Yes! Weekly's Jordan Green posted a story about allegations that Forsyth County Elections Director Rob Coffman used an inappropriate term when speaking to an employee. In part of the story Green relates part of a recording made when the State Election Board's general counsel, Don Wright, met with the employee making the allegations and provides a pretty interesting quote:
“There’s no question that Rob Coffman can be the biggest jerk in the world,” Don Wright told Vanderklok during their meeting at the Clemmons library. “You’re right: It’s been consistent from Day 1. He’s consistent. The question is: How does that affect the operation of the office?”
Well, in subsequent paragraphs the question seemed to be answered:
The alleged “MILF” remark to Vanderklok is among a string of similarly inappropriate comments that former staff members have attributed to Coffman.
Cox and Pamela Johnson, another former employee, told YES! Weekly that in September 2008 Coffman humiliated an African-American woman employed as a temporary worker as the “local crack ho on loan to us from the jail.”
Don Wright alluded to the remark during his meeting with Vanderklok, suggesting that he and other top officials at the State Board of Elections have been apprised of it.
Coffman did not deny having made the “crack ho” remark.
“I went through a training that was not necessarily diversity, but it was racial relations,” he said.
“There was one issue in 2008,” he added. “Is that a pattern?”
Cox, who retired from the board of elections in March 2010 following several months on medical leave, said he learned that Coffman told staff that Cox “was out on sick leave having a sex change operation.”
Coffman denied making the statement. He also denied an allegation by Vanderklok and Johnson that he made fun of a current employee for her weight, calling her a “blob.”
“How can you say that doesn’t affect the office?” Vanderklok asked Don Wright. “I think it creates a hostile work environment.”
Elsewhere in the article we learn that there are various reasons that they might be keeping Coffman around. One is that Wright, and presumably others at the state level, think that the number two in the office is a wet blanket. Another is that the employees don't want to have to be in the same room as Coffman if they are to meet with the Forsyth board members to air their complaints, and the board feels that Coffman should have the right to confront his accusers. A third reason is that one of the three members of the Forsyth board feels that "It’s old news. I think it’s just a bunch of disgruntled employees that are unhappy because they’re not working there anymore. All this stuff has been addressed.”
It's an interesting read, especially since there's even some talk about faulty procedures in the counting of absentee ballots.
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