Editor’s Note: Back in January, Pikeville Mayor Garrett Johnston invited two town residents into his home for what turned into a nearly four-hour conversation.
The purpose of the meeting was to convince one of the residents to apply for a vacant seat on the Board of Commissioners — and to give the mayor an opportunity to sell her on his plan to change Pikeville’s form of government and fire the majority of the town’s employees.
What Johnston did not know is that the conversation was being recorded — a maneuver that is legal in North Carolina, a state that only requires that one of the parties involved consents to such activity.
The full audio file, which was obtained by Wayne Week, contains everything from a detailed explanation by Johnston of how he planned to, in essence, take over the town to personal attacks on Pikeville Police Chief Rodney Jarman, law enforcement officers in general, Town Manager Tim Biggerstaff, and several then-commissioners.
In addition to the recording, the contents of the conversation were independently confirmed by the two people who met with the mayor that day. They have asked to not be identified.
The purpose of the meeting was to convince one of the residents to apply for a vacant seat on the Board of Commissioners — and to give the mayor an opportunity to sell her on his plan to change Pikeville’s form of government and to fire the majority of the town’s employees.
What Johnston did not know is that the conversation was being recorded — a maneuver that is legal in North Carolina, a state that requires that only one of the parties involved consents to such activity.
The full audio file, which was obtained by Wayne Week, contains everything from a detailed explanation by Johnston of how he planned to, in essence, take over the town to personal attacks on Pikeville Police Chief Rodney Jarman, law enforcement officers in general, Town Manager Tim Biggerstaff, and several other town employees.
In addition to the recording, the contents of the conversation were independently confirmed by the two people who met with the mayor that day. They have asked to not be identified.
STATE LEADERS ALARMED BY PIKEVILLE GOVERNMENT CHANGE
North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell is concerned.
So is state Treasurer Dale Folwell.
So is the Local Government Commission.
And so is the League of Municipalities.
The June 10 decision, by an incomplete Pikeville Board of Commissioners — two seats on the board currently sit vacant — to buck the state’s guidance and switch forms of government to give the mayor and commissioners more power has been the talk of Raleigh since it happened, especially since one of the recommendations the LGC made when it relinquished control of the town was to install a manager-council system.
Bell said as much during an interview with New Old North Tuesday evening.
“With the conversations that I’ve had, unprovoked, there’s a lot of people concerned with what’s going on in Pikeville right now,” he said. “I’ve had two different entities approach me. One would be the League of Municipalities and the other would be the LGC. It was labeled to me as concerns with the possibility of changing governments and with the leadership in the town.”
But what those entities do not know is that Pikeville Mayor Garrett Johnston has been planning the move for months — and has been telling people that the League, the LGC, and Bell blessed the move.
During a nearly-four-hour conversation with two town residents at his home in January, Johnston laid out his plan — one that included not only switching forms of government to give himself and other members of the board more control, but also firing the vast majority of Pikeville’s employees.
The mayor had no idea that the conversation was being recorded, a maneuver that is legal in North Carolina, a state that only requires that one of the parties involved consents to such activity.
Based on the audio, which was obtained by New Old North and independently verified, Johnston said he had the green light from leaders in Raleigh to move forward with his plan.
“The UNC School of Government is backing this. The League of Municipalities is backing this. And the Local Government Commission has given us the thumbs up,” Johnston said.
But Folwell and Bell said that is not true.
“The Local Government Commission staff recommended a manager-council governance structure for Pikeville,” Folwell told New Old North Tuesday. “Our position has not changed.”
Bell agreed.
“Everywhere they have tried this it’s failed, and the town has gone into disarray,” he said. “That’s why the manager form of government is the best choice. In my extremely brief conversation with Mayor Johnston, when he brought it up, I told him that having a town manager is the right way to go.”
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As reported in the May 26 edition of New Old North, the idea of changing the form of Pikeville’s government first surfaced when a public hearing was called to allow for discussion of the potential change.
But the meeting was not publicized in accordance with open meetings law — and was, instead, announced via a piece of paper taped to the front door of Town Hall the day of the event.
The item also did not appear on the town’s published agenda.
In fact, it wasn’t until the beginning of the board’s May 13 session that seemingly confused Town Manager Tim Biggerstaff figured out how to add it to the docket.
