In the wake of a recent Schilling Show exposé into institutional corruption within Charlottesville City Hall, a new problem has emerged for Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones.

Immediately upon the release of investigative findings implicating (now former) Charlottesville Communications Director, Ric Barrick, in a public bid-rigging and cover-up scandal, Barrick resigned his $95,000 per year position. Following Barrick’s public self-termination, Jones punished Barrick with…a new job—one that pays the full-time equivalent salary of $55,000 per year, and one which appears to have no definite termination date.

In the course of the police investigation into “Barrick-gate,” the former Communications director freely admitted to permanently deleting emails and other public electronic documents in order to conceal his misdeeds—this in clear violation of the Virginia Public Records Act.

While Jones did not respond publicly to Barrick’s attempted cover-up through the destruction of evidence, the incident caught the attention of the Library of Virginia, which oversees public records administration.

John Metz, Director, Archives Records and Collection Services at the Library of Virginia, in a March 29, 2012 letter to Jones admonishes the Charlottesville City Manager that Barrick may have violated Virginia civil and/or criminal codes:

Effective management of public records is a matter of the utmost concern to the Library of Virginia. Improper management of public records may lead to civil penalties under the Freedom of Information Act, Code of Virginia § 2.23714, or criminal penalties under Code of Virginia § 18.2-472 and Code of Virginia § 42.1-88.

In most rational municipalities—those under competent management—an attempted cover-up of a fraud against taxpayers would have been met with an immediate dismissal and subsequent prosecution, where warranted. In Charlottesville, such transgression is rewarded with cushy employment and continued public presence. While City Manager Jones apparently has not taken substantive steps to punish Barrick for his serious abuses of the public trust, his flagrant misappropriation of taxpayer funds, and his multiple violations of state code, the Library of Virginia has stepped in to fill the management void in Charlottesville City Hall—and not a moment too soon.

Read  or download the Library of Virginia’s letter to Maurice Jones:

March 29, 2012

Dear Mr. Jones,

It has been brought to my attention that the Procurement & Risk Management Services in the City of Charlottesville may not be properly following the General Schedules established by the Library of Virginia. The specific concern raised is that email pertaining to contact [sic] negotiations has been improperly managed and destroyed.

According to the Virginia Public Records Act, Code of Virginia § 42.1-76 et seq., each agency, here defined as, “all boards, commissions, departments, divisions, institutions, authorities, or parts thereof, of the Commonwealth or its political subdivisions and include[ing] the offices of constitutional officers,” must designate a records officer to serve as a liaison to the Library of Virginia for the purposes of implementing and overseeing a records management program, and coordinating legal disposition, including destruction, of public records.

Furthermore, under the provisions of Code of Virginia § 42.1-86.1, no public records may be destroyed without the completion of a Certificate of Records Destruction (RM-3 Form) and the approval of a designated records officer. All records destruction must be reported to the Library of Virginia through the submittal of the RM-3 form.

Effective management of public records is a matter of the utmost concern to the Library of Virginia. Improper management of public records may lead to civil penalties under the Freedom of Information Act, Code of Virginia § 2.23714, or criminal penalties under Code of Virginia § 18.2-472 and Code of Virginia § 42.1-88.

Please contact the Records Analysis Section at (804) 692-3600 to arrange for a Records Analyst at the Library of Virginia to assist you in complying with the commonwealth’s records management policies and procedures.

Sincerely,

 

John Metz

Director, Archives, Records and Collection Services

Cc:             Craig Brown, City Attorney
Dr. Sandra G. Treadway, Librarian of Virginia and Virginia State Archivist

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17 COMMENTS

  2. I do not understand what is going on. Why does a city allow this? Is the people in this city so “drinking the kool aid ” that they allow cover-up’s?
    Now what happens? Do we need someone from the Commonwealth to come and investigate? Who makes that call?
    And please, someone ordered Mojo to delete them. Just who was that?

  3. The odd are the city will contunie to do this. Does the Library have the authority to nail the city butt to wall for not following the law. odd are that this will go away and than the city will get caught again and again. Most state agency when this happen, the employee is let go and everyone goes back through re-education. does this prevent it from happen no! But than the employee or management doesn't have leg to stand on when they get caught doing it again. Remember tax's payer it is their money once we pay our taxes. Remember that.

  4. Don’t hold your breath. Just heard Shilling say that the city did not even bother to respond to the state’s letter…

  5. What an important story this is. Thank you, Rob.

    But so far on this thread, we have two writers who can’t manage basic grammar and one who can’t spell the host’s name! Why can so few posters on this blog write a simple English sentence? One thing I appreciate about conservatism is that it’s concerned with preserving high standards – but you wouldn’t know that from the posters here.

  6. Well, yes some of us can’t write or spell or made sense.
    However Mr. Barrick got paid 95,000 a yrs and couldn’t either. However he got caught doing something stupid (that if he was state employee he would have been let go. If he work in another city in VA, he would have been let go) and city government did what it normaly does. Let him quit and still keep him on payroll for 55,000 or so….. But none of that really matter does it. As long a city government get to do what they want when they want. It is cost of doing business in
    Charlottesville.

  8. votes, I suspect that you all could write and spell and make sense just fine if you just put a little effort into it, and that’s why I posted.

    Spade, are you trying to say I’m not playing fair?

  9. Votes5200 write the way he writes. The more he tries the less sense he makes.
    As The_Blue Spade says:
    I say ol’sport, you’re not exactly playing cricket either!
    The question that has not been answer! or odd will not be answer!
    Why do we the citizens contunie to let the city government get away with this B.S.

  10. “Why do we the citizens continue to let the city government get away with this B.S.”

    How many either desperate or (worse) greedy citizens do you suppose a corrupt city hall can get away with putting on the dole? Enough probably to infill all the dense residential zoning up for Belmont alone.

    Before some smart+++ draws a wrong conclusion, I’m not picking on Belmont – just painting a comparison with it.

    Bought off with Favoritism and out off control Nepotism deters a lot of standing up to such a sick sad world.

    The city government trough doesn’t ever fail to hold enough, it just gets expanded and expanded on the Animal Farm. You know, that farm where some animals are more equal than others.

  11. There is some of us who do stand up to the bully in city hall. They use force of government to try and keep us in control, doesn’t work. When we go to city hall and file a complaint it fall on deaft ear. It is beyond time for us the citizens to vote these individuals out of office. It is time………….

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