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News Story
Posted 7-23-08

Employee hammers county
for 10,000 cell minutes


The chart shows a staggering increase in use of a county-paid cell phone by a single worker employed in the Pamlico County Water Department. This account is the most blatant abuse, which came to light after The Pamlico News analyzed cell phone records for numerous county employees.

Jeff Aydelette
Pamlico News Staff

County taxpayers have been picking up the tab for huge amounts of cell phone minutes incurred by an employee of the Pamlico County Water Department, who enjoyed lengthy chats not only while on the job, but also in the wee hours of mornings.

Field operations staffer Ed Latham resigned Friday when confronted about his blatant abuse of a county-paid cell phone.

Latham’s cell phone use dwarfed that of any other county employee, exceeding the combined monthly charges of County Manager Tim Buck and Sheriff Billy Sawyer Jr.

Between calls he was one of several staffers charged with routine maintenance and repairs involving the sprawling infrastructure of the county-run water utility.

An analysis by The Pamlico News of cell phone bills reflecting usage across all county departments indicates Latham’s use of his Alltel cell phone, for which he paid nothing, became particularly egregious in recent months, topping out in June at more than 10,000 minutes.

That staggering figure represents total cellular conversations equal to 21 eight-hour days, roughly the time worked in any one month by the typical county employee.

Although most staffers who merit complimentary cell phones appear to limit the duration and number of off-duty calls, the newspaper’s review of invoices reveals several instances of abuse and personal use.

A cadre of employees make personal calls on county-issued cell phones. However, Latham claimed a category unto himself.

Unlike most employees who carry county cell phones, Latham frequently called outside the county. Several numbers in Greensboro, Durham, and Jacksonville popped up repeatedly on Alltel invoices.

The analysis indicates Latham was also interrupted by callers from those cities -- perhaps because he appears to have favored extended gab fests.

One Sunday night in June, Alltel bills reveal Latham chatted with a Jacksonville friend for almost seven continuous hours. Both parties apparently took a brief break at the two-hour mark, later concluding their conversation at 3 a.m.

Surprisingly, they were back at it later the same morning. At 7:20 a.m., cell phone records indicate another flurry of calls between the two, with a duration of almost an hour.
Only when a call came in at 8:16 a.m. was there any indication Latham might actually be on the job. That call, from Latham’s supervisor at the Pamlico County Water Department, was dispensed with in less than a minute.

Then, he took a 32 more minutes to conclude his dealings with the Jacksonville phone buddy.

Pages upon pages of the county’s overall monthly bill are devoted to an itemized listing of Latham’s calls. More than 1,400 were placed, and received in June alone.

One typical workday shows Latham handled 43 calls between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Just a handful were from the water department office or from cell phones assigned to his colleagues in the field.

Latham had one of 24 county cell phones enrolled in a billing format known as a ‘Share Group.’ Under that Alltel plan, each number is assigned exactly 300 ‘anytime’ minutes, for a total group allocation of 7,200 minutes. The plan also gives each user 1,000 complimentary night/weekend minutes.

In June, Latham’s single-handed grab of more than 10,000 minutes quickly burned thru both allocations.

The result? Alltel billed the county for Total Share Group Minutes well in excess of the agreed-upon limits.

“Most of our departments average 800 to 1,200 minutes,” County Manager Tim Buck explained last week. “But you get somebody like that and it blows our pool all to heck.”

Although big cell phone bills are a concern, the analysis reveals that on-the-job calls for personal reasons affect productivity within most county departments.

The revelations stunned insiders and will undoubtedly lead to tighter guidelines governing cell phone use.

More headlines for the water department are particularly unwelcome. In May, the head of the department resigned. Shortly after, District Attorney Scott Thomas asked the State Bureau of Investigation to examine allegations that a contractor may have improperly inflated bills. And, just last Thursday, investigators from the North Carolina Public Water Supply agency visited several treatment plants to verify the accuracy of routine readings and required reports.
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