Scandal in Cobb County

Posted in Administration on Thursday August 14 2008 @ 11:40am

Everyone is obsessed with the John Edwards love child, but is it really such a scandal? He's not running for any office, he currently holds no elected position, and he's not especially preachy about family values (at least not any more than any politician would be).

What's more disconcerting, it seems to us, are allegations in Cobb County regarding the recently-retired court administrator. We've taken a quiet interest in this story since it began to unfold last spring with Mr. Chesshire's abrupt retirement. Now an investigative report is available and the press is taking notice, for better or for worse -- suddenly, court administration is smokin-hot!

What can we learn from this scandal, aside from the salacious details? We'd like to turn this into a teaching moment, so here are some of the less sexy but more useful points:

• Have clear personnel policies. This goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway. In the Cobb County scenario, some employees were not sure whether the court was covered by the county policy. This is probably the case in courts around the country. If the court chooses to fall under county HR policies rather than establish its own, please oh please make that absolutely clear to everyone.


• Again with the personnel -- make sure that contract employees (interns, consultants, etc.) are aware of HR policies. Here, most of the witnesses were young (18 or 19). Many worked as interns and/or part-time. Memo to HR folks: even a fly-by-night temp or independent contractor is covered and requires attention.


• Speak up. The case against the witnesses is that nobody spoke up for twenty years. That's a long time, especially considering that the report seems to establish a definite pattern of behavior. Sure, livelihoods and reputations are at stake, but that's all the more reason to come forward. Learn the proper channels for complaints, and use them if need be.


• Pay attention. Higher-ups, if it looks bad, look into it. Don't wait for the paper trail to come to you. These scandals hurt the entire workplace, not just a few witnesses or victims. The media is tired of covering feel-good drug court graduations, retirement parties, and groundbreaking ceremonies for new justice centers. Keep your nose to the ground and learn what "everyone" knows is going on in your workplace. This isn't Microsoft, Inc., it is a county court with 40 or so employees. Yes it's a busy court, but people problems should be relatively easy to detect.


• Capable employees can mask symptoms of a diseased workplace. If all is going well and nobody complains, no problems, right? Guess again! From the investigation, it appears that hard-working managers and other employees were key to any success this court had over the years. Like a dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional workplace can experience levels of success. The culture at this court was infected with favoritism and its companion resentment, fraud, and fear of retaliation.


• Establish clear job descriptions. Personal errands should not be included in these, formally or not. Even summer interns need guidelines. *Especially* summer interns need guidelines; they are in no position to refuse anyone anything, they are inexperienced, they're relying on supervisors to serve as references in the future, and they may not be aware of HR or other policies (see above).


• If you must be a cad, be an after-hours cad. Obscene phone calls to employees, trysts, and coercive sex are bad enough, but on company time? Now you've got a hoard of taxpayers (plus the judges' whose chambers you, um, occupied, while they were on vacation) knocking on your door!

See Former Cobb County Administrator Alleged Misconduct Report Released, Patty Pan, MyFOX Atlanta (August 13, 2008). UPDATE: See also Report Outlines Sexual Misconduct By Cobb Court Official, Tom Opdyke and Yolanda Rodriguez, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (August 12, 2008). This story contains a link to the report. Unfortunately the AJC site was down yesterday.

With any luck, Cobb County will recover. It appears that the culture has already started to heal under the new administrator. Best of luck to everyone there. To everyone else: take note of this cautionary tale.

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