When I started looking into the pay increases for Cellell Dalton and Stephen Bear, and the hiring of Nikki Shank to be the new Assistant Wythe County Administrator, I had no particular axe to grind, I just thought the raises were inappropriate given the current economy. The more I looked into the situation, and the more people in and out of government that I talked to, the more I realized that something might be seriously wrong.
When government officials choose to conduct business in private, people become curious and want to know why. When the answers given are insufficient, folks have a tendency to get riled up and rumors start to fly. Some of the rumors are truly disturbing and need to be addressed, if for no other reason, to lay them to rest.
I call on Cellell Dalton to issue a public statement addressing the following:
Did Mr. Dalton’s friendship with Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe influence the decision to hire Nikki Shank?
Is Mr. Dalton aware of the speculation in Carroll County that Mr. Larrowe and Ms. Shank are or were romantically involved?
Did Mr. Dalton conspire with his close friend, Mr. Larrowe, to give Ms. Shank a job in Wythe County in order to take the heat off Mr. Larrowe?
Some rumors and allegations should be left unsaid !! These statements made are with no merit and if it wasn’t for the strength of the individuals mentioned they would possibly tear a family apart. I guess a college degree and tens of thousands of hours of continuing education as well as training coupled with exceptional job performance doesn’t merit a promotion for a woman??? Does it always have to be about something else?
This posting is about something else, and it has little to do with whether the hired person was a woman or not. If you have read all the posts on this topic, you would realize that the issue is about hiring decisions that may have been influenced too much by personal agendas, and administrator pay raises that were unacceptable to the community in these harsh economic times. Unfortunately, this type of situation places all the people involved under a microscope, and as long as the Board of Supervisors and the county administrator remain unresponsive to the community, questions will continue to be raised.
A couple of minor points of clarification on your comment: “tens of thousands of hours of continuing education.” If one were to take continuing education classes for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year, it would take 5 years of full time classroom attendance to complete just ten thousand hours. Tens of thousands of hours would take 10 years or more. “Exceptional job performance” There are only 4 people who can speak to Ms. Shank’s job performance: Keith Holland, the former Town Manager of Galax; Keith Barker, the current Town Manager of Galax and Ms. Shank’s immediate supervisor during the 5 years she was employed there; Gary Larrowe, her boss for the last 2 years, and Ms. Shank herself. Messrs. Holland, Barker, and Larrowe are prohibited by law from revealing or even discussing her job performance. If in fact Ms. Shank earned exceptional performance ratings on her reviews, all she has to do is make copies of those reviews public.
Even though officials are prohibited from commenting… the street word in Galax is that Nikki made a royal mess of things & they were only too happy to get rid of her. Also check her employment history…Pulaski, Galax, Carroll, Wythe, changing every two years like clockwork. Oh, and where has Larrowe also been..? I also suspect that there is more to the rumors about a romantic relationship… too bad Nikki’s married.
Mr Dees is incorrect about Shanks job performance evaluation, the people that had to answer to Shank could shed some light on performance. I believe if these people could speak with out fear of losing their job, you would find out some interesting things.
The attacks i read are directed towards Ms Shank, She isnt the one that set the pay scale!! Is there hard evidence of her and Mr Larrowe being romantically involed? If there isn’t then i am not too sure why that statement should be thrown out to the public.
I work in Hillsville, and most people I have talked to about Nikki say that they are glad to have gotten rid of her.
There sure seems to be alot of haters on here.
Don’t hate me cause I’m pretty
I’m pretty, oh so pretty.
Come on peasants, sing along . . .
The board ,Mr Gary l. are the problems in Carroll County.Nikki you are just being used by Gary like a dish rag.Come clean befor others do.
WOW!!!!!!!!!
this is history-we did a good job & we don’t have to care who is banging who.
We have bigger fish to fry,ie the budget-which I finall got last week. they charged me $52.00 for it but we cann’t compare 2010-2011 to proposed unless we have this line item budget.
SOOOOOOOO, did you know that the BOS gets full medical from us at a cost of $38,304 for 7 people? How about “public Official Ins” @$8,362-that’s $1,195 each. They gave away out $$$$ to “Civic organizations” to the tune of $15,600 7 pay “DUES” @ $12,000 per yr. To whom & for what??????Unclassified supplies for them are$$14,000.
Now on to Dalton’s-how about “Fringe Benefits”@ $30,000/subscriptions @$1,200 & we’re paying SOMEONES LIFE iNSURANCE @ $625.00 BUT WHO PAYS YOUR LIFE INS?????? I don’t want to insure Daltons life or Bears for that matter!!!!!
Anyway, yesterday at the BOS meeting I ASKED THEM TO HAVE A LINE ITEM COPY OG THE PROPOSED BUDGET AVAILABLE FOR THE PUBLIC, BEFORE THE PUBLIC HEARING, AT THE LIBRARY.We’ll see if they do it.
Lots of other stuff if you’re interested & if anyone would like to see the budget I have it & it would be great if someone could scan it here. Let me know/you can call me @686-0168.
Linda,
How many pages is the document? I can scan it for you, it just may take a couple days to get it done.
Drew