So the NCCo ethics commision report is out on County Council President Paul Clark’s email “accident” last June (when he sent an email to the developer community with his wife’s signature from her law firm) and other members of council questioned his objectivity on land-use matters.
The report details how he didn’t know how to convert a word document to a pdf (Clark’s assistant did have the ability to do the conversion), so he sent it to his wife so she could do it at her law firm and then he copy & pasted her return email (and also included her signature).
He’s always admitted that he’s not too smart with the computers and that’s how this whole thing happened. The report notes it was a close vote by the commission – 3 members were in favor of finding a violation (2 against). Four votes are needed, so the case is dismissed and Clark is found ethical.
The report also disclosed that he ordered two county employees to delete 5,000 emails from his county office computer last summer as the investigation into the complaint was underway. He claims he was not trying to hide anything and gave this reason:
Clark said he was concerned about the lack of security on his council office computer and wanted to clear it so that anyone accessing his e-mails remotely would be identified by the county’s central server.
What exactly does that mean? Is his office computer capable of receiving anonymous remote connections? Is our county network that unsecure?
Either Clark is really dumb or he is a genious playing the dumb card. What do you think?
You can read today’s News Journal article to learn more. Also note that Clark filed a lawsuit on Monday to try to keep this commission report from going public – it was tossed out.
Can we get some Republicans to step up to the plate and try for a seat on Council? Bob Weiner is a waste who works hand in glove with Clark.
Tansey is one of the only really decent individuals on our council. Can’t you guys give us some CHOICES?
Clark isn’t just dumb. He didn’t give a crap that Pam’s Saul Ewing tag was stuck to his email. In fact, it probably gave it a bit more cache in his mind. After all, if Pam wrote this memo, it must be good for the development community.
There is no way that she did not originate that attachment.
Once Clark got pegged for it, he erased material that belonged to his constituents. It should prove to people that he has never been working for them. If he wants to work for his developer constituents, let them vote for him.
By the way, the Ethics Report is over on my blog, at least what was sent to me.
Thanks Nancy, I think you summed it up well. BTW I don’t think Weiner & Clark have the relationship you describe…I’ve heard the exact opposite. But I agree we need some new conservative blood on council.
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