Jun 27 2008
Wake Employee’s Travel Spree Disclosed
RALEIGH — County manager David Cooke said today he has turned over documentation about a travel and spending spree by a former employee to Wake district attorney Colon Willoughby, raising the possibility of criminal prosecution.
The actions come two days after The News & Observer detailed 50 trips and questionable purchases made by Craig P. Wittig, the former recycling program manager for the county’s solid waste management division. He was fired June 3.
Over a 26-month period, Wittig averaged two out-of-town trips a month. He and five subordinates racked up $161,233 in travel costs and other expenses to credit cards issued by Wake County and paid for with public money.
The trips included a whale-watching cruise off the Maine coast, nights at a Las Vegas casino, geyser sightseeing in Yellowstone and four visits to Walt Disney World.
Wittig, 37, also used his county charge card to buy top-of-the line backpacking gear, a John Denver CD and a novel about elves. Wittig has said the trips and purchases were legitimate expenses, many of them incurred in the line of one of his primary duties — developing an environmental education program for Wake County.
Absolutely. Every recycling manager needs to know about elves. You know when they’re not at Santa’s workshop, they’re helping out at the recycling facility, right?
His boss, Solid Waste Management Director James S. Reynolds, signed off on the charges, which were often justified as research on museums and parks for building an environmental education program that was to include a planned center to be built at the recently closed North Wake Landfill.
Reynolds was demoted last month, but he has remained on the county payroll earning a reduced annual salary of $85,000. No personnel action has been taken against those working for Wittig, who also went on some of the trips.
These two numbskulls ought to be put to work for minimum wage, working two damn jobs, until they repay the county taxpayers for every penny they spent.
