Charlotte.com: News

Jerry Sennett

Sun, 11 May 2008 08:14 EDT

Jerry Sennett clasped his knee as a woman described being robbed at gunpoint. Behind her: more than 100 others with similar stories and frustrations about the rising crime in Charlotte.

Sennett could have displayed defensiveness, or argued with facts and figures that crime in the city is not that bad.

Instead, as each speaker finished, the deputy police chief clapped.

Sennett's demeanor at recent public meetings illustrates the

strengths and potential weaknesses of his candidacy to be Charlotte-Mecklenburg's next police chief.

He is direct, matter-of-fact and well-informed.

But he has spent his entire career in a department suddenly drawing criticism for its response to an upswing in crime.

Sennett's supporters say he is a strong leader who has shown the ability to recognize what works and change what doesn't. After Chief Darrel Stephens announced his retirement, Sennett became the de facto face of the force, calmly addressing outrage from politicians and residents over crime.

But critics, many of them unnamed, say he's too close to the CMPD to make the changes they say are needed. He's also fighting the odds -- the last time a chief was hired from within the department was nearly 20 years ago.

Sennett is undeterred. "We have a great police department and I can make it better."

As chief, Sennett said he would continue to build strong community partnerships, work to hire more minority officers and pick a staff that would attack issues.

While he embraces many of Stephens' philosophies, he considers himself an independent thinker with his own goals.

"He was able to tackle difficult issues and make difficult choices when they need to be made," said retired deputy chief Robert Schurmeier Jr.

Colleagues describe Sennett, 51, as a leader who evaluates situations before acting, a good listener with strong people skills. Though private by nature, after 24 years in the department he is well-known and respected.

"He is straight up with you and gets along with people," said retired police Maj. Norris Anderson. "But he doesn't go out to be your buddy."

But officers favoring a chief from outside CMPD say Sennett offers more of the same -- a "good old boy" mentality that lends itself to political promotions and soft crime-fighting.

Three veteran officers, who spoke only if their names were not used, say Sennett and other police leaders didn't effectively adjust to the crime spike. Instead, they say, their leaders still blame the problem on the courts.

Sennett describes himself as competitive, even impatient at times. Yet he believes he is mindful of how he treats people.

"He's a good listener, which I think is one of the most important skills you need," said retired police chief Dennis Nowicki.

Sennett's known for a mentoring style -- praising in public, correcting in private.

"If it requires somebody to be straightforward without mincing words, Jerry can fill that role," Schurmeier said. "He wouldn't intentionally offend anyone, but he cuts to the chase."

Sennett has a black belt in karate and is a scratch golfer. Divorced, he has two grown children and is now engaged, he said.

Raised in small-town Vermont, he came to Charlotte in 1975 to study criminal justice and play golf at UNC Charlotte. He said he wanted a new landscape and new possibilities. He ended up with a lifelong career.

One of five children, Sennett grew up in a family of attorneys and FBI agents. He wanted to be a lawyer but chose criminal justice after an internship at CMPD.

Sennett first made a name for himself around the country as a narcotics officer combating drug-dealing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's transportation centers.

Later, as a captain in the central district, he built relationships with business leaders and worked closely with them to strengthen the city's panhandling rules.

As a deputy chief, Sennett helped reorganize the department in 2007 to get more officers into growing University City.

He also helped devise the mapping system that identifies trouble spots. Some residents complain that the method simply moves crime around.

But the department says it's contributed to the city's lowest violent crime rate in more than 20 years. Sennett calls it his proudest accomplishment.

His efforts to reduce crime at uptown special events have drawn both praise and criticism. When a near riot in uptown caught police off guard on July 4, 2005, the department was criticized for not being in control or communicating enough with elected officials.

Sennett and his staff figured out what happened and how to fix the problems.

His aggressive crowd-control strategies at uptown celebrations since have kept the peace. But they also drew fire: from police officers who had to cancel vacation plans to be on duty; and residents who felt some of the police response was heavy-handed.

Jerry Sennett

AGE: 51.

JOB: Deputy chief, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

OVERSEES: More than 1,200 officers.

SALARY: $116,000.

DEPARTMENT BUDGET: $174 million.

Rodney Monroe

Sun, 11 May 2008 08:14 EDT

Richmond, Va., police Chief Rodney Monroe came up through the Washington, D.C., police force in the 1980s and '90s, a time when the city struggled with record violent crime. Homicides there peaked at 472 in 1990.

He commanded one of D.C.'s most violent districts, and what he saw there almost pushed him out of law enforcement, he said.

"That just really got to me, the number of young people that were losing their lives," he said.

But the trademarks Monroe developed in D.C. have also

shaped his career as chief in Macon, Ga., and Richmond. He encourages close work with communities, and he holds his lieutenants accountable. He goes to crime scenes. He's soft-spoken, but earns respect.

"He treated the officers fairly and that's all we want," said Trevor Hewick, a retired Washington, D.C., police detective who, for more than 20 years, watched Monroe rise through the ranks of the district's police force.

As Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton considers Monroe for the city's top cop, residents are anxious about an increase in violent crime. Council members complain that the city's approach to criminals has become too soft, focusing on prevention, not arrests. They say the new police chief is one of the most important hires Walton will make.

In Richmond, a city less than a third the size of Charlotte, few city leaders criticize Monroe. In fact, the mayor and council there squabbled last week about who likes him more, according to news reports.