“Are we going to do the public hearing before we get into the agenda or is that part of the agenda?” he asked.
The mayor responded.
“Let’s just squeeze that in before old business,” he said.
And some 20 minutes later, the commissioners, with no vote to approve the measure to amend its agenda, did just that.
All of the above are violations of N.C. open meetings law.
Folwell, who was involved in the takeover of the town in April 2021, when Pikeville only had 4.8 percent of restricted funds available to meet its $765,000 budget and was at risk of missing five debt payments totaling $158,000, seemed concerned — both about the potential change of government and how notice of the public hearing was delivered.
“I’m always concerned about decreased transparency, decreased competency, and increased conflicts of interest,” he told New Old North.
And during her time at the UNC School of Government, Dr. Vaughn Mamlin Upshaw panned the form of government Pikeville’s board seemed keen on switching back to May 13.
“There are two major weaknesses,” she wrote. “The first is the absence of any real concentration of executive authority and responsibility, as decision-making ultimately rests with the board of commissioners or city council as a group. Responsibility for operating the local government is divided among and shared by all members of the governing board, making it administration by committee. Strong, consistent direction depends on maintaining general agreement, which may be difficult at times. “
And the second, according to Upshaw, is the “fact” that “politicians are not necessarily good administrators.”
“Those who are elected may be popular with the voters, but may be amateurs when it comes to running a county or city,” she said.
But their concerns fell on deaf ears, and the board voted to, as Johnston put it, “change the charter of the town” anyway — despite the ire expressed by several town residents who were in attendance.
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With Pikeville set to change its form of government July 1, Johnston and the three men currently serving on what is supposed to be a five-person board will have the power to do everything from hiring and firing to rewriting the town’s charter.
And they will also have more control over Pikeville’s future.
During that conversation in January, Johnston outlined several of his goals.
One of them was to transform downtown.
“Let’s take our downtown back from the poor people and make (it) trendy again,” he said.
Another involved determining how to spend the $1 million Bell secured for the town from the state budget.
But Johnston, who sources inside Town Hall said is the “only one” who has had “any say” in how the money would be spent, did not seem concerned about the gravity of being in charge of such a large sum.
In fact, he argued that he might be the only one in town smart enough to handle it.
“All these ideas came out of my head. I’m a visionary leader,” he said. “I don’t mean this in a mean way, but there’s very few people that have enough imagination to spend or manage $1 million.”
He also shared his plan to restructure the government — from which commissioners would be in charge of which departments to his goal of ousting the majority of the town’s current employees.
“Just know that there is something called, ‘Operation Clean Sweep,’ that is ready to go into effect,” Johnston said. “We can pick them off one at a time.”
And he implied town residents would be none the wiser.
“Most (Pikeville residents) don’t know what the hell is goin’ on,” Johnston said. “Some people don’t know that the state took us over, which means they don’t know we’ve been freed from the state.”
So, he assured the people he was talking to — one of them, a resident he said he was “rooting for” to get one of the board’s vacant seats — that he could ensure his vision was executed without issue as long as the change of government happened.
And then, once he fulfilled “Operation Clean Sweep,” he would replace those employees with “interns” and “volunteers” through a program he said he “kind of snuck in there.”
“Then, guess what? I’m never paying the whole salary to anybody,” he said. “I’m never paying retirement.”
But for Bell, perhaps the most troubling thing about what Johnston said was that he seems to have forgotten whom he serves.
He referred to himself as a “million-dollar mayor.”
“So, when you think about me, you better think in millions,” Johnston said.
He relished his reputation as someone who “made waves.”
“I’m a flippin’ hurricane. You’ll figure that out before long,” Johnston said. “I’m all about waves.”
And he, according to the House Majority Leader, misrepresented supposed conversations between the two — specifically about Bell backing the change of government and, according to Johnston, saying, “John Bell has already said, ‘So what you’re telling me is that I just need to stick a funnel in Pikeville and throw in every bit of money in it I can.’”
“Yes,” Bell said, when asked if he was concerned that Johnston was, now that the government has been changed, in control of the $1 million he secured for Pikeville. “Short answer is yes. Mayor Johnston needs to remember that he’s elected by the citizens of the Town of Pikeville and he answers to the citizens of the Town of Pikeville. He seems to have forgotten that and it’s troubling for sure.”
