Saturday’s Virginian-Pilot brought more revelations in the ongoing saga of Norfolk Commissioner of the Revenue Sharon McDonald. While the headline pointed towards whether City Manager Regina Williams has the authority to order a hiring freeze and a ban on travel, it was the opening paragraph that raised more than a few eyebrows:
Commissioner of Revenue Sharon McDonald promoted four employees recently, giving two raises of more than 9 percent, and attempted to hire a veteran public relations specialist as a chief deputy.
Due to budget constraints, both Norfolk and the state have held the line on raises and eliminated positions. Both of these entities contribute to the costs of operating the Commissioner’s office, as well as the other four constitutional offices. It seems at odds with both of them for the commissioner’s office to be doing the opposite. But as an elected office, the Commissioner is not accountable to either.
As for the hiring of a PR guy as a chief deputy – well, that says enough by itself.
Also buried in the story was an update on the newspaper’s FOIA request:
McDonald belatedly replied this week to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Virginian-Pilot seeking Neill’s travel expenses for the past three years.
[…]
She responded Thursday, providing seven receipts for Neill. There were no hotel receipts and only one restaurant receipt for the past three General Assembly sessions.
Seven receipts? Really?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Yeah. Really. Should we be surprised?? Does she really want anyone to know what went on?? Obviously not. We’ll have to leave that to the Va Pilot and hopefully the city audit to reveal. Above the law and above question becomes far too easy a way of life for too many in elected office.
McDonald is out of control and believes she is untouchable. as evident in the VP article. When will the City “powers that be”(and I’m not just talking the City Council or Manager) take her down. Otherwise,the City will continue to be tainted by her arrogance and actions. Hope the Pilot continues hounds her with FOIA requests and a lawsuit. Don’t think this story is over yet. In the meantime, lets start a petition for removal.
Has no asked who is the designer” of the SharonMcDonald.org site? On that site, scroll to the bottom of the screen, where you will see that the designer is Alaron Technologies. Click on the link to Alaron’s site, which is http://www.alarontech.com.
Scroll down on that screen and you will see a FaceBook link to Alondo McClees, who happens to be the same person as W. Alondo McClees who is also a staff member for the Commissioner’s office. You can find his City of Norfolk information at http://www.norfolk.gov/revenue/teams.htm. How would you guess that this McDonald is paying this McClees?