Richmond leaders credit him with a transformation: reducing homicides to a 26-year low of 55 last year, boosting department morale, and making officers more responsive to citizens.

The City Council has increased Monroe's budget each year -- it has gone from $56.6 million to about $75 million between 2005 and 2008. Residents have seen parks rid of drug deals. And his family and friends cheered when Monroe, 50, got his bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University last year, after working at it for eight years.

"I don't know anybody in my list of contacts that doesn't like and respect him," said Tim Bowles, a longtime Richmond resident who hopes Monroe stays in his city.

In D.C., Monroe was promoted quickly and navigated internal politics well, but he also did good police work, said Hewick, the retired D.C. police detective, who also joined the department in the late '70s.

"You know the ones that police, because you see them down at court all the time," he said.

Monroe adapted well to what was then a relatively new "community policing" directive and gained trust in some of the city's poorest and most troubled neighborhoods, Hewick said.

Monroe said community policing ideas were exciting at the time -- and they have stuck with him since. He has long encouraged officers to be visible and listen to what a community believes is important.

A neighborhood's worries could range from copper downspout thefts to frequent shootings, but those fears should be addressed, Monroe said.

"You have to address the perception of crime also," he said. Regardless of statistics, "people can still have a lot of fear."

Hewick, who was active in the police union, said officers respected Monroe's leadership. When D.C. was looking for a chief recently, Hewick said, many of the rank and file hoped Monroe would be chosen.

"He's the kind of guy we want running the show," Hewick said.

In 2001, Monroe retired as an assistant police chief in D.C. to head the Macon Police Department, where he stayed until 2005. There, Monroe initiated new bicycle and foot patrols, something he has also done in Richmond.

"Those are the things that allow you to slow down a little bit," he said. "You've got to put yourself in a position to get people engaged."

But the city had financial troubles while Monroe was in Macon. State and federal agencies began scrutinizing the city's finance office. One focus was a $1 million federal youth program grant that began under Macon's city administration, but eventually fell under the control of the police department.

Last week, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia sent a letter to the city of Macon, warning that $350,000 of that grant had been misused, and the federal government had grounds for a civil lawsuit. The letter names a former Macon mayor, but not Monroe.

The details of the grant allocation are complex, but on Tuesday, Charlotte City Manager Walton relayed Monroe's explanation of the issue to the mayor and council in an e-mail. Walton emphasized that he continues to have confidence in Monroe.

"I have had extensive conversations with Chief Monroe today and still wholeheartedly support his candidacy here in Charlotte as one of our three finalists," Walton wrote.

The Macon area's district attorney, Howard Simms, who is familiar with the early stages of the city investigation, has said he does not believe Monroe was involved in any wrongdoing. Monroe also said he did nothing inappropriate.

"There's no amount of money or any individual that would have caused me to do something that would jeopardize my career as a law enforcement official," Monroe said Friday.

Rodney Monroe

AGE: 50.

JOB: Police chief, Richmond, Va., Police Department.

OVERSEES: 750 sworn officers and 250 civilians.

SALARY: $165,424.

DEPARTMENT BUDGET: $75.5 million.

Alan Dreher

Sun, 11 May 2008 08:14 EDT

Not quite six years ago, Alan Dreher was staying in a downtown Atlanta hotel while interviewing for the assistant police chief's job.

During Dreher's visit, A.J. Robinson, the president of a downtown booster nonprofit called Central Atlanta Progress, told Dreher the city had a crime problem downtown. Even relatively benign things like panhandlers were adding to a bad image.

Yeah, I know, Dreher said. Some guy on the street just asked me for money.

Things are better now. Crime in downtown Atlanta has dropped dramatically, due in part to officers walking rather than driving beats and a systematic crime reporting system that outlines crime trends to police and business owners twice a year. They're changes Dreher (pronounced DRAY-er) championed and implemented.

Not that he wouldn't have if the man on the street hadn't hit him up for money. But Dreher is good at translating experience -- his or others' -- into action, Robinson said.

"All I know is that the results have been very good," he said. "We've had tremendous success over the last four or five years ... and Chief Dreher's played a major part in doing that."

Dreher, 54, is Atlanta's assistant police chief under Chief Richard Pennington and one of three finalists for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg chief's job. In Atlanta, he supervises the day-to-day operations of the Police Department, and officials and city leaders say he's led numerous initiatives that have improved the way the department runs.

He's done it by developing relationships with business owners and community leaders throughout the city, making smart use of available grants and other funding to improve the department's technology and balancing community-based policing with aggressive patrolling to try to prevent crime.

And he runs things without making a great deal of noise about it.

"I think he's a quiet leader, but that's good," said Cleta Winslow, an Atlanta City Council member and chair of the council's public safety committee. "He's behind the scenes helping get the job done."

Anyone looking for a demonstrative, butt-kicking cop might want to look elsewhere.

"I'm pretty even-keeled. I try not to overreact to situations," Dreher said last week. "I believe in collaboration, and I'm a team-builder. I believe in joint efforts to find solutions to problems."

In that sense, Dreher sounds a lot like Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Darrel Stephens, a strong advocate of community policing who has drawn criticism in some quarters for his prevention-based law enforcement approach. Stephens, the critics say, stresses carrot at the expense of stick: too much prevention, not enough punishment.