MAYOR: COPS HAVE “DADDY ISSUES”
He called the police chief a “no neck,” “big ass,” “narcissist.”
He said the “law enforcement crowd” was “guys with daddy issues that need a badge to feel powerful.”
He characterized two of Pikeville’s newest police hires as “little stick figures.”
And he alleged that town lawmen had deliberately allowed a “crack house” to remain in operation so they could arrest the people running it months down the road to bolster the PPD’s budding K-9 program.
Pikeville Mayor Garrett Johnston said all of those things — violating, by his own admission, town employees’ statutorily-guaranteed right to confidentiality — to two town residents in January, unaware that the conversation was being recorded.
That recording — which is legal in North Carolina, as the state only requires one party involved in the discussion to consent to the recording — was recently obtained by New Old North.
Johnston himself acknowledges that talking about personnel — and their performance — was against the law.
“I’m breaking the law by sharing personnel issues,” he said.
But he did it anyway — at times laughing after he hurled insults at the men sworn to protect the town.
The majority of the personal attacks were directed at Police Chief Rodney Jarman — a man Johnston called a “manipulator” who, despite having worked in law enforcement since 2009, was not fit for the position.
“There’s not another agency in Wayne County that will hire him,” the mayor said. “That should say something to you.”
But Jarman was not the only person in the department Johnston took aim at.
In fact, at one point, he summed up his feelings about every officer in Pikeville’s department — and the law enforcement community as a whole.
“The law enforcement crowd, you’re gettin’ guys with daddy issues that need a badge to feel powerful. Knowing that we’re going to be dealing with those kinds of personalities, we just need strong leadership over them to keep them in line,” Johnston said. “We know they’re coming with issues.”
First-time officers, he added, are problematic because they “just don’t know what to do with the badge.”
And the town’s most recent hires “need to go” because “these guys worship Jarman.”
But their chief needs to be fired, too, the mayor told the residents.
“If we leave Jarman too long, he’s going to create a whole lot of trouble,” Johnston said. “So, he’s gotta go quick.”
Only then can the mayor cut the PPD’s budget.
“The police department takes up about $400,000 of our budget and that leaves almost nothing for everybody else,” Johnston said. “That needs to be torn through.”
But the mayor didn’t stop with discussing the chief’s employment status.
He also alleged Jarman knowingly allowed a “crack house” — a property he described and then identified — to operate in town without consequences.
“We have a house in this town right now that is suspected to be providing crack as well as marijuana. It’s well-known about,” Johnston said. “That house could have been dealt with a long time ago. It’s been allowed to sit there and there is mention that they’re going to take care of it in the spring. Well, that just happens to coincide with Jarman’s big K-9 program. Narcissist. In the meantime, guess how many kids in this town have gotten drugs from that house.”
When asked if he would like to respond to the attacks levied against him and his men by the mayor, Jarman declined.
And he also declined to comment on whether he would seek legal recourse now that Johnston has discussed — with town residents — his employment status, competency, and job performance.
As for the allegations that he, as a police chief, deliberately instructed his men to avoid busting up a “crack house” for future gain, he again opted for a “no comment.”
But he did provide a statement as a show of support to those members of the Pikeville Police Department he said take pride in keeping their neighbors safe — men he said sacrifice every day by knowingly putting their lives on the line.
“We base what we do on our department motto, which is, ‘Proud, Professional, Proactive.’ That’s what we’re going to continue to do. That’s what I feel like the officers we have put in place are doing. And that’s just not from the leadership. That’s from the bottom to the top,” Jarman said. “Everyone plays an important role here and we all keep that motto, that mission, in mind. So, we’re going to continue to support — and be honored to serve — this community. The majority here in Pikeville, they know that this department is doing the very best that it can with the equipment that we’re allocated and the officers that we have. Everybody is struggling in law enforcement with recruitment and retention. Well, we’re one of the only departments that I know of that’s fully staffed. I think that speaks for itself. It speaks volumes about the kind of agency and the kind of atmosphere we’re trying to create here. So, we will continue to maintain that professionalism. And we will continue to be proud — not just proud, but Pikeville proud — to serve this community.”
MAYOR ALLEGEDLY RECEIVED GIFTS IN VIOLATION OF N.C. GENERAL STATUTE
According to several eyewitnesses, Pikeville Mayor Garrett Johnston accepted “two boxes full of gifts” from a man the mayor has said will bring soccer programming to the town after a $400,000 soccer complex is constructed.
