NC town banned councilman from being alone with staff. He’s still running for reelection
A Pineville Town Council member who was censured by his colleagues and barred from interacting with town staff without supervision has filed to run for reelection.
Councilman Les Gladden will seek a 10th term in office, according to the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections’ candidate list.
His campaign begins less than a year after Pineville Mayor John “Jack” Edwards and other council members voted unanimously to censure Gladden in the wake of an investigation into interference with the Pineville Police Department.
That censure, the Charlotte Observer reported previously, included provisions to:
Prohibit Gladden from entering the town’s police station or meeting with town department heads without the supervision of the town manager.
Prevent Gladden from “using language and verbal communication in public that disparages the Police Chief and Police Officers of the Town of Pineville.”
Restrict Gladden from communicating with any town employee except the town manager, or taking action that could be interpreted as attempting to interfere with personnel matters.
The censure runs through the end of Gladden’s current four-year term, which ends this year, and violating the terms of the censure could result in the council attempting to remove him from office, the censure said.
Pineville Town Manager Ryan Spitzer told The Charlotte Observer there’s been one incident investigated involving Gladden since the censure — a time when he and a town clerk brought food to a budget work session. That situation was “cleared up,” he said.
Spitzer declined to comment on Gladden filing to run for reelection. Gladden did not immediately return calls and an email from an Observer reporter about his reelection campaign.
Reason for Pineville councilman’s censure
Gladden’s censure came after an investigation found he interfered in an investigation into his son, former Pineville Police Officer Ryan Gladden, who was accused of being drunk on duty, the Observer reported previously.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced in January he would not bring criminal charges against Gladden in the case, saying Gladden’s actions were inappropriate but fell short of a crime of obstructing the investigation.
In a letter to the State Bureau of Investigation at the time, Merriweather credited Pineville Police Chief Michael Hudgins for “insisting these matters be independently reviewed, first by a contracted internal investigative agency and then by the State Bureau of Investigation.”
Hudgins did not immediately return a request for comment on Gladden running for office again.
Gladden is one of four candidates who filed to run for two seats on the Pineville Town Council in 2023, joined by current Councilwoman Amelia Stinson-Wesley and Eric Fransen and Danielle A. Moore.
The town’s current mayor and town council members also did not immediately return a request for comment on Gladden running for office again.
This story was originally published July 22, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