Dreher describes community policing as "central to my philosophy of law enforcement" but says balance is critical. Since 2002, he's led an effort to establish and refine the department's crime reporting system, to guide resources to the right neighborhoods and tailor different precincts' approaches to crime fighting to the types of crime they most often see.

"Each community has different issues," Dreher said. "So what you need to do is work with communities and make sure you have an aggressive strategy not just to fight crime but to put the criminals in jail."

Another major accomplishment: the upgrading of what was, in 2002, an aging fleet of police cars and motorcycles. Dreher, who as chief of operations oversees the department's annual budget request to the City Council, has helped sell an expanded police budget to the City Council. The department under his guidance has also used federal grant money to buy, among other things, a new bomb truck for the SWAT team and a new mobile command unit, in addition to about 150 new cars.

That's helped morale, not to mention his openness with officers -- especially compared with his boss, Pennington, who's developed a reputation as aloof, said Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of Atlanta's police union chapter.

"He's never shut the door on anything. He's always listened," Kreher said. "Sometimes we disagreed, but at least we had the opportunity to share our side. With Chief Pennington, we don't have that."

Pennington, the former New Orleans police chief, brought Dreher aboard in Atlanta six years ago. The two worked together in the Metro Police Department in Washington for 15 years, from the time Dreher -- who started his law enforcement career as an FBI photographer -- joined the force as a rookie patrolman until Pennington got the New Orleans job in 1994.

That was the same year Dreher, then a captain, was placed in charge of the Metro department's homicide unit -- and the results weren't good.

By 1997, the unit had a case closure rate of 36 percent, and the city's homicide rate had risen 15 percent. The police chief, Larry Soulsby, tried to correct the problem through unlimited overtime for homicide detectives. But the closure rate stayed low while overtime skyrocketed.

In September 1997, Soulsby transferred Dreher and 17 supervisory lieutenants and sergeants. Two months later, Soulsby, under fire, stepped down.

David Schertler, a Washington attorney who at the time was the chief of the U.S. attorney's office homicide section, spoke out against Soulsby for placing Dreher, who had no prior experience as a homicide detective, in charge of the unit.

Both Dreher and Tony Patterson, a Washington homicide detective since 1994, said last week that the low clearance rate was largely the product of a spate of crack cocaine-related killings in which witnesses were dead, unreliable or unwilling to come forward. The unit's problems, like the department's, were more Soulsby's fault than Dreher's, Patterson said.

"I've always known Alan to be a cop's cop, kind of hands-off," Patterson said. "If you were a problem officer, he'd have to deal with you, but if not, he wouldn't bother you."

Alan Dreher

AGE: 54.

JOB: Assistant chief, Atlanta Police Department.

OVERSEES: 1,836 sworn officers and 350 civilians.

SALARY: $140,000.

DEPARTMENT BUDGET: $180 million.

Wet Mothers Day; severe storms nearby

Sun, 11 May 2008 11:02 EDT

A wet and possibly stormy Mothers Day is likely across the Charlotte metro region.

The storm system responsible for producing tornadoes that killed at least 19 people Saturday in Oklahoma and Missouri is moving into the eastern United States today, and the bad weather is moving with it.

Severe thunderstorms and even a possible tornado were reported this morning in southern South Carolina, and meteorologists are watching to see how far north the bad weather will come.

Regardless, however, forecasters say we can expect a wet day -- with up to one inch of rain in much of the area. Severe weather will be a possibility this afternoon. About one-quarter of an inch of rain fell this morning at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

Temperatures at late morning were unseasonably chilly in Charlotte, in the upper 50s. But much warmer air is a short distance to the south and could reach the Charlotte area this afternoon.

Here are the main players on the weather map this Sunday morning:

Stalled front: A front is stalled, on a mostly east-west line, across central South Carolina and Georgia. Areas near and south of that front are in a much more humid air mass. That is where severe weather is taking place. At 11 a.m., that front was in the Augusta (Ga.)-Columbia-Myrtle Beach area.

Cooler, more stable air: The air north of the stalled front, which is covering all of the Charlotte metro region, is much more stable. While thunderstorms might be able to develop, they are not likely to be severe.

Advancing cold front and low pressure system: A strong cold front, with a low pressure system attached, is moving eastward. This morning, that front was over Kentucky, Tennessee and western Goergia. As it moves eastward, it is forecast to push the stalled front northward, perhaps reaching the southern Piedmont of North Carolina.

Severe storms which battered Georgia and South Carolina this morning have pushed offshore and did not affect the Charlotte metro region. Another round of severe weather is possible this afternoon, as the strong cold front reaches the area. That likely would happen between noon and 4 p.m.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it received 40 tornado reports over the past 24 hours. One of those was in the Carolinas -- shortly before daybreak at Edgefield, S.C., in the southwest part of the state.

There also were 105 reports of wind damage and 187 hail reports.

Once the storm system moves east of the Charlotte area later today, gusty west winds are expected. Forecasters say a high wind warning is likely in the mountains, and a lake wind advisory will be issued for the Piedmont.

More severe storms hitting area

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:18 EDT

A tornado warning is in effect for parts of Lincoln, Gaston and Catawba counties this afternoon, and a tornado has been reported on the ground west of Lincolnton.

A police officer in Lincoln County reported a tornado on the ground about 4:45 p.m. near the town of Vale.

There are no reports yet of damage.

The storm producing the tornado is headed for the Lake Norman area.

