Mayoral candidates trade allegations
Robbinsville – Shaun Adams has made no bones about his opposition to what he perceives are procedural violations conducted by the Town of Robbinsville's Board of Aldermen and the municipality's front-office staff.
First elected to office as an alderman in 2017, Adams was later elected mayor in 2021. He has filed for re-election and faces exactly one opponent: another alderman, Kenneth Hyde.
While in open session, Adams has openly questioned hiring practices; open-meeting violations; his limited access to town hall; a recent spike in water bills; and even his ability to prepare monthly meeting agendas being revoked. Most of the topics have been addressed, but it was obvious to anyone sitting in the room that things were uncomfortable.
Things reached a breaking point at Oct. 15's board meeting. Hyde was in an Oct. 1 motorcycle accident, forcing the postponement of the planned meeting that afternoon at the last minute. Since the town only has two aldermen – the third vacant seat has been open for two years, without resolution, but will finally be filled during Nov. 4's municipal election – a proper quorum could not assemble.
The Oct. 15 meeting began to unravel just 3 ½ minutes after its began, after alderwoman Debbie Beasley asked that the July 2 meeting minutes be amended to reflect that "rules and procedures of creating the agenda" include that agenda are required to be sent out 48 hours prior to a regularly-scheduled meeting.
"I'd like to have a notice of the meetings you and Kenneth have behind my back, also," Adams responded.
"There are no meetings," Hyde said.
"Yeah, they have," Adams replied.
"I'm just wanting to make sure we have the agenda before we come to the meeting. That's all," Beasley said.
After a motion to accept the amended July 2 meeting minutes passed, Adams continued.
"There's been several meetings behind my back," said Adams.
"I don't know where I was at," Hyde responded.
"Like when Mylee (Jenkins, the town's water clerk) was hired," Adams said.
"That was done in an open meeting," said Hyde.
Jenkins was originally hired by the town as an intern for the position, with compensation coming from the Golden LEAF Foundation. When funding from the foundation ceased, Jenkins was laid off.
Adams contended at Oct. 15's meeting that Jenkins was simply back in the office about two weeks later; Hyde and Beasley were adamant her official hiring occurred in an open meeting.
"I don't remember the date, but we sat right here in an open meeting and discussed it – bringing her back," Hyde said.
"When was she hired originally?," Adams inquired. Hyde chuckled, to which Adams pressed, "Can't answer that, can you?"
"I don't remember the exact date, but everything has been done in open meetings," Hyde responded.
Beasley then attempted to move the meeting to the next topic – public comment – to which Adams said he had "not opened up the floor to public comment, but he would" at the time.
No one spoke during the period and after it was closed, the agenda moved to the "Mayor Update and some questions."
Adams asked why he did not receive notice of a meeting that was allegedly held on "a Saturday morning" to hire town maintenance employees.
"You were given plenty of notice," Hyde said.
"No, I never received notice," said Adams.
"Shaun, I'll tell you what, if you was as interested in the last four years as you've been the last two weeks, we'd have got along a whole lot better," Hyde fired back. "I don't know how else to put it: I appreciate your opinion, but I don't think this is the time or the place for it."
"This is the time and the place for it. It's an open meeting," Adams replied.
"Maybe a private meeting or something like that," Hyde continued. "If you want it to get ugly, it'll get ugly."
"What do you mean, 'get ugly?,'" Adams questioned.
"I mean, you keep throwing this stuff out here," Hyde said. "There ain't been no private meetings. There ain't been nobody pick on you. There ain't been nobody done nothing. You keep wanting to come up and attack people."
"I'm not attacking you, Kenneth," Adams interjected.
"All I can say is, we'll agree to disagree on it, but like I say, if you'd been more involved through the whole term …"
"I've been very involved," Adams said. "I had to do the finance officer job for months, because you wouldn't hire anybody."
"Oh Shaun, you were right there through the whole hiring process with us," Hyde said.
"Yeah, and you wouldn't hire anybody," Adams replied.
"We hired who you wanted us to," Beasley said. "We hired Micheal Richardson."
"Based off your recommendation," Hyde added.
"After you fired Sonya (Webster) in July 2022," Adams noted.
"At your request," Hyde countered, stating that Adams personally drove to Hyde's house and asked for Webster to be fired.
Adams and Hyde went back-and-forth about the matter Oct. 15, before Adams sent a follow-up email to The Star to further dispel the accusation Friday.
"That is entirely false, and I never asked him to fire Sonya, and the town alderpersons had no valid reason to fire Sonya," Adams' email reads. "I wish I could have stopped them from firing her, as Sonya did an excellent job. Unfortunately, she was fired for standing up for what was right and refusing to sign checks that lacked proper supporting documentation.
"Unfortunately, the press never got the real story as to why the aldermen fired Sonya. However, some of it was obvious from Debbie's aggressive behavior toward Sonya in the July 2022 meeting, in which you can see Debbie belittling Sonya and me in (The) Graham Star's YouTube video because we refused to sign Debbie's checks. However, behind the scenes, the bullying and intimidation toward Sonya were much worse."
Oct. 15's meeting is available to view in its entirety on The Star's YouTube channel.
* Next week: More from Adams' follow-up email to The Star. Plus, an update on planned water-line upgrades.