Commissioners rejected requests
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Murphy – Two different Department of Social Services directors urged Cherokee County commissioners to fire then-DSS attorney Scott Lindsay years before the county was sued over the agency’s use of custody and visitation agreements, according to current and former county officials.
Commissioner Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland publicly acknowledged that those conversations took place during a heated Oct. 17 board of commissioners meeting. Westmoreland later clarified that former DSS directors Donna Crawford and Cindy Palmer came to the board on multiple occasions after he was sworn in to the District 3 post in December 2014 to request that commissioners oust Lindsay, who also served as county attorney at the time.
“They came to us four times,” Westmoreland said during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“DSS, it’s now coming out,” one woman shouted from the crowd in response.
The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners, during a special meeting June 29, unanimously approved a $48.5 million settlement that resolved more than 20 remaining lawsuits stemming from separation of families by DSS. The approval of the settlement added an additional 8 cents added on to the county’s 2022-23 millage rate, setting the new figure at 61 cents per $100 of property value. The owner of a county property valued at $200,000 will pay an additional $160 per year solely because of the lawsuits.
A total of 26 lawsuits were originally filed against Cherokee County and DSS, and the families involved in those cases have won more than $53 million in judgments, settlements and fees. The first of those cases was tried in U.S. District Court in May 2021 and resulted in jury awards and attorney fees of more than $6.5 million for Brian Hogan and his daughter. As part of the Hogan judgment, the jury determined that Lindsay and Palmer acted in a “grossly negligent manner,” violating the father’s and daughter’s due process rights.
Lindsay still faces 20 felony charges for his role in separating children from their families – without judicial oversight – through the use of custody and visitation agreements, also known as CVAs. Those agreements were privately negotiated between DSS, foster families and parents or guardians of the children being removed from their homes.
Westmoreland said shortly after he took office, Crawford told him Lindsay “wasn’t a good attorney and wasn’t doing what he should” during an informal meeting at her office. She later lobbied the entire board to approve her desire to fire Lindsay.
“Donna came to the board with Cindy,” Westmoreland said, estimating that the meeting occurred in 2015. “Donna was the director, Cindy was the (finance officer) and they told us that Scott was doing things that he shouldn’t do that was detrimental to children.
“She didn’t say (anything about) CVAs. She was worried about what was going to happen with the county and the kids.”
At the time, the board of commissioners consisted of Westmoreland, Dr. Dan Eichenbaum, Cal Stiles, C.B. McKinnon and Roy Dickey.
Palmer, Stiles and McKinnon acknowledged that those conversations about firing Lindsay took place behind closed doors on multiple occasions over the years. Beyond that, accounts differ about the exact criticisms of Lindsay’s performance and why commissioners repeatedly resisted removing him.
“Donna Crawford came to the board because Scott was getting behind on his work,” McKinnon said. “He wasn’t able to keep up and keep the cases done like they needed to be done.
“His answer to it was, look, I’m running a private practice, I’m working for the board of commissioners (as county attorney), and I’m working for DSS, and between the three, yes, it’s hard to keep up. We worked a deal out, and that’s when Scott closed his private practice and worked (full time) only for DSS and the county.”
Crawford could not be reached for comment.
Westmoreland laid much of the blame on Stiles for repeatedly lobbying to retain Lindsay.
“Cal Stiles said (Lindsay) is going through a divorce and his kids are fixing to go to college, let’s give him another chance,” Westmoreland said of Crawford’s initial request. “The consensus of the board, except for me, was to give him another chance.”
Westmoreland said the same scenario played out when Palmer asked the board to fire Lindsay around 2016.
“We can’t let him go, Cal (said), we shouldn’t let him go because of this, this, this and this,” Westmoreland said. “I’m livid by now, this is the second time and a different director has come to us.”
Westmoreland said he “pitched a fit” after Palmer later returned to the board and once again asked for Lindsay to be fired.
“I said, ‘Listen here you sons of bitches ... we’ll be on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News and everything else you can do, and we will be sued and the county will go bankrupt,” Westmoreland said. “We (still) didn’t fire him, then all of this breaks open (with the DSS lawsuits).”
McKinnon acknowledged that Westmoreland wanted to fire Lindsay from the start.