At 5:15 p.m., the tornado warning was extended until 6:15 p.m. for the eastern Lincoln/northern Gaston/southeastern Catawba area. If the storm follows the same path, it will move into the Davidson and Mooresville area within the next hour.

The National Weather Service said the tornado touched down near the community of Cat Square, in western Lincoln County. In addition, golf ball-sized hail was reported in Lincoln County west of Lincolnton.

Earlier this afternoon, large hail Hail also has been reported in Burke County.

It appears as if one final line of storms is forming along a cold front moving eastward across the Carolinas.

Strong winds being felt across the Carolinas this afternoon are being caused by a deep low pressure system over the Ohio Valley. Those winds will remain later this evening and perhaps into Monday -- long after the storms have moved off.

A tornado watch is in effect for Mecklenburg, Union, Cabarrus, York, Lancaster and other counties east and south of Interstate 85, until 8 p.m.

Earlier this afternoon, a severe thunderstorm warning was posted for parts of Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and Stanly counties, but no severe weather was observed.

And overnight, severe thunderstorms and a tornado were reported in southern South Carolina.

Between 8 a.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. today, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it had received 40 tornado reports. One of those was in the Carolinas -- shortly before daybreak at Edgefield, S.C., in the southwest part of the state. There also were 105 reports of wind damage and 187 hail reports.

One dead in Saturday shootings

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:39 EDT

Charlotte police have yet to disclose the identity of a Hispanic man shot to death in the 3300 block of James Street Saturday.

Police responded to reports of a double shooting just before midnight and discovered the man dead, along with a woman who had been shot three times. Police did not say anything else about the crime Sunday, except that the man had been involved in a dispute.

The shootings were among several that night. Around the same time, police said Roberto Fabian Escobar-Lopez was shot in the head and neck. Escobar-Lopez, 19, was wounded while in a van on the 3100 block of Tacoma Street around. He was transported to Carolinas Medical Center. Officials did not release details on his condition.

And just after midnight police responded to a shooting at Disco Rodeo at 9607 Albemarle Road. Christian Eduardo Fernandez was taken to CMC, where he was listed in critical condition.

From defeat comes victory

Sat, 10 May 2008 06:57 EDT

Nick Mackey found a silver lining in the notoriety from his tumultuous bid to become Mecklenburg County sheriff.

"I may be the most recognizable figure in the county," he says. "People have said in the state."

The recognition helped Mackey unseat six-term incumbent Drew Saunders in Tuesday's Democratic primary in state House District 99 in northeast Mecklenburg. Now he faces Republican Dempsey Miller in the heavily Democratic district.

Mackey, a 41-year-old lawyer, says he doesn't look back on the controversy that brought him headlines last year. He won a party election to fill a sheriff's vacancy, only to have it thrown out when the state party found precincts improperly organized. He faced headlines about a 2005 bankruptcy, and a court fight over records related to his resignation from the Police Department in 2003.

"You cannot take defeat as the end of the world," he said this week over a cheesesteak sandwich.

Dressed in a dark suit and ball cap -- to prevent sunburn on his balding head -- he was grabbing a late lunch in a coffee shop near the courthouse. He greets the staff by name. He is personable and even talkative. That's in contrast to his public persona during the sheriff's muddle when his standard reply was, "No comment."

Mackey insists he has moved on and holds no hard feelings. But he still doesn't buy the Observer or watch WBTV, which he believes treated him unfairly.

And he has nothing, or almost nothing, to say to county commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts. A fellow Democrat, she supported and ultimately voted to appoint Mackey's rival as sheriff. On election night, both were watching returns at Grady Cole Center.

"I went up and said, `I'd like to congratulate you,' " Roberts recalls.

"He looked at me. I said, `You won't shake my hand?' He said, `No.' "

Mackey calls her disingenuous.

"When people don't respect me and have low opinions about my qualifications," he says, "(they're) not going to smile at my face and talk about me behind my back."

Lost some Obama voters

Presidential candidate Barack Obama took nearly 80 percent of the vote in District 99, where African Americans account for four of 10 registered voters -- and 66 percent of Democrats.Mackey won 53 percent of the vote, suggesting many black voters backed his white opponent.

"Apparently we just couldn't get enough of them," says Saunders. "We had plenty of money and we didn't hold back on it."

Saunders, who got most of his money from political action committees, figures he spent about $70,000. In mid-April, Mackey reported spending $400.

While Saunders blanketed the district with mail, Mackey says he went door-to-door and met voters anywhere he could, often eliciting a common response.

"You're the guy who ran for sheriff," he recalls hearing over and over. "You got screwed."

In Miller, Mackey faces an opponent who has lost two races in three years for the Huntersville town commission. Miller has told elections officials he plans to raise or spend no more than $3,000, but that could change.

"I'm getting a lot of calls of support now," he says.

Miller said he plans to campaign on his own merits. He hopes to get support not only from Republicans but also independents and disaffected Democrats.

Saunders, who has criticized Mackey's character, says he can't support the man who beat him.

Still controversial

Mackey can't shake controversy.

In March, his office landlord sued him for $56,000 in back rent. Mackey disputes the amount and has since moved to a new office.

"Voters know that any of the problems I've had over the years are just the average problems they have in their lives," he says. "People see through the propaganda the media puts out."

Mackey's opinion of the media is matched by a low regard for many politicians.

Asked what he learned from the sheriff saga, he says, "Politics is a dirty game ... and that people will do anything to stay in power."

