State's DMV roiled by controversies

This may not be the best time to apply for a job at the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.

Over the past three days, a state administrative judge has issued an order dressing down DMV Commissioner Bill Gore for forcing out an assistant supervisor who blew the whistle on the emissions program. Gore has fired his deputy commissioner over allegations of improper hiring practices. And that deputy in turn plans to sue Gore on Tuesday, accusing him of the same thing.

“Holy mackerel,” said Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat and a transportation budget writer. “It’s unreal. I can’t imagine all these things taking place like this.”

The DMV has long been tainted by allegations of patronage, and the latest developments suggest an epic battle of finger pointing over hires and promotions in one of the state’s largest agencies. Gore, a former Superior Court judge, was brought in to lead the DMV in August after the previous commissioner resigned under a cloud of questioned personnel moves and an improper favor to a family friend.

But on Monday, a decision released by Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison challenged Gore’s firing of Ken Cassidy, a former assistant supervisor in the Raleigh district office. Last year, Cassidy had given information to The News & Observer to expose an improper hire on the emissions staff. The information also helped the N&O show that the DMV had far more emissions specialists than work for them to perform.

The stories led to the resignations of the improper hire, James Burgess, and the deputy director of the DMV’s License and Theft Bureau, Jimmy Edwards. The Charlotte area district supervisor, Purnell Sowell, was fired. The DMV also gave the emissions staff additional duties to fill their work days.

Cassidy was not identified as a tipster for The N&O, but Gore found out that Cassidy was talking to a reporter. In January, Gore issued an order that Cassidy could not have “any personal or professional interaction” with emissions staff at the Raleigh district during working hours. That meant Cassidy could have no contact with roughly half the employees in that office.

Cassidy was fired in March for talking to Burgess, shortly after Burgess announced his resignation. But Morrison said that discussion did not violate Gore’s order, which the judge found overly broad and unjust.

“Under the specific facts and circumstances of this case ... this order is excessive, punitive, unreasonable and not lawful as it chilled appropriate speech and effectively made (Cassidy) a pariah in his workplace,” Morrison wrote.

Cassidy declined comment, but his attorney, Michael C. Byrne, said, “We feel Judge Morrison got to the heart of the matter.”

The State Personnel Commission will take up Morrison’s decision and either affirm or deny it.

Meanwhile, Gore on Friday fired Deputy Commissioner Wayne Hurder without explanation. Spokeswoman Marge Howell said it was a personnel matter. Such decisions are typically kept secret, though state law allows agency heads to go public if the agency’s integrity is in question.

Hurder joined the DMV in 1993 and made roughly $101,000. He and his attorney, Jack Nichols, said in interviews that Hurder has been accused of improperly interfering with the hiring process. But they say Gore has done the same thing.

“It’s a little preposterous that (Hurder’s) being fired for interfering with the hiring process when he doesn’t have the final authority,” Nichols said. “And as you will see in the lawsuit, he was fired for doing things that Gore asked him to do.” Nichols called the lawsuit “a retaliation case.”

“Wayne raised a bunch of issues about things that Commissioner Gore had done under state personnel laws, and I think once he raised these issues this is the result he got.” Nichols said.

Gore could not be reached for comment. In September, he confirmed that the DMV was investigating hires that may have been connected to Eddie Carroll Thomas, a former Greene County patronage boss and political fundraiser who ran a maintenance garage for the state Transportation Department. Thomas frequently called Hurder, state phone records showed.

Hurder said that Thomas is a friend, and that Thomas had talked about job candidates with him. But Hurder denied any improper hiring. Hurder and Nichols could not say if that investigation had anything to do with Hurder’s termination.

“Some of the questions they were asking early in the investigation I responded to and then they went away and then other ones popped up,” Hurder said. “I felt like I did a pretty good job responding to them.”