Email exchange questions competency of town manager | News

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WECT) - The passing around of emails in Carolina Beach highlights the distance between the mayor and some of his fellow town leaders.

Mayor Ray Rothrock missed town council's October 9 meeting for medical reasons. Once he was all caught up, Rothrock called out council members Steve Shuttleworth, Bob Lewis and Sarah Friede for what he considered 'unprofessional' conduct at the meeting.

The mayor told them they owe town staff an apology for ignoring project recommendations, including the suggestion to move the Operations Department staff into space that the town plans to lease in Federal Point Shopping Center.

Rothrock, though not present for the vote, disagreed with council's decision to move the 30 employees into the police department's training room connected to town hall.

"We need to move forward in the best interest of the town," he said Tuesday. "The way we're going right now is not in that direction."

Rothrock questioned the three council members' management ability in the email, suggesting they pay more attention to the recommendations of Town Manager Tim Owens.

The mayor's original email, which contained a comment about councilman Lewis' weight, was only sent to the rest of council. Rothrock later forwarded it to the town manager and other department heads.

"There were things in that email that I thought were inappropriate, unprofessional and uncalled for," said Mayor Pro-Tem Steve Shuttleworth.

Shuttleworth replied with an email of his own, in which he outlined nearly 20 examples of Owens' "poor management skills" and why he will not follow his recommendations.

"Tim does good work," he said. "There are a number of items that I don't have confidence in his response."

According to Shuttleworth, those items include: a lack of a long term maintenance plan for the town, a nonexistent inventory of the town's items, a the Sunny Point lease that forced the town to relocate the ops department.

"It just keeps compounding," Shuttleworth said.

Shuttleworth said the decision to move the operations staff to town hall does not ignore the leased space in the shopping center. The room and its parking lot would store the items the town needs to remove from Sunny Point land. Those items would then be catalogued.

"We think that's a logical solution," he said.

Rothrock suggested revisiting the issue at a special meeting. Shuttleworth said the decisions have been made and council should move on.

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