Mackey says he wants to change that. He says he'll continue talking about issues, such as education and health care, important to his district. He's confident he can win over skeptics.

"I don't think I'll have a hard time convincing people I'm a fighter and not a quitter," he says.

Decision 2008

Nick Mackey

Age: 41.

Job: Lawyer.

Family: Wife, Tyral, and son, Harris.

Education: J.D., University of Akron, 2003; master's in criminal justice, Boston University; master's in public administration, University of Akron; master's in business administration, Pfeiffer University; Bachelor of Arts, Barber-Scotia College.

Political career: Ran unsuccessfully for district judge in 2005 and for sheriff in 2007.

What he would have done differently: "I don't think about the sheriff's race at all. That's behind me. So I don't sit around and say, `Man, what could I have done different?' "

Cities scramble to save gas, and their budgets

Sat, 10 May 2008 14:30 EDT

Police in Belmont and Matthews are walking their beats more. Utility workers in Charlotte are working longer hours but fewer days.

Welcome to life during a gas crisis -- a gas-price crisis, that is.

Fuel costs jumped to a national record of more than $3.67 a gallon on Friday, more than a dollar higher than seven months ago. The benchmark represents a two-year period in which rising costs have forced drivers to rethink their modes of transportation.

High gas bills are also hitting area municipalities, forcing officials to begin sweeping cost-cutting measures.

"This is the new dynamic that we are all forced to deal with," said Randy Harrington, Charlotte's assistant budget director. "Just like it is affecting people at home, it is affecting us here."

Charlotte leaders are looking to increase the city's $22 million gas budget by $750,000 in 2009. The money would come from growth in the budget and would not siphon funds from other programs.

It is a significant increase -- one that can't be avoided, officials said, but can be mitigated. Department heads have been told to cut back. This ranges from turning off parked city vehicles instead of letting them idle to having some utility workers adopt four-day work weeks with 10-hour shifts.

Officials in surrounding cities are doing much the same.

"We are trying everything we can to make the dollars stretch," said Barry Webb, Belmont city manager. "A member of our planning staff has been riding his bike to work, and to tell you the truth, I'm thinking of getting my tires pumped up and doing that, too."

Belmont made news recently when officials ordered city police to abandon their patrol cars and walk at least 15 minutes out of every hour. The Police Department had budgeted $70,000 for fuel and was down to about $8,000 to last until July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

Officials in Matthews are trying similar methods. The city expects to spend $20,000 more on fuel this year, a 9 percent increase. The city also started a "no idle" policy for most police vehicles. And like Belmont, officers are walking for significant portions of their shift.

Matthews City Manager Hazen Blodgett said the measures may help, but more is needed. Escalating fuel prices have also driven up the cost of repaving roads. Materials used in the process include petroleum byproducts.

The cost has increased by more than 90 percent over the past 10 years. At the same time, Matthews has added more than 20 miles of roads.

To offset this, the city is considering whether to increase $5 tag fee to $25. Blodgett said the $500,000 raised by the new fee would go toward paving and maintaining city roads.

In Concord, officials are three miles behind schedule on road upkeep, and Concord City Manager Brian Hiatt doesn't see that changing anytime soon.

"Our fuel costs are just growing out of control, and it looks like we are just going to have to bite the bullet on this," Hiatt said. "Our departments have been told to absorb the costs by cutting what they can."

Concord's fuel budget is expected to jump to $1.3 million next year, $400,000 more than it was last year and nearly twice what it was in 2005.

Though high, that fuel bill pales when compared with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The system's fuel costs have increased from $4.8 million in the 2004-2005 school year to more than $7 million this year.

Meanwhile, economists predict that oil prices could climb to $200 a barrel over the next two years, costing drivers more than $5 per gallon and forcing governmental bodies to consider more cuts.

Coping in the downturn | Part of an occasional series

Prime time or weather watch?

Sat, 10 May 2008 12:33 EDT

As a line of thunderstorms pummeled the uplands northeast of Hickory on Thursday night and tornado warnings were issued, two Charlotte TV stations interrupted prime-time for what has become a reality drama in its own right -- wall-to-wall projections of menacing radar splotches.

Both WSOC (Channel 9) and WCNC (Channel 36) were deluged with complaints from viewers about the pre-emptions, which interrupted top-rated series like ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and the season finale of NBC's "Scrubs."

But at WBTV (Channel 3), something strange happened: regular programming.

After viewer complaints when it scrubbed much of the Duke-Clemson game during the ACC playoffs in March for storm coverage, WBTV has changed its break-in policy. If there is real danger, the station will scratch programming and cut to weather coverage. But for mere turbulent weather, the station will rely on a text "crawl" across the bottom of the screen to notify viewers.

"We have taken the stance that if there's a tornado warning, we need to be tracking that storm," said Dennis Milligan, WBTV's news director. "Problem is, you wind up hijacking people's programs for something that's not really happening.

"I've got four expert meteorologists who know this inside and out. We're relying on them to be more discerning about our coverage."

Thursday night, they analyzed the storms and decided they were not a major threat. Reporters kept in touch with authorities in the affected counties and were told there were no damage reports. During commercial breaks, the station provided updates.

Too many alerts

Milligan said the station's new approach comes in part because the National Weather Service seems to be issuing more frequent tornado warnings."In the last year the weather service has been more hair-trigger. It's almost like every storm front that comes through, they're calling tornado warnings."