The man also happens to be Johnston’s daughter’s college coach at Mid-Atlantic Christian University.
Emails obtained by New Old North via a records request fulfilled by the town detail how Town Manager Tim Biggerstaff reacted to what he perceived as something he was obligated to report.
At first, he reached out to Town Attorney Harry Lorello.
“I will leave out name and any details out at this point, but whom do you report or ask if there is a possible conflict of interest or ethics violation for receiving gifts from someone you are doing business with and spending a large amount of public funds on a project that greatly benefit the person giving the gifts,” Biggerstaff asked.
Lorello responded.
“Tim – thanks for asking. Can you please provide the specific details of what you or the staff witnessed?” he wrote. “You can omit the receiving party’s name at this time, but I’d need the details down to the T. This may be innocuous, or it may be very serious, it’s very fact dependent.”
Biggerstaff replied with a detailed accounting of the events that unfolded. (Note: This a word-for-word transcription of the email sent by Biggerstaff to Town Attorney Harry Lorello. It has not been edited for spelling or grammar.)
“Jim Givargis, soccer coach from Mid-Atlantic Christian University in Elizabeth City, NC and previously known to be working with elected official on future soccer program development for Pikeville, come into the town hall on Friday, May 10th asking our clerk if the elected official was here. Wendy said no and that he doesn’t have an office in town hall. Mr. Givargis then said he had called that elected official but he didn’t answer. Mentioned he was supposed to be in Pikeville by 10am but he had gotten lost and it was now after 12. He said he had some gifts for him and asked if he could leave them here in town hall. Wendy referred him to me in which he told me the same thing. I said he could put it in the back room. He went to his truck and brought in two boxes full of items. He told me that he was out of town for the official’s wedding anniversary so he brought the family some gifts and other items. In the box he showed me a personalized soccer ball, a cook book for official’s wife, a collectible wine bottle from the 1980 something World Cup with wine in it, a medieval style helmet for the daughter, a tshirt with the town’s name on it to be approved for future sales, and a sample of turf for the human foosball field he’s designing for the town to build in this new complex. He asked if I knew about the foosball and I said no. He was excited to tell me that he is designing it and will be one of the first one of its kind in the US and that we needed concrete or blacktop for this turf. He also asked to see the future storage space for his soccer supplies so I showed him the space in the concession stand. While there, he spoke about wanting to obtain a booth at the Freedom Fireworks as his friend designs shirts and other things and maybe they could set up and sale items. On Monday, May 13th, the official came over to collect the boxes. Myself and Wendy were away at the time. Our PT billing clerk, Monique, was here when he came to collect them. Witness to the items were Wendy Holland, Rodney Jarman, myself, and my foster son, Landon who was here for a few minutes to visit and get a drink when Mr. Givargis came by. Let me know if anything else is needed or who it should be reported to.”
Assuming the town properly fulfilled New Old North’s Freedom of Information Act records request, Lorello has not responded in the nearly two months since Biggerstaff’s narrative was sent.
North Carolina General Statue 138A-32 prohibits a “public servant” from accepting gifts for a variety of reasons. Among them are if the person giving the gift “is doing or is seeking to do business of any kind with the public servant’s employing entity” or “is engaged in activities that are regulated or controlled by the public servant’s employing entity.”
And given the fact that the coach told Biggerstaff that he is working on the soccer complex project — and several officials inside Town Hall have said Johnston has championed the coach as a future Pikeville contract employee — the mayor receiving gifts from him appears to be a violation of state statue.
Attempts to reach Lorello — which included a note left for him at his law firm, Everett, Womble & Lawrence — for comment have been unsuccessful.
MAYOR: “OPERATION CLEAN SWEEP” WILL TARGET PIKEVILLE EMPLOYEES
He made fun of an employee he said was “dyslexic” and therefore could not be trusted to “read meters.”
He claimed another was recovering from cancer and was “basically just here for the benefits.”
He attacked several people who applied for the town manager position in 2022 — calling one of them a “big, lazy, slob.”
But Pikeville Mayor Garrett Johnston’s most searing evaluation of town employees was saved for Town Manager Tim Biggerstaff, whom he called everything from “dickless” and “spineless” to a “pushover” before inferring there was something inappropriate about the fact that he adopted a 13-year-old boy.
