Top Cooper aide declines to testify until SBI director opens records on their dispute
Gov. Roy Cooper’s chief of staff declined to testify before a state House oversight committee next week about the SBI director’s handling of personnel matters — unless the director signs a waiver allowing a public discussion of the concerns.
Chief of Staff Kristi Jones said in a letter the governor’s office released Friday that she is concerned the Republican chairmen of the House Oversight and Reform Committee are siding with SBI Director Bob Schurmeier in advance of Tuesday’s meeting.
Last month, at a committee meeting that had little advance notice, Schurmeier told legislators that Cooper’s top aides were trying to force him out of his post with an unfounded discrimination claim, WRAL reported.
“I observed your March 28 hearing as well as your April 12 editorial published in the News & Observer,” Jones wrote to chairmen Jake Johnson and Harry Warren. “I am deeply concerned that you have chosen to focus on the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation’s description of our conversations while appearing to ignore the serious concerns about workplace practices that he referenced in his own comments.”
Neither Schurmeier nor the governor’s office has provided specifics on the personnel matters.
But in a previous letter to the committee chairmen, Jones said concerns included “a lack of racial diversity among sworn SBI agents, promotion decisions and practices, and access to training, among others.”
Jones said the personnel matters should get a fuller airing before state lawmakers take action.
Dispute unveiled at legislature
Johnson and Warren invited Jones and Eric Fletcher, Cooper’s general counsel, to testify before the committee on Tuesday.
Jones in her letter said secrecy provisions in the personnel law severely limit what she and Fletcher could say. The law prevents many personnel matters from being made public. Two areas Jones cited were personnel investigations and performance evaluations.
Jones said Schurmeier needs to sign a waiver that protects Fletcher and her from legal exposure if they testify.
“In particular, during his testimony, Director Schurmeier chose to make some of his own personnel file information public, but we are constrained in responding to questions about his testimony because of the legal protections afforded to the Director’s personnel file.” Jones wrote. “For example, the Director chose to make public that he felt intimidated in certain meetings with the Governor’s Office, but the Director has not waived confidentiality so that we can share all the details of those meetings.”
“In addition,” she wrote, “the Director acknowledged personnel complaints in his testimony, but cited personnel confidentiality in declining to answer questions about any such complaints. In your recent editorial, you referenced the Director’s testimony in suggesting that personnel complaints were ’‘pretext,” but I have been informed that without his consent state law prevents us from disclosing the full story showing that those complaints were not ‘pretext.’”
The law allows a department head to release otherwise secret personnel information when “essential to maintaining the integrity of such department or to maintaining the level or quality of services provided by such department.”
But Jordan Monaghan, a governor’s spokesperson, said in an email the law doesn’t provide enough leeway to let Cooper release the information.
“The Director’s waiver is critical to provide certainty in light of the SBI’s hybrid legal status and protection for all involved considering the privacy requirements of state personnel laws,” he said.
Jones’ letter closes saying a waiver from Schurmeier “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.”
Changes sought at SBI
The SBI investigates and prepares evidence for criminal cases, election law violations, environmental crimes, when police officers shoot civilians and more. It assists local law enforcement in some cases and provides background checks for state agency employees, people who work with children, people with disabilities and others.
Shortly after Schurmeier’s testimony, the House released a state budget bill that includes a provision moving the SBI from the Department of Public Safety, which Cooper oversees. It would become an independent agency whose director would still be appointed by the governor, but could be removed by a three-fifths vote of the legislature.
Schurmeier is a 2016 appointee of Cooper’s predecessor, Pat McCrory, a Charlotte Republican. Cooper is a Rocky Mount Democrat.
The Republican-controlled state legislature had moved the SBI from the Department of Justice, which was run by then Attorney General Cooper, to the public safety department in 2014.
This story was originally published April 14, 2023 at 8:02 PM.