Probably true, said Larry Gabric, meteorologist in charge of the weather service's Greer, S.C., forecast center, which monitors Upstate South Carolina and most of Western North Carolina. Advances in technology give meteorologists a better picture of storms that could spin off tornadoes.

"I would say we do issue more warnings," he said. "We're seeing more information than we ever saw before."

Broadcasters have long been caught in a "damned it they do, damned if they don't" paradox when it comes to severe weather. But research shows that weather coverage is one of the key draws for viewers. And stations spend heavily on sophisticated gadgetry to parse storm movements and generate eye-catching graphics.

While stations said some viewers praised the coverage Thursday night even though the storm was far from them, many others were in the unsatisfied customer category.

"One of the WCNC newscasters scolded the viewers to stop calling the news desk," viewer J. Garvey Pyke of Charlotte noted Friday. "Scolded by the TV -- how great."

Obligation vs. annoyance

While stations acknowledge that viewers complain about the interruptions, they say they feel an obligation to cut to weather coverage when there is the possibility of a tornado. Policy at both WSOC and WCNC is to break in and stay with weather coverage until tornado warnings are lifted.

Federal broadcast policy instructs stations to warn viewers about severe weather, but that can be accomplished by a simple line across the bottom of the screen.

"It's not enough to do a crawl," said Mary Alvarez, news director at WCNC. "Our meteorologists can pinpoint exactly where the storm is and where it's going. ... If we tell you it's going to be in your area in the next five minutes, that can't be told in a crawl."

At WSOC, news director Robin Whitmeyer said the station got a "sizable" number of complaints Thursday night, but remains committed to broadcasting weather threats throughout its 22-county coverage area that reaches from the Virginia line to Chester, S.C.

Thursday night's storm was severe, and went on to kill one person in Greensboro, she said.

"Our number one priority is getting information out to the community, and I don't apologize for that. That's our responsibility. I can totally understand when people get upset."

2nd storm struck

A second tornado warning was issued about 2:45 a.m. Friday when a fast-moving storm hit Gaston County, but most stations were between meteorologist shifts. Only WCNC was able to break in with Larry Sprinkle and that wasn't until about 3 a.m.At News 14 Carolina, Time Warner Cable's news outlet, meteorologist Jeff Crum was on the air immediately because he had stayed late anticipating more storms.

Policy at WCCB (Fox Charlotte, Channel 18) has long been to post a weather crawl during bad weather and break in only when there's a major threat.

"It's one thing to be cautionary, and it's another thing to alarm people," said Ken White, news director. "With weather, we have to be careful. Otherwise you become the boy who cried `wolf!' all the time."

Rebroadcasts

WSOC aired weather-interrupted ABC programming early Friday. Shows can also be seen on www.abc.com. NBC programs can be seen on www.nbc.com and WCNC plans to air Thursday night's pre-empted shows today:

• "My Name is Earl," 1 p.m.

• "30 Rock," 1:30 p.m.

• "Scrubs," 7 p.m.

• "The Office," 7:30 p.m.

Weather policy

Broadcasters are required to air alerts when serious weather threatens. These are generated by the National Weather Service and automatically are posted in screen crawls at the bottom of the screen. Policy at individual stations varies on when to cut away from programming.

• WSOC, WCNC: When a tornado warning is posted, programming is suspended until the warning is over or the storm leaves the broadcast area.

• WBTV, WCCB: Run a crawl during severe weather unless station meteorologists say there is an imminent threat of property damage or injuries.

• WJZY, WMYT: Run a crawl.

• News 14 Carolina: Cut to weather coverage when warnings are issued anywhere in the channel's coverage area and stay with it until the storm passes.

It's official: Tornado in Gaston

Sat, 10 May 2008 08:14 EDT

The National Weather Service made it official late Friday, saying it was a tornado that struck Gaston County in the early-morning hours. Forecasters, who toured storm-damaged areas Friday, also said a tornado was responsible for damage late Thursday night in Davie County.

Vince DiCarlo of the Weather Service said the twister in Gaston County was on the ground between 2:10 and 2:20 a.m. The damage track stretch from Gastonia to the Catawba Heights area off N.C. 273 -- a 6 1/4-mile path that was 75 yards wide. DiCarlo said wind speeds were estimated at 110 mph at the start of the storm track and 115 to 120 mph in Catawba Heights. That made the tornado an F2 on the Fujita scale, that measures tornadoes from F0 (weakest) to F5.

DiCarlo said an F2 tornado, with winds a bit more than 120 mph, carved out a 7-mile path across Davie and Forsyth counties.

A tornado warning was in effect in Davie County at the time the storm struck, about 10:15 p.m. Thursday. But no warning was posted in Gaston County when that tornado touched down.

2 officials differ on e-mails

Sat, 10 May 2008 06:54 EDT

Charlotte City Attorney Mac McCarley and Mayor Pat McCrory appear to be at odds over how much access the public should have to city employees' e-mails.

On a panel reviewing North Carolina's policies on saving and deleting government e-mails, McCarley said this week that public information requests for city of Charlotte e-mail had become so burdensome that top city officials had quit sending sensitive messages for fear they might become public.

He also decried several types of public records requests the city receives -- including those from "bloggers wanting information for their shots at the government," "disgruntled, unsuccessful bidders" and "political opponents of current officials."

McCrory, when told of McCarley's comments, said Friday: "He's speaking for himself, not the city."

McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, said he would favor automatically archiving all state-employee e-mails if he is elected. He also favors doing the same for city e-mails if money could be found in the budget for such an archiving system.

"I've had no problem making my e-mails available to the public," McCrory said. "It's not affected how I do things one iota."

The state e-mail panel was created by Gov. Mike Easley following allegations his administration deleted public records and urged others to do the same. The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and eight other N.C. news organizations sued Easley last month over his administration's "systematic deletion, destruction or concealment of e-mail messages sent from or received by the Governor's Office."

McCarley, saying "I have resisted doing this, but the devil has come over me," recounted how The Charlotte Observer had filed a standing request last year to see all e-mails and paper correspondence sent or received by McCrory, City Manager Curt Walton and two city department heads.

"Those are legitimate requests, and we have no objection to them," McCarley said.

Then he read a list of "the other kind" of public records requests.

"Disgruntled, unsuccessful bidders wanting to know everything about a bid process and the other people in it, bloggers wanting information for their shots at the government, the alternative press who has no particular sense of reasonableness in what they ask for, the gadflies and the Libertarians who will admit to you they are looking to bog down government, potential litigants shopping for a claim, political opponents of current officials, and then the idly curious."

The state's Public Records Law makes no distinction between electronic records such as e-mail and other types of documents. Under it, anyone can ask for a document without providing a reason. The goal: for the public to know what the officials who represent them do with their authority and with the public's tax dollars.

The preamble of North Carolina's public records law states: "The public records and public information complied by the agencies of North Carolina government or its subdivisions are the property of the people."

McCarley said city employees have changed the way they do business to avoid things becoming public, and said Charlotte government has become less transparent over the past year. But he said that improved city government's "efficiency and creativity."

McCrory agreed with McCarley that the amount of requests could become burdensome to city staffers, especially when media, including the Observer, "ask for anything, at any time, in any place."

"I think there's a media responsibility in making the requests reasonable," McCrory said.

Rick Thames, the Observer's editor, and other media representatives urged the use of an automatic archiving system that would save messages sent or received by state employees that qualify as public records. Thames also advocates the city using such a system, which is used by other states and many large corporations.

Loved ones remember UNCC sophomore

Fri, 09 May 2008 06:12 EDT

For two hours Thursday night, an extended UNC Charlotte family stood in a semicircle, telling stories about Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko.

The Ira (pronounced EE-ra) who left sticky notes with funny messages on sinks and above toilets to brighten her roommates' day.

The Ira who spent half an hour in a cardboard "gingerbread" house built for kids, making statues out of Play-Doh.

The Ira who spent Sunday mornings sipping coffee and talking about how she would change the world.

The 20-year-old died on Monday in what police now say is a homicide. She died of asphyxiation, her body discovered next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River, Mount Holly Police said Thursday.

They named no suspects and have no motive. Investigators are trying to figure out what happened between 10:50 a.m., when Yarmolenko was last seen at her job at a coffee shop near UNCC, and 1:18 p.m., when a woman riding a personal watercraft reported finding her body.

In a news conference Thursday, Mount Holly Police Chief David Belk wouldn't reveal whether Yarmolenko had been strangled or smothered, saying only that she died from a lack of oxygen. Belk also wouldn't say whether police had found marks or wounds on her body.

It is the latest in a string of high-profile killings of N.C. college students this year. They include the slaying of UNC Chapel Hill Student Body President Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato. On Feb. 1, police believe a UNCC student, Simrit Gill, was killed in a domestic violence homicide.

Why someone would kill Yarmolenko, a bubbly college sophomore, continued to puzzle investigators and the more than 300 people gathered around UNCC's Belk Tower Thursday.

"Ira, you can't describe in words," her cousin, Natasha Deyneka, of Raleigh, told the crowd. "She was selfless and pure and amazing, and you can only describe her with superlatives. Any of you, if you had a bad day, she would be there with a bouquet of flowers and a hug for you."

Authorities said Yarmolenko didn't appear to have a reason to drive to Mount Holly, where her body and blue Saturn sedan were found. The car appeared to have traveled about a half mile past the Stowe Family YMCA and down a steep embankment, where it struck a tree stump.

Yarmolenko was found outside the car, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, black skirt and athletic shoes, Belk said. In the hours before her death, she'd been at a credit union and then at the coffee shop.

Belk said police had "some strong leads," but didn't go into detail about them. He said his department would let the public know if there was a suspect description, but stressed that "there's nothing to indicate there's someone out there that's stalking or chasing people."

Hours later, at the memorial, Yarmolenko's brother, Pavel, had different messages for people who'd been touched by his sister's murder.

"The person who killed my sister, he's in some ways a byproduct of the system that we live in, and we have to change it. You all have to make a difference now," he said. "I hope when you go home tonight, that you will tell everyone you love them. Because I didn't get a chance at all. I didn't get a chance to tell my sister that I loved her."

Anyone with information should call Mount Holly Police at 704-827-4343.

N.C. looks to archive employee e-mails

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:28 EDT

Members of a panel formed by Gov. Mike Easley appear headed toward approval of a plan that would require training on the public records law for most state employees and improvements to government e-mail servers that would archive messages for years.

However, a majority of the group expressed concern about creating a system that archived all government e-mails automatically.

Instead, they supported allowing state employees to decide which e-mails should be preserved.

