ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997 TAG: 9704220031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: Rocky Mount Low
Second in a series
Former Rocky Mount Town Clerk Pat Hooke is a competent, scrupulous employee. Her reward? Demotion. Second in an editorial series.
PAT HOOKE deserves better from Rocky Mount's government.
So does every Rocky Mount resident.
They have a nice town. They should have a better government.
Hooke is Town Manager Mark Henne's secretary, but she used to be more than that.
Until last year, the mild-mannered, hard-working Hooke was town clerk. She also served, simultaneously, as the town manager's administrative assistant, clerk to the planning and zoning office, clerk to the board of zoning appeals, clerk to Town Council and staff support for municipal department heads.
Hooke amassed these duties because of her diligence and competence.
In Rocky Mount government, these qualities can get you in trouble.
Not that she's been relieved of her workload. Instead, town officials have made do with stripping her of her town clerk's title and making her work life miserable.
Hooke's offense: putting her public duties above their personal egos.
The final straw fell last year when she acceded to a request from the news media for a public record of a public meeting.
At this June 10 council meeting, Town Attorney John Boitnott commented to Town Manager Henne about the breasts of civic activist Anne Carter Lee Gravely, who was speaking before council.
After referring to Gravely's "big titties," Boitnott added: "Think I'll ask Pat if she's jealous."
Oh, such fun. The merriment was picked up on a tape recording from which Hooke transcribed minutes.
Councilman Arnold Dillon was furious, of course.
At Hooke.
When reporters asked for the tape, she shouldn't have released it without council's permission, Dillon fumed.
Never mind that this was public information, that Hooke had checked with the town manager before releasing it, and that she was owed an apology.
What she got was a demotion: public removal as town clerk.
After all, this wasn't the first time Hooke had offended Dillon's delicate sense of protocol.
In March 1995, she and another employee had mustered enough nerve to complain to Mayor Broaddus Shively about the town manager's behavior, including alleged drinking on the job, temper tantrums and way-over-the-line sexual remarks.
The mayor invited the women to council's next executive session. But Dillon told them council wouldn't meet with them. When they tried to ask why, he turned and walked away. He explained later that they should have taken up their grievances with the town manager.
Never mind that their grievances, besides being serious, were about the town manager.
Today, Hooke toils away with no thanks and growing health problems. She continues to endure town officials' bullying and erratic behavior.
And Rocky Mount residents continue to endure a government no self-respecting town should abide.
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