This article includes reporting from a previously published story, which you can read here.
Scandal-plagued Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta will leave her job December 31, nearly three weeks after her first scheduled court appearance in a felony embezzlement case. But the controversy over her ouster rages on. In rare bipartisan agreement, some prominent city Democrats and Republicans have called for the resignation of the Charlottesville Electoral Board, blasting members for waiting until after the November 4 election to take disciplinary action against Iachetta.
In August, news broke that Iachetta had for years approved cell phone payments for her husband and a former board member, Stephanie Commander, long after they were no longer working for the registrar’s office. The following month, Iachetta was charged with six felonies and Commander four. In October, The Daily Progress and WINA radio program “The Schilling Show” reported that Iachetta’s city-issued personal registrar and office credit cards were revoked in 2008 for failure to provide receipts. She requested another card in 2013 for a trip to New Orleans, and that one was revoked because she charged non-city employee airfares on the card, even though she’d reimbursed the city.
In the days preceding the election, the Jefferson Area Tea Party called for her to resign. And on October 29, two Democratic former mayors, a former vice mayor, the former city treasurer and two party co-chairs, along with the GOP chair, signed a blistering letter to board members Joan Schatzman, Rick Sincere and Jim Nix expressing their “extreme dismay and disappointment in your actions as members of the Charlottesville Electoral Board.”
They were harsh words in a small town where those involved in politics often know each other well. Nix is a former city Democratic Committee co-chair; current co-chairs Erin Monaghan and Pam DeGuzman called for his resignation, as well as that of the other board members. Former mayor Tom Vandever, another signer, served as party co-chair with Nix.
The letter cited a “significant erosion in public trust” and a “severe loss” in public confidence. “Clearly your actions—either through neglect of duty or through incompetence—have had a material adverse effect on the Registrar’s office,” the letter admonished.
“We have lost all confidence in your individual and collective judgment,” it continued.
Even after the board asked for and received Iachetta’s resignation during a closed meeting two days after the election, former Vice Mayor/City Councilor John Conover still believed the Electoral Board should resign. “I think the board demonstrated a lack of oversight,” he said. “We should start over with a new board.”
Conover didn’t buy the board’s decision to wait until after the November 4 election to deal with Iachetta, and said, if “she was abducted by aliens,” the election still would go on.
“We’re sticking out our term,” said board member Rick Sincere, a sentiment echoed by his fellow board members.
Resignation “never, ever crossed my mind,” said Schatzman. She wondered why the letter-writers didn’t take issue with City Manager Maurice Jones, who was advised about the cell phone situation in March, but didn’t take action until the board brought it up in August. While only the Electoral Board can hire or fire the registrar, the position is treated as a city employee, and the board was never told about Iachetta’s revoked credit cards.
“It’s easy to judge from the outside,” said Schatzman, who has served on the board for 11 years. “I feel like we made the best decision under terrible circumstances.”
“It is not a partisan thing; it’s about integrity in the registrar’s office,” said Barbara Null, chair of the city Republican Committee and another letter signer. Null said she was concerned not only that Iachetta approved the phones, but that she said she had been paying for her husband’s each month all along and didn’t reimburse the city with a $4,663.86 check until August 20.
“If she’s misusing the phone and lying about it, it makes you wonder what else is going on,” said Null.
As for the Elections Board, said Null, “If you’re not going to do your job, you’ve got to go.”
Following the November 6 meeting, the board noted Iachetta’s “lapses in judgment” that caused “irreparable” harm.
“What they said about the registrar would apply to them,” said Erin Monaghan, one of the two Dem co-chairs who signed the letter. “It is irreparable. How can anyone trust this board with the next registrar when they failed with this one?”
The appointment of Electoral Board members is a political process based on the party of the governor, explained Conover. When Republican Governor Bob McDonnell was in office, two Republicans and one Democrat served on the three-member board. When Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, took office, the ratio switched with the appointment of Democrat Nix, who joined fellow Dem Schatzman and Republican Sincere.
Local parties submit their choices for the Electoral Board, and the city circuit court judge makes the appointment.
Removing a board member is “murky water,” said Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections. It would take a petition to the circuit court signed by a majority of members of the State Board of Elections. “As far as I know, the State Board has not taken this action” in the current case, said Cortes.
The board said it plans to conduct a national search for a new registrar, and hopes to fill the position before next year’s June primary. Iachetta has a court date scheduled for December 11.