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To Concerned Citizens and Media: NRSA Employees Sue Commissioners, Board and Organization; View Lawsuit

To: Concerned Citizens and Media [Click here to view NRSA Lawsuit]

While some are claiming the NRSA employees don’t have standing to sue the county commissioners and other NRSA board members individually, the lawsuit accurately describes the atrocities perpetrated on the citizens of Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Watauga and Wilkes counties.

We (the taxpayers) paid Martin Starnes & Associates CPAs, Inc. thousands of dollars to exonerate the scoundrels. It is unfortunate the employees have had to sue to get their earned compensation. However, we finally get an accurate account of what has taken place in reading this lawsuit. (Ironically, Mr. Oswald, attorney for the employees, is from Hickory, my hometown.)

Obviously, Mr. Oswald read the financial statements, the minutes of NRSA and other available documents. He best sums it up when he writes, they “buried their collective heads in the sand”. And, he has filed a lawsuit that completely turns the Martin Starnes & Associates, CPAs Inc. report upside down. When I read the Martin Starnes report, I thought, how preposterous. It is refreshing to have someone expose these scoundrels for what they are and tell it like it really is.
And, in reading the attorney’s more colorful description of the debacle, I think of how this not only describes NRSA; it portrays, to me, the actions of the Watauga County commissioner’s since 2004: “This civil action is in the nature of fraud, common law fraud, promissory fraud, fraud by concealment, misrepresentation, conversion, detrimental reliance, fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation, conspiracy, aiding and abetting and concerted action as well as breach of contract and the defense of sovereign immunity is not available to Defendants.”

According to Steve Frank, in Computer Crush, Employee Lawsuit Dog NRSA Board: “I was told about certainly thousands of dollars in computer, office electronics, and even office furniture that area being destroyed at the order of the New River Service Authority. Goods from some of the counties—particularly Wilkes—have been carted out of the former New River facilities, taken to the dump, and rolled over by equipment. The equipment was said to include computers, high-end printers and peripherals—some of it new—all of it serviceable, and all of it with value. Contacting Watauga NRSA board member Nathan Miller, he said the board had no choice, with two employees and two weeks to shut-down—there is just no one else to decide what to do with equipment that potentially contain HIPPA violating information. Those goods from the Watauga offices were still in storage yesterday, but according to Miller, won’t be for long.”

Now, we can add willful destruction of public property and public records. We saw in the accounts payable details where NRSA shredded documents from July through September of 2011 (the Shred It company line items), most recently we hear they have crushed public property/public records at the landfills in the name of HIPPA; and now we understand the remaining records will not be around much longer. I made a public records request months ago which has been willfully ignored. I would like to add my thoughts on NRSA’s arrogant disregard of the public record’s request; I am of the opinion they have “buried their collective heads in the sand”, breached their fiduciary duty, acted to willfully conceal information from the public, breached public records laws, knowingly colluded, aided and abetted in a conspiracy to violate public records and open meeting laws, and have willfully breached their oath of office as county commissioners.

I wonder if we have standing to sue them as citizens of Watauga County for the tax consequences of their numerous despicable actions. If we can’t sue them, we can take them out of office and make sure that they never serve again, not even as “dog catcher”.

From: A Concerned Citizen, Deborah Greene

Click here to view lawsuit: NRSA Lawsuit