Fight between Leland councilmember and town manager over laptop issue continues

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — WWAY has more details following a heated Leland Town Council special meeting held Monday evening, as a Leland town councilman and the town manager continue their battle over a laptop.

Shouting and yelling, residents kept interrupting the meeting Monday afternoon, upset that council member Frank Pendleton was not being allowed to address the crowd.

The special meeting was called after council members received an email from town manager David Hollis detailing allegations of potential misconduct by Pendleton.

According to emails obtained by WWAY, Hollis says town staff were asked to get a laptop for Pendleton last month, with the town contacting a vendor for the purchase.

Pendleton said he did contact the vendor, adding that the wait time of 13 plus weeks was unacceptable.

He said the laptop would allow him to access the town’s budget to help provide better transparency between the town and its residents as the council begins to work on its new budget.

“They’ve never been given a voice,” Pendleton said. “They can listen in the meetings, but they can’t speak. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to give the people an opportunity to actually speak. We’re going to put that information up on the screen and I’m gonna let them look at that information just like I do and I’m gonna ask them ‘what questions do you see when looking at this information that you want me to present to the council?'”

In the email obtained by WWAY,  Hollis said, “The manager is responsible for all purchases and executes procurements through adhering to the purchasing policies of the town. The policies are established to be compliant with state and federal law.”

Pendleton sent his own statement, which said:

“I ran for office in this past election to help facilitate change. I ran on two primary topics – overdevelopment in Leland and transparency. One of the primary responsibilities of a council member is to protect the money of the voters and citizens of this community. I have a fiduciary responsibility and duty to be a good steward for our tax payer dollars. One of the ways to be a good steward is to have the proper tools to do my job. My request for a laptop computer was in part to help me prepare and analyze the towns budget. The town manager, deputy town manager, and all of the department heads have laptops computers paid for by the citizens of Leland. Can you imagine the finance manager trying to do our town budgets on an iPad? I felt the request for the laptop computer was a reasonable request and went about the proper course to get one, up to and including having it brought before this board and voted on in an open session. This laptop was simply a tool that I felt was necessary for me to do the job that I was elected to do.

1. David Hollis has created an environment at Town Hall focused on fear, intimidation and control.

2. David Hollis has informed me on a minimum of (4) four times in the presence of Mayor Bozeman and Deputy Town Manager, Missy Rhodes that I was not allowed to speak with or meet with anyone on staff and I could not speak with or meet with any department heads.

3. I have been to town hall multiple times and have met with each department heard, in the presence of David Hollis, Brenda Bozeman & Missy Rhodes.

4. I have been escorted from the door to the meeting room and then escorted out of the building.

5. David Hollis has informed me that I am not allowed to come over to Town Hall to just walk through this building.

6. I requested a laptop computer from David Hollis and he informed me I would need the vote of the council to order one.

7. The council approved the purchase of a laptop computer for my use by a vote of 4-1 on Monday, 1.12.26.

8. I sent an email to David Hollis asking about the delivery date on the computer. I was sent an email that specificized 13+ weeks.

9. I sent an email to David Hollis asking for name of the vendor and the specs on the computer that was ordered.

10. In my years of working in the private sector, this seemed like an unreasonable lead time.