Wake commissioner returns Mako Medical CEO’s campaign money
Wake County Commissioner Sig Hutchinson said Monday he is returning all campaign contributions associated with Mako Medical CEO Chad Price after The News & Observer reported Price gave inflated educational qualifications and work experience to the board of commissioners.
“Based on the information uncovered this past week, my campaign has voluntarily relinquished 100% of ALL campaign contributions associated with Chad Price,” Hutchinson said on his “Sig Hutchinson for Wake” Facebook page.
The commissioners had appointed Price to the trustee board of Wake Tech in 2014. Price resigned from the board Friday, a day after the N&O’s report.
Hutchinson said by text Monday that he was tied up in a meeting and unavailable for an interview. He referred the N&O to his Facebook post. The post did not say how much campaign money he had received that was connected to Price, but the N&O had found $20,600 in donations during the 2018 election. Of that, $10,200 came from Price and the rest came from two people who are connected to Price through businesses.
That year, Hutchinson, a Democrat, had nominated Price for a second term on the board.
Hutchinson was not a Wake County commissioner in 2014 when the Republican-controlled board appointed Price to the Wake Tech board by a partisan 4-3 vote. Then-Commissioner Paul Coble nominated Price.
During the nomination, Coble referred to a resume that Price had provided. The N&O obtained the resume the county had on file for Price.
It showed Price had listed a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Maryland at College Park and an associate’s degree in aerospace design from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The resume misidentified the aeronautical school as “Emery Riddle.”
Neither university had a record of him attending. Price does have a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland University College, an online higher education institution in Adelphi, Maryland.
Price had said in an email response that an intern had put together his resume. He did not respond to the N&O’s follow up request for the name of the intern.
Price’s resume also claimed that he had been a vice president for brand management at Ford Motor Company. A company spokeswoman could find no record of that employment.
When the N&O informed Hutchinson of the misinformation Price had provided in his resume and in an application for a state government contract, Hutchinson said he didn’t see it as a reason to kick Price off the Wake Tech board.
“To me he’s the type of person we need on the board of Wake Tech in terms of his business experience and his connections and his ability to raise money,” Hutchinson said.
His opponent in the Democratic primary, Jeremiah Pierce, said after the N&O’s story that Price should not be on the board, and Hutchinson should return the campaign money.
Hutchinson said on his Facebook post that “political donations do not influence my policy-making decisions. They never have, and never will. I am steadfast in my commitment to transparent governance.”
Price, his family and people and businesses connected to him gave about $560,000 in campaign contributions in the past five years to campaigns in several states.