Ex-BHI Mayor’s use of tax reports prompts SBI inquiry

By Ben Brown
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, June 9, 2010 1:26 PM EDT

Former Bald Head Island mayor Larry Lammert is the center of an inquiry the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has launched in connection with documents he received while challenging the local voting rights of certain property owners on the island – reports the State Port Pilot.

A bureau spokesperson confirmed Monday the investigation was related to Lammert’s receipt of accommodations tax reports, which he intended to use as evidence to demonstrate that a husband and wife on Bald Head Island actually rented-out their property most months of the year, indicating to Lammert that they were not true residents of the island despite their voting in its elections.

The accommodations tax documents Lammert received may not have been public records.

“We’re very limited on what we can say during an investigation,” N.C. Department of Justice spokesperson Jennifer Canada said Monday after confirming basic details. She did, however, add that the SBI launched its probe May 25 following a correspondence with district attorney Rex Gore.

“I can’t believe the D.A. would turn this over to the SBI,” Lammert said Monday of the accusation that he obtained confidential documents. He said he had not received any official calls or letters about the investigation.

Since the November 2009 municipal election that cost incumbent Lammert his seat as mayor of Bald Head Island, he has been vocal in his concern about the island’s voter rolls.

Lammert lost his seat by three votes in an election that saw 221 ballots cast from Bald Head Island, though the island’s government maintained a full-time resident population of 220, indicating a turnout greater than 100 percent.

Lammert said the island’s true resident count was even lower than the government’s figure.

In the months to follow he challenged dozens of voters on Bald Head Island’s rolls and showed the Brunswick County Board of Elections that some of these voters were indeed deceased. Others had moved from the island long ago.

A State Port Pilot investigation showed some of the island’s voters were dually registered in other states.

After a series of hearings on the matter, the elections board removed 37 voters from the rolls, but Lammert could not convince the county to additionally cross off a husband and wife who, Lammert contended, actually lived in Chapel Hill.

At a hearing in April, Lammert and his attorney relied on accommodations tax forms Lammert obtained to show the husband and wife rented-out their Bald Head Island property for a considerable portion of the year, despite their claim that it was their primary domicile.

But Geoffrey W. Hosford, attorney for the husband and wife, said those documents were “potentially illegally obtained” and waved a letter from the Village of Bald Head Island that cited a statute he said proved the accommodations tax information was not for public eyes.

The elections board subsequently refused to consider the tax documents as evidence.

In a packet of written objections to Lammert’s challenge against the husband and wife, Hosford included a letter his office delivered to district attorney Gore.

That letter, dated April 20, focuses on the accommodations tax document.

“The report lists the property owners who have paid taxes to the (Village of Bald Head Island) as a result of renting their property,” he wrote. “According to the tax collector for the village … that document is not a public document.”

Punishment for disclosing these documents, Hosford noted, is a class one misdemeanor. According to the statute, “If the person committing the violation is an officer or employee, that person shall be dismissed from public office or public employment and may not hold any public office or public employment in this state for five years after the violation.”

“In this matter, the challenger is the former mayor for the Village of Bald Head Island,” Hosford continued in his letter to Gore. “In your capacity as district attorney, I bring this matter to your attention for action that you deem appropriate.”

Lammert on Monday said the inquiry felt like “harassment.”

“The investigation is ongoing at this time,” Canada said. “Once the investigation is complete, the (SBI) will report its findings back to the D.A.”

THANKS, STATE PORT PILOT!
http://www.stateportpilot.com/articles/2010/06/11/front_page_news/doc4c0f94d165915738646304.txt