Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Members of Town Council hoped to find a missing tape when they asked the police chief to conduct a surprise search of the town manager's office March 10.
But what was found instead was enough to give any town manager a headache: two bottles of liquor, one of them open, in a closet.
It is a violation of the town's personnel policy for an employee to possess alcohol on town premises.
Police Chief Butch Jenkins said he told council members - who had gathered hastily to conduct an ``emergency'' meeting at 7 p.m. that Friday - that he wouldn't search the office unless Town Manager Mark Henne was told beforehand. Henne arrived at the Rocky Mount Municipal Building a short time later after being contacted.
Jenkins said he and Henne entered the town manager's office to look for the tape. From that point on, Jenkins said, the search ``becomes a personnel matter for Town Council'' to settle.
A council member and a town employee confirmed that the liquor was found.
Henne said the liquor bottles - which he said were covered with dust - were Christmas gifts and that the whole situation was ``no big deal. It's not an issue. I did nothing wrong. I have nothing to hide.''
Henne said he even unlocked his door so the search for the missing tape could be conducted.
Town Council met in a closed, executive session Monday night to discuss several items for about two hours. No action was taken regarding any personnel matters.
Court records show that Henne has been charged twice with driving under the influence of alcohol. He was convicted of the first charge in Roanoke County in 1987. The other charge was dismissed in 1993 in Vinton.
After the second charge, Town Council suspended Henne without pay for 30 days and ordered him to turn in his keys to the town car. He was driving that car when he was pulled over in Vinton.
Henne was hired as Rocky Mount's town manager in 1989. At least one council member said he was aware of the 1987 DUI conviction when the town hired Henne.
Council members who returned a reporter's phone calls would not discuss the March 10 search or the discovery of the liquor.
Councilman Steve Angle said a meeting was held March 10 to conduct ``an executive session on a personnel matter.''The meeting was attended by every council member except Arnold Dillon.
The meeting adjourned, and then the search was conducted a short time later, according to Town Attorney John Boitnott. Council members did not take part in the search, he said.
Boitnott said it was his opinion that the personnel matter that prompted the emergency meeting met Virginia Freedom of Information Act guidelines.
Boitnott said Vice Mayor Posey Dillon tried to notify the Franklin News-Post of the meeting around 7 p.m. March 10, but no one answered the phone. No other media outlets were contacted, Boitnott said.
Why did council members find it necessary to search Henne's office for a tape he said he had lost? They wouldn't talk about that, either.
The tape - which was used to record a town Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in November 1993 - became an issue recently when a Rocky Mount lawyer discovered it was missing.
Eric Ferguson is the attorney for a Florida company that wanted to build a Farmers Home Administration-managed housing project at Virginia 40 and Hatcher Street.
Ferguson, who only recently found out that the Planning and Zoning Commission met in November 1993, believes the tape's contents may play a part in a lawsuit he plans to file against the town.
Town Council rejected a subdivision plat for the development in early 1994.
Several people who were at that Planning and Zoning Commission meeting say the commission recommended approval of the development. Dillon, however, said the commission did not go on record with a recommendation and simply passed the request on to council.
Henne has said that he simply lost the tape. No official minutes of the meeting ever were recorded in the town's logbook. Handwritten notes that Henne made at the meeting have been found and will be used to produce minutes.
by CNB