And all of this was said in January during a nearly-four-hour discussion with two town residents — a conversation that revolved heavily around what he admitted were confidential personnel matters.
“I’m breaking the law by sharing personnel issues,” Johnston, at one point, said.
The purpose of the meeting — a meeting that was recorded, legally, without the mayor’s knowledge (in North Carolina, only one of the parties must consent to the recording) — was, in part, to gain support for what Johnston called “Operation Clean Sweep,” a process that, should the Town Board of Commissioners vote to change the form of government, would involve firing nearly every person employed by the town.
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Based on the conversation, Johnston’s main concern involved two people — Biggerstaff and former Public Works employee Bobby Hunt.
But the mayor unwrapped just how he intended to get rid of both of them.
In Hunt’s case, the board was planning, Johnston said, to create a new position — one that would render Hunt’s services obsolete.
“The unicorn is the sewer plant operator director over Public Works. The reason why we’re doing that is because if we hire a director, that gets rid of the supervisor role, which is the guy we’re trying to get rid of,” Johnston said. “We eliminate that position altogether which means he has to apply for a different job within the town or he no longer has a job. I did that to coddle Mr. Manager here because he refused to deal with any kind of real issue or conflict.”
Getting rid of Biggerstaff, though, would be “easier.”
“The manager works for the board — at the pleasure of the board — and we can fire him at any time without cause,” Johnston said. “So, when we decide we’re done — he can wear the wrong aftershave one day and piss us off — we can fire him. There’s nothing he can do about it.”
But why?
According to the mayor, Biggerstaff is a “total pushover” who is “scared of technology” and only got the job because the candidate pool was less-than-desirable.
“In defense of our hiring decision, we went through two advertisements and we literally got Chris Farley’s twin. I’m not kidding. The guy was hilarious. … To employ him though? No. He’s a big, lazy slob,” Johnston said. “Then, we got one guy who’s got an arrest warrant for beating his wife at the Circle K. No. Not OK with me. Then, we’ve got another lady who’s got three pending cases for embezzlement. We cannot get qualified people at our budget level.”
So, they “settled” for Biggerstaff.
“Honestly, that was the best out of everything that showed up,” Johnston said.
The mayor continued that when it comes to Biggerstaff, there are two options.
One is firing him with no cause.
The other is changing the form of government and demoting him to ensure a “smooth transition.”
“If we change forms of government, we bump him down for three months. We’re throwing a bone. I don’t want to do it and I certainly don’t want to go over three months. Initially, (Commissioner) Matt (Thomas) asked for six. I said, ‘No. I’ll give you three at best,’” Johnston said. “I said, ‘If it’s up to me, he’d go.’ But in order to make this strategy work and to ensure a smooth transition, we’ll bump him down for three months. Once he’s bumped down, the hiring and firing, it goes through the mayor — it goes through whichever commissioner we have that a, is willing, and b, understands the hiring and firing process.”
When asked how being fired would hurt Biggerstaff financially, the mayor said it wasn’t his “problem.”
“He did just buy a house in town. Not my fault. He did just take on a 13-year-old foster child — a boy. Not sure how I feel about that,” Johnston said. “His personal life, we’re not allowed to talk about, which means I’m not allowed to consider that in the decision here. But I can’t sleep at night right now knowing that none of this is gonna happen, none of that’s gonna happen, until we get rid of our employees.”
That included Donald Hill.
“He’s basically just here for the benefits. He’s recovering from cancer,” Johnston said. “He loves to stir up trouble. He loves to poke the bear. And he’s wearing out.”
And Gabe Branson.
“Gabe gets up there and he’s a dyslexic,” Johnston said, laughing. “Usually not a good thing when he reads your meter.”
But mostly, he focused on Biggerstaff — stating again and again that he could not move forward with his plan to change the town’s form of government with him in a leadership position.
“Do I believe for a second that I want to begin a program as detailed and as potentially life-altering as this with the guy we have? No.” Johnston said. “Because I’m just starting out with a turd.”
Editor’s Note: We have spoken with every employee Johnston referenced during his January conversation. All of them gave us the OK to publish what he said about them during that meeting. Johnston also took aim at the Pikeville Police Department and its chief, Rodney Jarman. That part of the conversation is unwrapped in a subsequent story in this package.
