NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director has sent his decision to county officials regarding the local board of elections’ petition to terminate DeNay Harris.
Harris has worked for the New Hanover County Board of Elections since February but in March the board put forth a petition to part ways with the director. Per state law, the North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director, in this case Sam Hayes, has to weigh in; he apparently has agreed with the county petition.
A state board of elections spokesperson told Port City Daily Friday “the executive director’s decision is not yet final,” as mandated in state statute. The North Carolina State Board of Elections could intervene.
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“We cannot comment at this time,” the spokesperson added. “The decision of the executive director is not final until 20 days after the decision was made (June 9 in this case), or if the State Board defers by a majority vote, it’s not final until the Board holds a hearing and makes a decision. In other words, we will not have any additional information on this until June 9 at the earliest.”
Harris hired Gary Shipman of Shipman Wright & Moore, LLP to file her response to the petition. However, should a hearing take place, she could be called upon to tell her side to the state elections board and bring witnesses, according to statute § 163-35.1.
Harris was hired by the New Hanover County Board of Elections in January this year. It’s unclear what the petition for her termination says or the reasoning the board put forth only two months into her tenure, since it’s not public record due to personnel laws. The New Hanover County Board of Elections met in a three-hour closed session at the end of March following a detailed joint report by Port City Daily and WHQR detailing Harris’ fallout with the county and board in her short time there.
Harris accused county staff of “micromanaging” her on the job and blamed some for potentially violating state laws around secured election facilities; Harris emailed the State Board of Elections her concerns. These and other actions further deteriorated her relationship with the county manager and board members and led to Harris also filing an HR complaint.
She claimed her email was being monitored, manipulated and erased in an effort for the county to undermine her position; by state law local boards of elections answer to the state board, while individual counties fund the local BOE budgets. The county footed the bill for a $2,600 third-party forensic investigation into Harris’ email-tampering claims and found it unsubstantiated.
Harris has been on paid administrative leave — her salary is $115,000 annually — since March 19.
Shipman didn’t share Harris’ petition response with Port City Daily earlier this month but called the New Hanover County Board of Elections’ move “clearly pretextual, retaliatory, and unsupported by reliable evidence.” The attorney also didn’t respond by press to Port City Daily regarding Hayes’ agreement with the county BOE’s action. He indicated last month Harris was “keeping all her options open” when asked if she was considering a lawsuit should the petition not land in her favor.
Port City Daily asked board chair Jamie Getty for a statement and whether the board will open another national search for a new director, if one will be in place by November’s midterms and if not who will help in the interim.
After press, Getty responded: “The New Hanover County Board of Elections is unable to discuss personnel matters. The Board will determine next steps after the State Board of Elections process has concluded.”
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