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A Sandbox, A Shovel and Children
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MUSA Council
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Joined: May 15 2008
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Points: 7008 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VietVet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: A Sandbox, A Shovel and Children
    Posted: Nov 18 2011 at 7:09am
Today's Journal....

HAMILTON — The county’s assistant administrator has hired an attorney and is putting commissioners on notice that he has been mistreated by one commissioner and wants the pay he says he was promised when promoted

The attorney said she and Landrum are concerned that not only has her client not received his promised pay, but that “at a least one member is preparing to take further adverse action against him.”

“Please be advised should this occur, Mr. Landrum will consider the act to be in retaliation for engaging in whistle-blowing and protected speech and will take appropriate legal steps to respond,” Loring stated in the letter.

The letter also claims Commissioner Cindy Carpenter has continued to defame him and verbally abuse him since he informed Commission President Charles Furmon about an April incident in which Carpenter stated certain individuals with whom she was displeased be “lined up and shot.”

“Her (Carpenter) actions against him range from unreasonable and arbitrary requests for information and defaming him in public meetings to verbal abuse and threatening his job security. Ms. Carpenter does not subject Mr. Landrum’s peers to this level of scrutiny and mistreatment,” according to the letter.

Furmon said he has heard Carpenter yelling at Landrum, stating the atmosphere in the office is “tense”.

“She (Carpenter) doesn’t understand the numbers and she is blaming him (Landrum),” Furmon said. “I have been very, very pleased with what Pete has done. He is an asset to the county.”

Commissioner Don Dixon said he is not in a position now to comment on the letter, but said he has been satisfied with Landrum’s job performance.

Carpenter released a lengthy statement late Thursday outlining her problems with Landrum’s job performance.

“My dissatisfaction with Landrum’s performance can be traced back to even before I took the oath of office. The letter correctly notes that I have asked Mr. Landrum repeatedly for information I feel is necessary to cast informed and intelligent votes as one of Butler County’s Commissioners. Although a subordinate employee of the commissioners, Mr. Landrum finds my financial information requests too burdensome and demanding and he, therefore, chooses to characterize them as unacceptable and arbitrary,” Carpenter said in the statement.

She added her job is hindered, especially in making financial decisions, because of Landrum’s “incomplete, inaccurate and contradictory information.”

Carpenter added Landrum’s subjective belief that his job is being threatened “stems from nothing except Mr. Landrum’s performance of his job as Butler County’s Assistant County Administrator/Director of Office of Management and Budget and his unwillingness to provide information and assistance to one of his employers.”

Carpenter said Landrum’s claim that she does not subject his peers to the same level of scrutiny “might easily be explained by the fact that I do not find the job performance of Mr. Landrum’s peers to fall to such an unacceptable level as Mr. Landrum’s.”

PICTURE A LARGE SANDBOX, ON AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND, WITH FURMON, CARPENTER, LANDRUM AND DIXON ALL SITTING AROUND. BUT ONLY ONE HAS THE SHOVEL AND ONE OTHER HAS THE PAIL AS THE OTHER TWO WATCH AND DON'T SEEM TO WANT TO GET INVOLVED. TWO WANT THE SHOVEL AND THE PAIL. THEY DON'T WANT TO PLAY NICE AND SHARE LIKE CHILDREN ARE SUPPOSE TO DO. NOW PICTURE THIS ON A COUNTY-WIDE NETWORK WHERE EVERYONE IN THE COUNTY GETS TO SEE THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS ACTING LIKE SNOT-NOSED BRATS.

ADULTS ACTING MORE LIKE CHILDREN FOR THE PURPOSE OF SELF IMPORTANCE, POWER AND EGO BOOSTING. ALL THE CHILDREN NEED TO GO AND WE NEED TO START ELECTING ADULTS TO RUN THE SHOW.

JUST AS GOOD AS ANY LAURA WILLIAMS CIRCUS ACT.
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middletownscouter View Drop Down
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Points: 501 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote middletownscouter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 18 2011 at 8:19am
You're right, Cindy Carpenter is quickly becoming the Laura Williams of the Butler County Commissioners.
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MUSA Citizen
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Points: 710 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Nov 18 2011 at 9:03am
I heard years ago that Carpenter was nuts.  Of course all the GOP SHEEP in this county would elect a ham sandwich as long as it was stamped with "GOP endorsed" and as long as the person was as clueless as Michelle Bachmann.
 
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Points: 501 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote middletownscouter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Dec 14 2011 at 9:32am
http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/politician-accused-in-state-probe-1298699.html
Quote Politician accused in state probe
Employee alleges county commissioner asked her ‘mess up’ court records.
By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
9:47 PM Tuesday, December 13, 2011

HAMILTON — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has conducted an investigation into an accusation that Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter asked an employee to sabotage records in the Clerk of Courts Office.

Documents examined by this newspaper show special agents with the Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation in Columbus — at the request of Prosecutor Michael Gmoser — spent several days in Butler County in July interviewing employees in the clerk’s office, which was formerly occupied by Carpenter.

