SEANC leadership will face tough questions during Saturday meeting
The leadership of the State Employees Association of North Carolina has come under fire for its investigation into allegations of financial misconduct by former director Dana Cope.
Cope resigned Tuesday following a News & Observer report about possible financial improprieties at SEANC. Cope admitted that he had blurred the line between his professional and personal lives.
His admission runs counter to the public findings of the 12-member SEANC executive committee, which said it conducted an internal investigation and found no improprieties.
The full 59-member SEANC board is scheduled to meet Saturday in Raleigh. One item on the agenda is a resolution from a group of Wake County state employees who say they have no confidence in SEANC President Wayne Fish or the executive committee.
"Upon receiving a serious complaint of misappropriation of funds, the Executive Board conducted a hasty, less than thorough and flawed investigation and released a letter attacking the whistleblower," reads a resolution from SEANC District 37, which has 650 members.
The resolution criticizes the executive committee for standing by its findings even after Cope resigned, for retroactively approving Cope's spending in the midst of the investigation, and for giving no sign that it will seek to recover misspent money.
The N&O documented that the SEANC had paid $109,000 in unbid work to a landscaping firm that had also done extensive work at Cope's home. One check for nearly $19,000 was justified by a phony invoice and was made out to a defunct computer company called Perspective Concepts in Washington. That check, however, was cashed by Perspective Landscape Concepts, the Apex firm working at Cope's house.
The article also detailed how SEANC has paid more than $8,000 for flight lessons for Cope without the SEANC board's prior approval, and questionable spending by Cope on SEANC credit cards.
The allegations were brought forward by longtime SEANC member Betty Jones, who served as board treasurer from 2012 to 2014. Jones began investigating Cope's spending late in her term after clashing with him over a plan in which state employees buy consumer goods through payroll deduction. Jones said employees were paying exorbitant prices.
As the N&O investigated, members of SEANC's executive committee said the group conducted a parallel investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Fish, the president, has not responded to repeated questions about the investigation: Who was on the investigative committee? What documents did it review? Will Fish release the findings?
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman has requested that the State Bureau of Investigation conduct a criminal inquiry.
Felicia McKinnie, chair of another district in Raleigh, SEANC District 36, said she was upset that the executive committee attacked Betty Jones for going public.
"They owe her a public apology," McKinnie said.
This story was originally published February 13, 2015 at 6:38 PM.