Though news reports of the administration's public information officers -- and even Easley himself -- deleting public records triggered the panel's creation, several of those the governor appointed to review the matter said state employees should be trusted to do the right thing.

The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and eight other N.C. news organizations sued Easley last month over his administration's "systematic deletion, destruction or concealment of e-mail messages sent from or received by the Governor's Office."

The state's Public Records Law makes no distinction between electronic records such as e-mail and other types of documents. The goal: for the public to know what the officials who represent them do with their authority and with the public's tax dollars.

"None of us wants to be the headline that says `Miscreant Employee Deletes E-Mails,' " said panel member Mac McCarley, Charlotte's city attorney. "There may be some folks who haven't recently had training and don't know where that line is, at least there's the accusation in a lawsuit that some people knew where the line was and violated it, but it strikes me the situation we're in today can be fixed with better training."

Among the things McCarley said might be burdensome to state employees, however, is a requirement they complete a proposed public records training program, which would take less than an hour of time online.

A draft proposal circulated Thursday would leave it to the heads of state agencies to decide which employees under their supervision would be required to complete the training.

Media representatives, including Observer Editor Rick Thames, have urged the use of off-the-shelf digital archiving systems that could preserve all e-mails sent or received by employees.

Other states and many large corporations already use such systems. After an e-mail deletion scandal involving the staff of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, that state launched a $2 million program to archive all employee e-mails for a minimum of seven years.

Creating such a system in North Carolina would cost at least $1 million a year, an official said.

Members of the e-mail committee opposed instituting such a system here, saying it would capture e-mails that would not qualify as public records -- such as spam or personal messages.

"I'm concerned that if you save everything, you can't find anything," said Ned Cline, a retired newspaper editor from Greensboro. Cline said employees would just start picking up the phone or "meet in men's rooms" rather than send e-mails that could then be requested by the public.

Thames said he wouldn't object to deleting messages that clearly aren't public records, but pointed out that requiring employees to sift and categorize e-mails every day would be far more expensive than just saving everything and then sorting it when a specific public records request is made.

Steve Riley, a senior editor at The News & Observer, provided the panel a copy of a May 2001 e-mail exchange between Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and her administrative assistant to illustrate why some in the media are skeptical of assurances public employees almost always follow the law.

Phipps, later convicted of accepting bribes and sent to federal prison, described how she had spent her morning, listening to "oldies" and deleting e-mail.

"I've been deleting the trash box and the sent box," Phipps wrote. "Took forever because you can delete the trash box at one swoop, but apparently you have delete each `Sent' item. Just think it's a good Joe Neff measure."

Neff is an investigative reporter for The News & Observer.

The exchange was retrieved through a public records request only because the state employee with which Phipps was corresponding forgot to delete it from her sent e-mail folder.

Sex abuse of children targeted

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:29 EDT

Federal prosecutors in Charlotte and across the country are getting more resources to go after sexual predators who exploit children.

Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip announced in Charlotte Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department has set aside $5 million to hire 43 prosecutors to combat the abuse and exploitation of children through the Internet -- both in cases of online enticement and child pornography.

One of those prosecutors will be assigned to Charlotte and the Western District of North Carolina.

Filip told reporters at a news conference that explicit images of children on the Internet are increasing.

"We're not talking about innocent family snapshots," he said. "We're talking about the most horrific crimes imaginable, like videos depicting the graphic sexual assault of children, and even infants, traded around the world like baseball cards."

On Thursday, the Justice Department disclosed the 43 districts across the country that will be assigned the new prosecutors. Greensboro and the Middle District of North Carolina and Raleigh and the Eastern District of North Carolina were not among them. Neither was the District of South Carolina.

The hiring of the 43 prosecutors will help bolster the Justice Department's "Project Safe Childhood" to deal with the proliferation of online sexual predators of children. Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities work together in the project.

Federal authorities say there have been more prosecutions of sexual predators nationwide since the project was launched in 2006.

Last fiscal year, 2,118 indictments were handed down against 2,218 defendants -- an increase of more than 25 percent over the previous year.

During a six-month period last year in Charlotte and the Western District of North Carolina, 11 indictments were filed involving child sexual exploitation.

Five defendants were sentenced to prison during that time.

A husband and wife were sentenced to 30 years and 20 years, respectively, for producing child pornography. Another defendant was imprisoned for 15 years. The two others received sentences between six and seven years.

Filip told reporters that the sexual exploitation of children will continue to be a priority for the Justice Department.

"We want these people to know that we are going after them and that they will pay a high price for their crimes," he said.

School, road closings

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:04 EDT

Here is a list of streets and roads closed this morning due to the storm damage from Thursday night and early this morning:

SCHOOLS

Catawba Heights Elementary (Gaston County)

Gardner Park Elementary (Gaston County)

North Belmont Elementary (Gaston County)

ROADS CLOSED

Mecklenburg ...

Briar Creek Road, between Independence Boulevard and Monroe Road, Charlotte (power pole down)

Pleasant Oaks Circle at Pleasant Grove Road, off Bellhaven Boulevard (trees, debris in road)

Belmeade Road at Belmeade Drive, near Catawba River (trees, branches in road)

Coulwood Road at Fielding Drive, northwest Mecklenburg (tree limbs in road)

Gaston ...

South New Hope Road at Armstrong Circle (trees, other debris in road)

Woodlawn Street, between Belmont-Mount Holly Road and Hickory Grove Road, in Belmont (trees, other debris)