On Tuesday, Jan. 28, the former IT network administrator for the Town of Summerfield issued a statement saying that he, not former Town Manager Scott Whitaker, was responsible for discarding data on the town’s servers.
Earlier this month, the Summerfield Town Council voted to launch an investigation of this and other matters after auditor Beth Wood cited a host of issues she found regarding the town’s finances and what she said appeared to be a large amount of missing data from the town’s computer system.
After she gave a presentation at a Town Council meeting earlier this month, the Council voted unanimously to pay for an investigation by an outside party.
Last year, the entire town staff of Summerfield resigned after being unhappy with the way Whitaker was let go, and some now say that some members of the current Town Council were drumming up allegations to justify their decision as well as to cast former town staff in a bad light.
The Summerfield Town Council decision to get rid of Whitaker surprised Whitaker – who had been the town’s manager for a dozen years – and it also surprised town staff by ending Whitaker’s employment, initially with no severance pay.
Stone served as a contract IT network administrator for the Town of Summerfield from mid-2005 to March 31 of last year.
The introduction provided before Stone’s statement begins reads, “Bill Stone managed server back-ups through March 2024 and explained that he was simply discarding redundant archives to ease the data migration to an incoming vendor. He also cleared up other recent claims regarding the town’s IT … During a streamed January 14 meeting, Summerfield’s Council accused Whitaker and former staff of multiple ethical, financial, and potentially criminal actions prior to the entire staff’s resignation last May and June. The allegations were instigated by Dana Luther (former Interim Manager), Twig Rollins (current Manager), and some Council members, and the surprise report was presented by former State Auditor Beth Wood, who herself is no stranger to run-ins with the legal system.”
(In 2023, then North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run charge as a result of a December 2022 crash in a state-owned car.)
The statement notes that the Town Council voted to move forward with an IT forensic investigation before ever even asking questions of Whitaker, Stone or other former town staff such as former finance director Dee Hall. Both Whitaker and Hall have loudly professed their innocence, and many in Summerfield, including the current and past mayor, have stated publicly that Whitaker and Hall both have excellent characters and were highly professional while working for the town.
Whitaker has been adamant in his defense of how he and other staff exited the town’s government.
“I did not sabotage or create roadblocks for a new administration,” Whitaker has stated. “The network server was left well organized by department and function and was backed up daily with ample redundancy.”
One allegation against Whitaker is that he deleted a great deal of town data on his way out the door. The suggestion was that this was done to cover up wrongdoing.
Whitaker and Hall have all stated that the whole issue could have been cleared up if the concerned Town Council members had just bothered to make some phone calls and asked the accused for their side of the story.
Stone, in his defense of Whitaker and any others who were alleged to have removed information from the town’s servers, went into technical detail to shoot down the claims that data was deleted in a nefarious way and also the claim that the “town’s IT systems/passwords were withheld inappropriately.”
Here are the summary points Stone provided leading into his public in his statement:
- I was the sole IT provider until March 31, 2024, and the total storage capacity of the server that stored all vital data was approximately 5TB, which included ample free space. The entire combined storage capacity of every Town IT device was considerably less than the 119TB cited by the town.
- Backups occurred daily, weekly, and monthly, and annual full-archive backups were retained indefinitely. I managed these largely at my own professional discretion in accordance with best practices and a long-standing understanding of Town IT needs. I decided the backup policy, retention policy, and what data required archiving.
- Prior to transitioning to a new IT vendor, I realized the need to minimize unnecessary full archives. Between January ≥17 and March 31, I discarded many redundant archives to ease the data migration to the incoming vendor. This resulted in the difference in required backup storage space noted in [Wood’s January 15 report].
- During the March IT vendor transition, I provided all passwords required to access internal devices, network accounts, and external, third-party IT-related providers to Gray & Creech. Regarding Whitaker’s Town devices, I configured each with Apple IDs using Town email domain addresses—none used alternative access credentials.
Stone goes on in his official statement to provide a point-by-point rendition meant to address the IT-related concerns Wood had put in her mid-January report to the Summerfield Town Council where the allegations were flying.
For instance, one quote, from page 8 of Wood’s letter to the Council:
“The request was made to have the vendor pull the back up of Town’s data as of January 1, 2024, and pull the back up of data as June 11, 2024. The result of the comparison between the two backup files showed that there were 119,000 of data less in the June 11 backup than there was in the January 1 backup.”
On January 1, 2024, at which time Stone managed the data backup for Summerfield, the total amount of storage used on the remote backup server was occupied by dozens of weekly, monthly and yearly full archives going back several years, according to Stone. Weekly full archive backups, Stone stated, were retained for 1 month prior to being discarded. Monthly full archive backups were retained for 10 years. Annual full archive backups were retained indefinitely.
According to Stone, there was a lot of redundancy and the total amount of required storage space for the backups was several dozens of times greater than the total amount of vital data files held on the server in the Summerfield Town Hall requiring backup.
“After turning in my retirement notice and anticipating the need to transfer all of this archived backup data to a new backup vendor, the need to cleanup any unnecessary retained full archives became apparent, as the amount of data to be migrated would be cumbersome,” Stone stated. “Between January 17 and March 31, 2024, all monthly archives older than 1 year were discarded and all annual archive backups were retained. This is what resulted in the difference in required backup storage space noted in the January 15, 2025 Letter to the Council.”
He went on to point out that one of the line items on his invoices to the Town specified “Managed Backup.”
He said Whitaker played no role in any of this.
“I made the decisions on backup policy, retention policy, and on what data required backing up. I made these decisions based on IT expertise and, for the most part, without input or direction from, or consultation with, Town Hall Staff.”
Like I have said before. The gang of four, Devaney, Hamilton, Clay and Robinson are like the 1971 movie, The Gang Who can’t Shoot Straight. As is their modus operandi they jump on what they perceive to be a gotcha moment. They are an embarrassment and owe staff an apology, but they don’t have the empathy or ethics to give one, though they have sullied their names and reputation. They also need to stop wasting the towns money, though I’m afraid this latest fiasco will end up with more settlements paid out.. I hope everyone remembers in November.
I’ve know Scott for many years and I can’t speak to his day to day management skills but I will say this. I’ve seen Scott at almost every event (big and small) in Summerfield over the last decade. That’s not the behavior of someone who doesn’t care. Council certainly had the right to fire him but I’m not buying this whole sabotage bit on his way out the door.
Beth Wood…really!
Chirps from the ditto heads.
There once was a great radio personality named Paul Harvey. His most memorable line was; AND NOW YOU HAVE THE REST OF THE STORY.
Petty people making unsubstantiated accusations are usually living in fear that they will be exposed for what they are. Thus they deflect attention away from themselves and attack others. ‘nuff said?
I worked with Mr. Stone. He is very good at what he does. He does not do anything illegal, even if requested. His professional ethics are strong and his technical expertise even stronger. He is a great professional and has served the Town and other clients honorably over the years.