Now that the city of Charlotte has spent $35,000 to report that city councilman Warren Turner has a habit of macking on city employees — now what? Turner is a state employee, a probations officer.
Oh, and I do not for a minute think we’ve got the whole story on what prompted Mayor Anthony Foxx to spend his blast email warning the council about sexually harassing the help. Reading the 20-page report it is clear that Turner has been a headache for City Attorney Mac McCarley for some time, years even. It is my belief that McCarley essentially orchestrated Foxx’s email and subsequent public disclosure of what had been a nagging private matter for him and top city staff. I believe McCarley knew that City Manager Curt Walton would not have the stomach to confront Turner over the latest supposed incident, and that steering the matter toward Foxx would eventually provide for wider airing of the allegations.
And it is clear that attorney Valecia McDowell was very focused on establishing a pattern of behavior by Turner, right down to establishing that Turner likes to drink Crown Royal while out-of-town on city trips. Interesting, but not particularly relevant to the matter of how the very top levels of city government operates. More than anything what this exercise tells me is that city staff will always act to protect city staff. Period.
