer growing in this board: partisan politics of the most irresponsible sort, driven by intimidation from certain commissioners with personal agendas to deflect attention from their own very poor records.
Most employees within the tax department have been fully aware for some time of certain "past and present employees" of the department who have personal axes to grind with Crayton resulting from conflicting opinions about management decisions. The selectively misrepresentative "material" they funneled to Commissioner Bruce Davis was more revealing of Davis' own naivete of state-mandated appeal processes and procedures than it was in providing damaging evidence of Crayton’s integrity in supervising such appeals.
The legitimacy of just how the appeal process was followed to the letter was eloquently and lucidly explained by Commissioner Steve Arnold during a recent meeting of the commissioners. That same evening, however, in a session that Chairman Davis irresponsibly chose to close to public scrutiny, Crayton was verbally attacked savagely (in the words of one commissioner) for his "work ethic."
Let’s consider that ethic. This is a man who served the county as director of two vital departments, child support and tax -- for one salary. His record speaks for itself. Both the child support and tax departments consistently ranked among the state’s top 3 percent for outstanding and effective performance.
He is, in short, a dedicated and highly active man focused on service to Guilford County. The results speak for themselves.
An investigation by the N.C. Department of Revenue is welcomed by Director Crayton and the tax department. The investigation will reinforce the department's integrity through the investigator's inability to substantiate any allegations of impropriety.
What hurts the most, what shames me the most is the knowledge that when the commissioners should have been moving to vote a commendation for Crayton and the tax department for a truly amazing job on the 2004 revaluation, they surrendered their civic responsibility, their personal integrity and their voice to puppeteers. Truly alarming.
(As an aside, one can only wonder why the media haven't covered the truly astounding success of the 2004 revaluation, an effort that has brought praise from state officials and neighboring counties but not even a "thank you" from the board or a single line in local media.)
As for Director Jenks Crayton and what is arguably the finest tax department in North Carolina, I am reminded of a Chinese proverb:
"True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher."
Amen.
Lonnie D. Groendes is an appraiser in the Guilford County Tax Department.
Comments (3)
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Allen, thank you for making Lonnie Groendes's piece available on your Blog.
Hopefully many people read it in print; hopefully others will read it here, on-line.
As others have pointed out, the Guilford County Commissioners have once again behaved in far too poor a manner to accuse them of behaving like children.
That would be as derogatory a comment as anyone could possibly make against children because almost all children--even the worst of them--have a stronger, better sense of right and wrong than the Guilford County Commissioners.
I hope that Groendes had no motivation for writing his piece other than to defend a person he knows is completely undeserving of the attacks against him.
(Groendes seems to have stuck his head out in a manner in which most of us would not; if he is accurate in his assessment of Crayton, I definitely admire his courage to stand up for someone he sincerely admires and respects.)
That is the leading question that needs to be addressed and answered so that this situation can be resolved: Is Crayton Jenks a good man?
Other related questions that need to be answered include:
Does he do his job?
Does he do his job well?
Is he a strong, demanding, humane, and supportive director of his department?
These questions are fair and legitimate questions that should be answered about any manager or leader.
I would assume that annual performance reviews would address these issues, but with lack of good leadership provided by the Board of Commissioners, things are always much more complicated and much uglier than they are in the real world.
The whole way that the Democrats have approached this has been as distasteful as any of the other disgusting episodes in the history of the Guilford County Commissioners (since at least 1990, when I started paying attention to Guilford County politics).
(Like Groendes, I would label myself a Democrat, but I now regard any person who holds up any party as infinitely superior to all others as mindlessly brainwashed.)
The Democrats have clearly distinguished themselves in this case as deserving of harsh judgement based on the poor content of their character.
Even with new Democratic blood on the board, this ended up being true without exception.
Even if it is proven that Crayton Jenks deserved this investigation, this remains true.
The Democrats have handled themselves poorly, regardless of how this episode ends up.
The sad thing is that on this board, one party (Democrats in this case) being wrong does not mean that the other party (Republicans) is right.
You can so safely assume that the Republicans on this board would have acted the same in reverse as to declare that a FACT rather than an OPINION.
You can also assume beyond any doubt that had the circumstances been reversed, the Democrats would be moaning just as loudly as the Republicans are now about unfairness and indecency. They would be making the exact same accusations against the Republicans as the Republicans have lodged against them.
Right and wrong, for some time, have not mattered to most Guilford County Commissioners. The only two factors that have mattered have been "party" and "self." Those are the two factors that determine if something is "good" or "bad".
Anything in the name of one's party or one's self is good and decent.
Anything in the name of the other party or in the name of members of the other party is bad and indecent.
David Gregory wrote a letter to the editor that perfectly expresses my sentiments concerning the Guilford County Commissioners ("We should fire them," April 16).
(Scroll to the top to read his letter; posted comments will appear below his letter; feel free to add your own comments!)
If Crayton Jenks is proven innocent of the charges against him, every Democratic commissioner should beg on hands and knees for his forgiveness; then they each should resign so that our county can try once again to secure better representation.
I have no problem with the commissioners investigating charges of mistreatment and improprieties; I have major problems with the posturing and the overall ugly manner in which they have chosen to pursue this matter.
I believe there is only one Republican commissioner who has not so far proven unfit to represent us, and that is Mike Winstead, Jr.
I give him the benefit of the doubt only because, to my knowledge, he has not yet demonstrated (like all of the others have) that he is solely committed to self and party (as opposed to being committed to representing all consitutients).
At the same time, Winstead will prove to be the rarest of commissioners if he does prove to be about more than party and self.
I will close with three requests:
1) If you are a County Commissioner, either a) publicly admit and confess your sins against our county and commit to changing your ways (whether all 10 of the other commissioners make the same commitment or not)or b) resign, effective immediately (regardless of what the other commissioners do).
2) If you have worked with or under Jenks Crayton, consider posting comments on-line about what those experiences were like. I wish more individuals would come out openly like Lonnie Groendes did, regardless of whether the experiences to share are positive are negative.
[I have read a negative post about Crayton, one that sounds like it is based on second-hand information. You can find those comments posted under Betty Almond's letter to the editor, "Commissioners owe an open investigation" (April 15). Scroll down to read comments posted by someone who identified himself/herself as "Inquiring Mind."
3) This is a question out of sincere curiosity and does not relate directly to the current controversy. If anyone is aware of a time in Guilford County's history when a majority of the individuals serving as County Commissioners served in a manner deserving of our community's respect, could you please share information about what it was like to live in Guilford County under such circumstances, as well as letting us know the years during which such conditions existed. Since at least 1990, I do not believe such conditions have existed.
I know that Guilford County is a better place than anyone could possibly guess after observing our County Commissioners in action.
I wish we could attract a higher quality of human beings to run for the County Commissioner positions.
Unfortunately, I think the best people our county has to offer must be generally turned off by the prospect of serving on a board that has for so long represented Guilford County at its worst.
Even if we secured better candidates, I wish I had faith that we would vote for these far more deserving individuals.
So far, we have truly settled for the worst amd the lowest common denominators out there.
Almost without exception.
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