By Michael Biesecker
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
DURHAM, N.C. — The salaries of three city employees who oversaw Durham’s yard-waste recycling plant have been cut, and one has been reassigned to another government job.
City Manager Patrick Baker would not comment on whether the personnel changes are related to the enormous fire at the facility, which had been operating without a valid state environmental permit for more than two years when it spontaneously burst into flames Sept. 10. Piles of leaves and wood at the dump burned for 14 days, forcing nearby residents to flee clouds of smoke and costing taxpayers at least $383,750 in firefighting and cleanup costs, as well as state fines.
Roosevelt Carter, the solid waste manager who directly oversaw the yard-waste plant, has been moved to the Durham Police Department, where he will work as an equipment maintenance supervisor. His annual salary was cut from $63,949 to $60,751, a decrease of 5 percent. Carter has worked for the city since July 2004.
The salary of Assistant Solid Waste Director Tom Ayers was cut 4.8 percent, from $91,711 annually to $87,344. Ayers has worked for the city since October 1992.
Assistant Solid Waste Director Jay Reinstein got a 5 percent salary reduction, from $71,240 to $67,678. Reinstein has worked at the city since April 1999.
The changes, effective Monday, were made public Tuesday after a public records request by The News & Observer. Though members of the City Council said this week both Ayers and Reinstein also would be moving to new jobs in other city departments, those changes had not been instituted as of Tuesday. None of the three men could be reached for comment.
Others in the chain of command apparently escaped such punishment.
Solid Waste Director Donald Long had worked for the city about a month when the fire broke out. The records for Operations and Evaluations Manager Anita Daniels, an addressee for correspondence from state officials about the lapsed permit, show no change to her title or $55,574 annual salary. Daniels previously was reassigned to solid waste from a job as director of the Lyon Park Community Center after issues there.
There also was no public action taken against Deputy City Manager Ted Voorhees or Baker, though Durham Mayor Bill Bell recently said the city manager had been “accordingly disciplined” by the City Council.
Both Baker and Voorhees said they were never told the yard-waste facility had been operating illegally, though The N&O later reported that both had received written internal reports about the permitting problems and warnings that conditions at the overwhelmed dump could lead to a fire.
Jackie Brown, the president of the Northeast Neighborhood Association and one of the residents smoked-out by the fire, said Tuesday that the punishments amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.
“That’s not much of a reprimand for a mistake of this magnitude,” Brown said.