Shaun Adams
* Editor's note: This story is a follow-up to last week's report, "Tensions boil over at town meeting."
Robbinsville – The remainder of Oct. 15's Town of Robbinsville Board of Aldermen meeting went off without further words exchanged between mayor Shaun Adams, alderman Kenneth Hyde and alderwoman Debbie Beasley, which allowed business to be conducted pertaining to the municipality.
The mood in the room was tense, however in the immediate minutes after Adams and Hyde traded accusations of secret meetings and even the possibility that Adams visited Hyde to request that former town finance officer Sonya Webster be terminated in July 2022. The 80-minute meeting eventually went into closed session, but Adams wanted his name cleared.
Hyde is challenging for Adams' seat as Robbinsville's mayor in Tuesday's municipal election, which lasts from 6:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. Voting can be completed at the Graham County Community Building (196 Knight St., Robbinsville). Adams was first elected as an alderman in 2017, then won the office of mayor in 2021 – the same election that saw Hyde receive the public's approval as an alderman.
Adams sent The Graham Star an unsolicited email regarding much of what was disputed at Oct. 15's meeting – which can be viewed in its entirety on The Star's YouTube channel – and what follows are some of his responses to the exchange with Hyde and Beasley.
"The town aldermen have a history of making false statements, bullying and intimidating anyone who attempts to correct them or state facts," a portion of Adams' email begins. "Please, take these actual facts into consideration as many of the aldermen's statements made during that meeting are false and misleading with no factual basis."
* Hyde told Adams that he had only shown interest in his job as mayor for "the last two weeks." Adams' response: " … completely ridiculous, as I have put in a tremendous amount of work and research to this job. I have … continued to work hard for this town and citizens working to get jobs and businesses in the town as well as field the majority of citizen complaints – even though I don't have the power to handle many of those complaints. For months, I even did some of the finance officer's job and didn't receive any additional pay; and if hadn't been for me, employees or vendors wouldn't have been paid during that time."
* Beasley and Hyde both reminded Adams that the replacement finance officer hired was Micheal Richardson. Beasley and Hyde each added that Adams was a part of the entire hiring process and recommended Richardson. "Richardson was hired to work for the town on a short-term, temporary basis from May until the end of July 2023," says Adams' email. "At first, I was for getting him hired in May because I was sick of doing the finance officer's job and not getting paid for it because of their reluctance to hire anyone, and few people had applied at that time. He was hired on a temporary, short-term basis to catch the town until the end of July, when he quit. A few days after he quit, the aldermen secretly met with him via phone without my knowledge and entered into a contract with him to pay $40 per hour."
* The email also expanded on Adams' stance that the board had met behind his back. "There have been a number of decisions made by the aldermen outside of regular meetings, but the most notable examples include employees/contractors mysteriously coming to work without any decision or discussion during a meeting," Adams' email reads. "Linda (Parton, the town's current finance officer) was … hired behind my back at the end of May 2022, as I found out the following Monday, when she showed up at work, the aldermen had met with her behind my back the Friday before.
“Debbie used the excuse that it was voted on to have someone work temporarily through a program with an outside agency; however, it was never decided in a meeting who that person would be and Mylee (Jenkins, the town's current water clerk) showed up with(out) my knowledge.
“The funding from that program ran out a long time ago, and when it ran out, Mylee was laid off for a couple of weeks and mysteriously reappeared, and that was never discussed during a meeting that I am aware of.
“After Taco (Brian Johnson)'s resignation, the aldermen interviewed several candidates to fill that position behind my back, including former mayor Steve Hooper, whom they held over my head for months, claiming they were going to appoint him to the vacant alderman seat."