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The company that conducted a Mecklenburg County pay study denied allegations Friday that government officials pressured it to change information in the report.
James Fox, a partner with Fox Lawson & Associates, said in an e-mail to an attorney investigating the claims that he had reviewed preliminary drafts of the 2005 study and found “no evidence of changed, altered or manipulated data.”
Mecklenburg County commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts had asked the county attorney's office to look into whether administrators improperly ordered consultants to amend the salary study used to help set employee pay.
Commissioner Bill James has said a Fox Lawson executive told him consultants were lobbied to change wording that said county administrators were “overpaid.”
On Friday, county officials released the final version of the study and portions of early drafts.
Overall, Mecklenburg managers' salaries were 18.8 percent higher than the market average, the study found. The final report also said “there were twenty-three jobs that were found to be significantly above the market. Most of these jobs were in the upper management and executive categories.”
Excerpts from preliminary reports contained the same language.
But county officials said they could not provide full copies of early drafts. County Attorney Marvin Bethune said Fox Lawson told him the firm never gave the county those copies.
Fox said he would not release drafts to the Observer and recently sent only portions of those drafts for Bethune to review.
He told the Observer accusations that the final report was altered are “absolutely baseless.”
County General Manager John McGillicuddy has said officials did nothing inappropriate. McGillicuddy said county administrators followed their typical protocol when they reviewed a preliminary version of the study and suggested changes.
One recommendation, he said, was for consultants to compare salaries in Mecklenburg to government employees in larger counties and the private sector.
Before finalizing the study, consultants compiled data for the private sector and the city of Charlotte, Fox said in an e-mail to Bethune, the county attorney.
“This did not impact the results for the Executive jobs,” Fox wrote.
Fox denied telling James that his firm felt pressured to change wording in the final version of the study.
“He stated things I did not say,” Fox said.
On Friday, James said he stood by his account of the conversation.
County leaders contracted with Fox Lawson in late 2004 and paid the firm $342,014 for the study. Commissioners later voted to increase pay for employees whose salaries had fallen below market rate.
Accusations that administrators ordered changes to deceive the public are contained in an anonymous letter Roberts and James recently received.
County attorneys are still investigating. But on Friday some officials dismissed the allegations.
“A lot of people were hurt unjustly,” Roberts said. She said the county's management is comprised of people with “high integrity.”
Former county Commissioner Dan Bishop, who was on the Board of Commissioners in 2005, wrote an e-mail to Bethune defending top county administrators.
Bishop said he recalled McGillicuddy informing commissioners that staff wanted consultants to seek salary information from larger counties. He said he personally criticized the report for a lack of information on salaries from the private sector.
Fred Clasen-Kelly: (704) 358-5027
