Summerfield could face tough road ahead as town rebuilds staff following resignations

One month ago, staff members at the town of Summerfield announced their resignations. They said they made the decision in part because they felt Town Manager Scott Whitaker had been mistreated by the council.

Since then volunteers have stepped in to keep things running. The Town Council has also hired an interim manager to continue conducting business.

The municipality was already under scrutiny by the North Carolina General Assembly. Senate leader Phil Berger is backing a bill to de-annex over 900 acres of Summerfield's land, due to controversy surrounding a development project.

WFDD's DJ Simmons sat down with Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, to talk about the resignations and what the path ahead may look like for the town.

Interview Highlights

On whether he's ever seen a town's entire staff resign: 

"Short answer, no. It's surprising. You can sort of imagine a scenario in which it's a tiny town and let's say you have a half-time town clerk. But we're not talking about that. This is not Greensboro, this is not Winston-Salem, this is not High Point, but it's still not one of the smallest municipalities.  So, no, I don't recall seeing this and certainly it's a surprise anywhere, particularly in a town of, you know, roughly 11,000 people."

On whether a town's perceived dysfunction could cause the General Assembly to step in:

"It doesn't generally, but it can happen. So it's not normal for them to jump in and just kind of take over but it is normal for them to change district boundaries, annex, de-annex, usually though, in partnership with that local town, not in opposition to that local town."

On what tools towns have to fight de-annexation:

"Not a lot is the short answer. I mean, we are not a home rule state, and so that means these municipalities are creatures of the state. And so if the General Assembly wants to do something, for the most part, they can do it."