Crayton in trouble?
Tax man Jenks Crayton, who was suspended last year, is still drawing fire from his bosses.
County commissioner Paul Gibson told Allen Johnson that he wants Crayton out as Guilford's tax director. Gibson's stance is significant because he was one of the Democrats who helped reinstate Crayton following a state investigation last spring.
"A terrible, terrible manager," Gibson said of Crayton, who has held the job since 1997. "I don't think he has any people skills. I'm still getting calls from employees over there."
Crayton is serving a four-year term that ends June 30, 2007. Sometime before that, commissioners will face the prospect of reappointing him, and Gibson says Crayton won't get his vote.
Controversy surrounding the tax director crescendoed last year when a group of commissioners, led by then-chairman Bruce Davis, suspended Crayton on charges that he gave undue property-tax breaks to Republican commissioner Steve Arnold, among other allegations. Crayton denied the charges, and Republicans called the whole thing a witch hunt.
A state investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, and Crayton was reinstated. Only two commissioners, Davis and Skip Alston, voted against sending him back to work, and they will almost certainly oppose his reappointment next year.
Shortly after returning to work, Crayton clashed with Gibson during the budget talks.
Reached on Tuesday, Crayton said he had read Gibson's remarks and would try to smooth things over with the commissioner.
"In my role as tax director, people say a lot of unkind things, citizens and commissioners and everybody else, and my job is to win them over," he said. "And most of the time I do."
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