Butler County Clerk of Courts Mary Swain asked Gmoser to look into the accusation after it was brought to her attention in June. The accusation came to light after an accounting error was committed by an employee in the clerk’s office in June.

The female employee said she did not commit the error on purpose, but she claimed to other employees that Carpenter asked her to “mess things up in the office,” according to the investigation documents.
Carpenter denies any wrongdoing and after reviewing the BCI report, Gmoser said he did not think enough evidence was present to specify criminal conduct.

“It is inconceivable I would ask somebody to do something like that because I implemented a system in the clerk’s office that catches those errors,” Carpenter said.

Gmoser asked for the independent investigation by the Attorney General’s Office on July 6 because his office serves as legal counsel for both elected officials involved. Carpenter’s name is redacted from the investigation documents, but written statements from the employee given to this newspaper by Swain match the BCI files.

During an interview with agents, the employee said she was approached by Carpenter during a meal at IHOP in West Chester Twp. after a Republican meeting on June 2 and was asked to “start purposefully messing up the files in the file room and to start messing up finances in the office.”

“These requests were suggested in an effort to make (Clerk of Courts) Mary Swain look bad so she wouldn’t get the endorsement or elected to office,” the woman said in the investigation’s documents.

The investigation indicates the employee, who was hired by Carpenter in June 2008, said it was suggested that “messing up the files” would make the county judges mad at Swain.

Swain was appointed clerk of courts by the county Republican Party in January after Carpenter was elected commissioner. She was chosen over longtime clerk’s office employee Jeff Wyrick, who was backed by Carpenter and who is running against Swain in the 2012 Republican primary. Wyrick was fired by Swain shortly after she took office.

The employee did not let anyone know about the accusation until she was notified she made a mistake on a receipt. The employee asked an office manager if she thought she made the mistake on purpose and the office manager answered, “no.” The employee then told the office manger that Carpenter had asked her to make mistakes with the receipts, according to the documents.

Shortly after, the employee in question made similar comments to two other co-workers that were documented and given to Swain. That’s when Swain approached the prosecutor about the accusations.

Gmoser requested BCI conduct the investigation to determine if sufficient cause existed to initiate a criminal investigation regarding the allegations.

“I immediately reviewed the allegations and determined it had to be handled by an outside agency,” Gmoser said. “I acted with lightening speed, recognizing the need for an independent outside agency to handle any investigation.”

The employee agreed to make controlled, recorded calls to Carpenter as part of the investigation.

During the first phone call, the woman told Carpenter she was in kind of a “pickle” because she told a coworker “about what you said that night over at the IHOP,” according to the investigation report.

When Carpenter asked, “What thing?” the woman answered, “About when you were suggesting that I just screw up the files and stuff.”
Carpenter replied, “Uh-huh and reiterated ‘that I suggested to you that you screw up the files?’”

The woman said, “Yea, because I had some problems actually that same week with the files and they were questioning me what was going on.”

Carpenter, who was not interviewed separately by BCI agents, answered, “So you didn’t say you did it on purpose.”

The woman replied, “No, I was trying to cover, didn’t want them mad at me ... I was trying to get myself out of a situation.”

The woman agreed to a follow-up controlled telephone call. In the conversation, the woman told Carpenter she was concerned the restaurant conversation would come back to her since there was an investigation.

According to the documents, Carpenter said, “Since that was a table full of 18 people, goofing off and joking, that’s not a conspiracy by any stretch of the imagination.”

In its conclusion, the investigation said agents did not believe the employee made the accounting error on purpose.

“BCI’s conclusion and my conclusion was this case had insufficient evidence for the purpose of pursuing a criminal charge,” Gmoser said.

When contacted by this newspaper, the employee who made the accusations said, “I have no comment on this.”

Carpenter told this newspaper she did not have a direct conversation with the employee at the IHOP and made no comment about messing up files or receipts to anyone. She said she was also unaware of the BCI investigation until learning of a public records request by this newspaper.

She said she does remember the calls from the employee and at the time thought they were “strange.”

“It is part of a pattern of Mary Swain to launch political attacks,” Carpenter said. She said she has been vocal about her support of Wyrick.

“For the past 12 months I have been the victim of unbelievably vicious political attacks because I ask questions, represent change and am willing to work hard for the citizens of Butler County,” Carpenter said. “I take great pride in the award winning reputation of the clerk’s office under my administration.”

Swain said she does not believe any sabotage happened in the office.
“Errors were made, but I do not feel they were intentional,” Swain said, adding the employee is still employed by the office.

But Swain said when the accusations came to light, she felt she needed to find out the truth.

Swain said,” I took the action I felt was necessary to protect the office. I felt due diligence would call for nothing less. We are talking about the integrity of court cases. All these files equate to peoples’ lives and any tampering should be prosecuted.

“It was handled appropriately and my office has moved on,” she said.

Another instance of our county officials not being able to play together nicely, it seems.
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