Hubbub aside, Scott County's leader tells his side of story

Gary Shelton has held his tongue -- until now.

During the past several months, it had been rumored that Scott County's top executive was about to be fired and that he had come within a vote of being fired. Last week he sat impassively in the board room as an investigator hired to look into allegations of misconduct on his part summarized her findings exonerating him.

He declined to say anything when adversaries on his board accused him of suspiciously cozy ties to his supporters on the board. And now that he has been cleared, he's eager to put it all behind him.

Given the question-raising nature of what had been said, and his silence up to now, it seemed appropriate to ask for explanations. And for two hours late last week, he gave them -- for the first time, and, he says, the last time as well.

The interview began with the fact that one of his own department heads, who has not been named, was reportedly an active player in the whole sequence of events. The obvious question: Where did this all come from?

Q It feels as though the real backdrop for much of this is years of relentless budget-cutting, restructuring, cutting positions, which must be a lot more intense behind the scenes than we ever see on the surface.

A I wouldn't disagree. A lot of the fun has gone out of what we do, and what a lot of people do.

A Scott County is large enough now to not be "small," but small enough to still be small to some extent. There are pluses to that. It's more relaxed and family-like. In the courthouse, when something happens in your family, you get cards and flowers from people you hardly know. That's the great side of it. But yes, people went to school together, they are related to one another, and the downside is that gossip spreads and people talk.

Q One example seems to be the report that you are part of a small coterie of investors that includes a county commissioner who's an ally of yours.

A It is not a small investment club. I believe there are more than 80 people in it, many of whom I don't know. There's never been a meeting of this group. I didn't even know [until an article in a weekly paper] that Commissioner [Barb] Marschall was even part of it.

Q Similarly, there's the charge of a cozy relationship with another commissioner/supporter, who assisted as a real estate agent in the purchase of your home.

A That too is not true. We bought directly from the seller and no agent was involved. We asked Jon Ulrich to list our other home for sale. That was four years ago and there's no ongoing business relationship, and it doesn't represent a conflict.

A It's a fair question and one that I cannot by law address right now.

A second job

If Shelton was comprehensively cleared, however, coupled with indications that his personnel file up to now has been pristine, snippets of information did emerge that could well raise eyebrows.

The emotional defense of Shelton by his friends, suggesting that it was all shamefully trumped up, sits uneasily beside the fact that he did put himself in what he agrees was potentially an awkward situation in holding a significant position on the side for many years -- something that apparently the most recent chair of his own board, Tom Wolf, didn't know.

Though Wolf ended up satisfied, there is every sign that his questions on this point lent some urgency to the whole situation last fall. Here is Shelton's explanation of what happened with his business in home monitoring devices, stemming from his prior work in corrections.

A I started a business in February 2000. I started selling it in January 2008 and the sale was finalized last June. Back in 2000, I went to [then administrator] Dave Unmacht and laid out what I wanted to do. What were the legal and ethical concerns. He and I met with the county attorney's office and only one issue was ever brought forward: I couldn't do business with Scott County. We talked to an international association of city and county managers, who said I mustn't do anything using my influence for personal gain.

I structured the business to make sure neither ever happened. I write proposals but don't meet with colleagues or peers in other counties. If I used personal connections from working for Scott County to garner business, that might be unethical, though not adverse to Scott County's interests, and I have never done that, ever. The vast majority are bids. We respond to requests for proposals. We win some, we lose some. When we win, it's almost always on price.

Q How could your board chair not know this was going on?

A It's never been a secret, ever. I file forms where I disclose it and probably I list things I don't have to, but the form is confusing and I list everything.

Q How is he supposed to know there's a file somewhere?

Q How would he have known?

A Well, to start with, half the time I'm wearing the company jacket.

Q Apparently one concern is that in going from company owner to employee, your status changes and suddenly you're not in full control of your time.

A When I sold the business, one thing they asked or really required was that I stay on as a manager, not day-to-day but managing managers. I'm not doing anything I haven't done for over a decade. I insisted that by necessity it would not be considered a violation that I prioritize and spend the vast majority of my time on county business. At 2 p.m. I'm not available. They understand that. Ninety-eight percent of the time when they get a call back it will be at lunch or after hours or weekends, which is the way I always managed it when [the business] was mine. They absolutely understood and there are no problems with that.

I am paid substantially less than some people who work for me, because I am part-time. I put a lot of hours into it and it drives my poor wife crazy that I work 60, 80, 90 hours a week, but I don't do business on county time.

Last week's disclosures made it clear that there's a fundamental disconnect between Shelton and three members of his board.

Stretching back at least to last summer, there's been backstairs talk of ousting him. Two of the five commissioners were staunch supporters, two others think he has tried to undermine them in various ways through the years, and board chair Wolf was the swing vote.

That seems an unstable situation, then and today, and Shelton was asked where it leaves him as their top staffer. How does it make him feel?

A Probably, if anything, confused. You could also say disappointed. I'm not certain there were ever really three people who wanted to remove me. When it came to a vote, there were not three people. It troubles me there were conversations along those lines [involving all three] and I'd still like to understand where I haven't done a good job.

Near as I can tell, this county is doing really well. I've gone through my job description to see, are there things that are not going well? It talks about the health of the county: It's quite good despite difficult economic times. We've been upgraded by Standard & Poors from AA to AA+ -- and upgraded from "fair" to "good" in our financial management. It talks about good communication with other government entities. I think we have great relations. It talks about managing people, and we have great union relations despite limiting or eliminating raises and eliminating positions and restructuring. I played a direct role in that. I don't see anything where I've not done a good job.

A Perhaps. But I want to stress my desire to now move on. I don't want to point fingers and I have no heartburn in putting all this completely behind me. I'm the type of person who, once something is done, puts it in a box and it's over.