GOP legislators threaten governor’s aides with contempt; new date set for questioning
After threatening Gov. Roy Cooper’s top aides with legal consequences for not showing up to answer questions, Republican lawmakers will allow them to testify later this month to respond to complaints of meddling and intimidation from the State Bureau of Investigation’s director.
Reps. Jake Johnson and Harry Warren, chairmen of the state House Oversight and Reform Committee, had requested that Cooper’s chief of staff, Kristi Jones, and general counsel, Eric Fletcher, appear before their committee on Tuesday related to their meetings with SBI Director Bob Schurmeier.
Last week Jones said she and Fletcher would not be available to speak with the committee on that date, as the chairs had planned.
Jones also complained that state legislators are focusing on Schurmeier’s discrimination and meddling accusations, ignoring serious concerns about his workplace practices.
But on Monday she offered alternative dates to testify and added: “we welcome the opportunity to testify on this topic, concerns raised about the SBI and the consequences of the General Assembly’s efforts to remove normal oversight of the Bureau.”
Johnson told The News & Observer that they will now plan for the aides to testify April 26.
“As long as it leads to true and forthright testimony regarding the content of the meetings that took place between the Director and Governor’s staff, we are more than willing to accommodate this new date,” he wrote in an email.
March testimony
Schurmeier testified last month that Cooper’s top aides were meddling in his hiring decisions and trying to force him out of his job with unfounded discrimination claims. At that meeting, he asked the General Assembly for support in making the SBI an independent agency, by moving it out from under the Department of Public Safety.
The draft House budget proposes moving the SBI from the department, whose secretary is part of Gov. Roy Cooper’s cabinet, to its own separate, cabinet-level department.
Jones’ Friday letter argued that state personnel laws prevent officials in Cooper’s office from addressing Schurmeier’s accusations and urged that Schurmeier waive that protection before anyone else testifies.
“The waiver would allow us to have a more meaningful discussion about our personnel conversations with Director Schurmeier and ultimately help provide the most productive workplace for the men and women of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation,” she wrote.
In a letter dated Saturday, the committee chairmen wrote they were “disappointed” in Jones’ response, pointing out that the only obligation is that they appear and provide truthful testimony.
Under state law, “your refusal to appear before the committee until we obtain a written waiver from Director Schurmeier is potentially grounds for contempt,” the letter said.
It’s not necessary to delve into the confidential personnel matters, it states.
“This is about the basis for the Governor’s Administration to insert itself into the managerial decisions of an independent law enforcement agency,” the letter added.
Neither side in this dispute has provided specifics about the personnel matters Schurmeier first mentioned.
In his March testimony, Schurmeier said Cooper’s top aides asked him twice to resign late last year after discrimination accusations. He said that the governor’s office threatened to have an outside agency do a formal investigation. The investigation hasn’t taken place, according to both sides.
In a previous letter, Jones expressed concerns about the SBI’s lack of racial diversity among agents, promotion decisions and training.
“Over the past several years, current and former agents and others have contacted us to share a variety of information that left us increasingly concerned about the direction of the SBI and whether it was continuing to meet its high historical standards,” Jones wrote.
What the NC law says
North Carolina law states that a House or Senate committee may invite witnesses to testify. A House committee chair may issue a subpoena for such testimony after a majority vote and with the permission of the speaker or speaker pro tempore of the House.
Anyone who “fails to obey a subpoena” or “fails or refuses to testify” shall be deemed in contempt. If a majority of a committee votes to hold someone in contempt, officials can file a complaint in Superior Court, which could result in jail time.
But that might not be necessary in this case.
Jones’ letter Monday proposed three dates she could testify in April or May.
“Ensuring fair workplace and human resources practices under the law is of the utmost importance and we welcome the opportunity to testify on this topic, concerns raised about the SBI and the consequences of the General Assembly’s efforts to remove normal oversight of the Bureau,” Jones wrote.
In 2017, a state Senate committee voted to take the rare step of issuing a subpoena to Larry Hall after he failed to appear for the third time at a confirmation hearing to become Cooper’s Cabinet secretary over the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs. Hall testified and was eventually confirmed, ending a contentious legal standoff, The N&O reported at the time.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published April 17, 2023 at 6:59 PM with the headline "GOP legislators threaten governor’s aides with contempt; new date set for questioning."