“I never want to take a good employee and just dump them without first finding out what the problem is, and then trying to find a solution to the problem,” McKinnon said. “(Hippie’s) position was look, he’s not doing the job, we need to let him go.”
McKinnon said Lindsay was “reprimanded” after Palmer took over as DSS director and, like Crawford, complained about his performance. However, commissioners once again went against Westmoreland’s push to fire him and decided to give him another chance.
Lindsay was finally let go from his role as DSS attorney in January 2018, after the state reportedly began its investigation into Cherokee County DSS in late 2017. Then, by a 3-2 vote, Lindsay was relieved of his duties as county attorney on Feb. 5, 2018, after serving in that role since 2000. Westmoreland, McKinnon and Eichenbaum voted to fire Lindsay, while Stiles and Dickey voted to retain him, according to board meeting minutes.
“Hippie, I’ll confirm, he’s telling you the truth,” McKinnon said. “Cal voted to keep him even after the voluntary custody things were revealed, he voted to keep him. Whether that was a right or wrong vote, we’ll let somebody else decide that.”
Stiles said he did not recall board members ever being informed about the county’s use of CVAs at any time prior to Lindsay being fired.
Stiles said he has been advised by the county attorney not to comment on any discussions the board had regarding Lindsay, since that was a personnel issue discussed in closed session.
However, Stiles is the only local candidate facing any opposition in the general election, and he believes the timing of Westmoreland’s statements is politically motivated. Retiring Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Jeana Conley is challenging Stiles for the District 1 commission seat as a write-in candidate.
“The problem is, Hippie’s just gotten to where he’s a darn idiot,” Stiles said. “That’s his problem, he just runs his mouth, and right now he’d cut his left arm off if he thought he could cause me to lose the election.”
Westmoreland said DSS directors did not need the board of commissioners’ approval to relieve the agency’s attorney of his duties, but he added that the board’s lack of approval put both Crawford and Palmer in a difficult position.
“Being over that and not having the approval of the board puts her in a pretty tight situation, in my opinion,” Westmoreland said. “I like Scott, too, but it’s not about liking someone, it’s about kids.
“Do I think Scott did (things) with full malice? No.”
Benjamin Zellinger, a special prosecutor with the State of North Carolina, said last year that DSS employees used CVAs on numerous occasions over the course of 10 years, partly because the agency was “greatly understaffed” and “cut a corner” to save time and money. As a result, no services were provided to children following their separation.
Crawford retired in 2015 and was succeeded as director by Palmer. Palmer pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of felony obstruction of justice, receiving one year of unsupervised probation. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed several other charges, including willful failure to discharge duties, perjury and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Former DSS supervisor David Alan Hughes also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in August 2021.
Meanwhile, Cherokee County commissioners have demanded at least $53 million from the State of North Carolina as reimbursement for the multimillion-dollar lawsuit settlement. In a resolution passed Sept. 19, the board contends that the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services “failed in its duties of training and oversight in regard to Custody and Visitation Agreements” previously used by the Cherokee County Department of Social Services.
The board’s resolution states, in part, “the North Carolina State Legislature and the Governor of the State of North Carolina shall introduce and make into law sufficient appropriations to reimburse Cherokee County for no less than $53 million to satisfy its debt incurred due to the failure of the NCDHHS to execute its duties under the statues of the State of North Carolina.”
Eichenbaum, who drafted the resolution, said the Department of Health & Human Services failed to provide proper training and oversight of all the DSS departments across North Carolina. He further contends that CVAs were introduced at a seminar run by DHHS officials more than a decade ago.
“The CVAs had been written starting in 2009,” he said. “There are five other counties still using CVAs because it was introduced at a seminar run by DHHS 12 or 13 years ago.”
Westmoreland said he agrees with Eichenbaum that state officials are “as much to blame as the county, if not more.” Similarly, McKinnon said he believes the situation is a “failure of the state of North Carolina DHHS.”
The county’s insurer, the N.C. Liability & Property Pool, will pay $24.25 million of the multimillion-dollar DSS settlement, while the county will be responsible for the remaining $24.25 million. Cherokee County must pay $4 million of the settlement by Feb. 15, 2023. The county will then pay about $2.9 million per year for seven years, beginning in July 2024 and ending in 2031.