Breaking News: Craig Gerhart Resigns!

STAFF
Published: June 3, 2009

Longtime county executive Craig Gerhart has resigned.

His announcement comes a day after indictments in a corruption scheme involving Prince William County’s Office of Information Technology. Gerhart has not indicated the bid-rigging case has anything to do with his decision.

Gerhart’s last day with the county government will be on Friday, July 3. Gerhart will start work for Amtrak on Monday, July 6.

Gerhart will work for Amtrak as a full-time independent contractor as the Organizational Strategist for Amtrak’s Policy and Development.

Stay with insidenova.com for a full story on the county executive’s resignation.

Washington Post, Tuesday, June 3, 2009

In one of the largest embezzlement cases in county history, prosecutors secured indictments Monday on 153 charges against Gupta, 45, of Woodbridge; Roessler, 50, of Woodbridge; Roessler’s brother Vernon, 42, of Dale City; and Richard Billingsley, 41, of Springfield. Charges include racketeering, bid rigging, forgery, obtaining money by false pretenses and money laundering over a five-year period.

Law enforcement sources close to the investigation said yesterday that Gupta and Roessler set up the company and arranged for it to win lucrative bids with the IT office. Two sources, both of whom spoke anonymously because of the ongoing probe, said the scheme involved submitting fake bids in the names of legitimate county contractors so that Praetorian could then compete with and undercut those bids.

Gupta was able to hide his actions because he was in charge of the process, authorities said. Officials said yesterday that there were 26 cases in which the men gave themselves contracts and made up bids from other companies.

Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert, Police Chief Charlie Deane, and County Executive Craig Gerhart discussed the 153 indictments handed down yesterday in a press release. The FBI is also involved because approximately $500,000 in federal grant money was tied to the scheme. This appears to be only the beginning.

This story seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Phony companies, phony presidents of companies, fake company letterhead all are components of this tale of intrigue, graft and corruption.

 

The Washington Post story is listed above.

When do those companies who were denied bids kick in for their piece of the pie? Will these crimes affect our AAA bond rating? How will the corruption affect future grants? $500,000 is quite a jump from the previously reported $90,000. Was that earlier figure inaccurate reporting or is more being uncovered.

Corey Stewart continues his mantra:

“This is an embarrassment to the county, and the board will want answers as to why the internal controls in place the past five years were so weak and so easily bypassed,” said Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart.

I guess voters will be asking the same question in 2011 and those wanting to be re-elected will be having to come up with a few answers.

142 Thoughts to “Breaking News: Gerhart Resigns”

  1. Gainesville Resident

    Actually, to close this “salary topic” I found a Network Engineering Supervisor making only $101K a year. Let’s put it this way – I’d be taking a paycut if I took that person’s job. Not a good sign…

  2. Howard Roark

    First of all, it’s spelled G-E-R-H-A-R-T.

    Second, not everything leads back to illegal aliens, the resolution, and Corey F. Stewart.

    Third, Craig resigned because this happened on his watch. What we’re seeing here is a ‘you reap what you sow, and oh by the way, three strikes you’re out’ scenario. Last year it was the development agencies. The year before that, it was Housing and Community development.

    And why did each of these fiascos occur? Because Craig runs his organization based primarily on relationships. He hears what he wants to hear from his followers, and ignores (if they’re lucky) those who don’t toe the line. Gupta was of the inner circle. Yes, there are controls in place. Controls which ethical, honest people follow. BUT. Staff within the county figured out what was going on, brought it to the attention of the higher-ups, and nothing was done because of Gupta’s membership in the inner circle.

  3. Gainesville Resident

    OK, I got Gerhart’s name wrong, thanks for the correction.

  4. I believe history will record that Craig Gerhart’s most important challenge was protecting and defending the long term interests of Prince William County from the short term interests of Corey Stewart and John Stirrup. His hands were tied because of the nature of the county executive form of government … but he fought Stewart and Stirrup to a draw, minimizing the damage, and avoiding absolute ruin where absolute ruin was not only possible but likely. If this has made him unpopular among the eight remaining members of Help Save Manassas, so be it. Gerhart’s departure is our loss, but his gain. He is a good man, he served us well, and we shall wish him well in his new career.

    It is true, Howard, not everything during Corey Stewart’s tenure leads back to the Immigration Resolution, just like not everything during George W. Bush’s tenure leads back to Iraq. But everything that occurs, in each instance, must be seen in the context of the dominant “issue” of its time. (And, if Corey Stewart and his chief lieutenant Greg Letiecq were not so gleefully using the IT scandal to make political whoopie, the Immigration Resolution calamity would less likely come to mind.)

    I have, since 2007, compared the Immigration Resolution to the invasion of Iraq because both are examples of bad policies, justified with lies and innuendo, that turned a government and a people against itself, wasting countless resources and consuming the workdays (and nights) of government officials and government staff when there were more important duties to perform and serious challenges on the horizon.

    The Immigration Resolution provides the historical context for this embezzlement scandal, just as the Iraq war provides the historical context for Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of our financial system. There have been numerous failings in our county government during this period of great distraction and counterproductive bickering. This scandal was only one of them. I would argue that this is just another reason why we should try to avoid County Chairmen whose forte is great distractions and counterproductive bickering.

    I have stated before that Chief Charlie Deane is the Gen. Powell to Corey Stewart’s George Bush. Craig Gerhart, then, is Treasury Secretary Paul O’neil. They made choices, not all of them the best choices, that they felt would allow them to remain loyal to those who appointed them, and to serve the voters at the same time. With certain leaders, however, this goal is difficult if not impossible to achieve.

  5. Thumper

    @Wendy
    I agree with that. I’ve also heard employees are sick of Stewart. Why shouldn’t they be? They have to take the heat for his decisions. There are other people on the BOCS who wouldn’t ignore the employees.

    By the way, what does immigration have to do with any of this? How tiresome to bring it up when there’s no relation.

  6. Wendy

    If the BOS does not provide the critical resources the CE asks for repeatedly to run the government then yes they are responsible. Since 2000 CE and CFO have been asking for audit staff. Then when the Housing Grant went under, Stewart said “gee, what a good idea only I’ll make it my idea”.

    End of story.

  7. Wendy

    Well, I forgot to add that is when Stewart added audit staff.

  8. Gerhardt has always struck me as exceedingly honest. It makes sense for him to leave in the middle of an investigation. If he were questioned while on the job, he would have pressure coming from all sides to skew his answers. Putting himself in the position to be objective is smart.

    What I am not reading here is Connaughton’s responsibility for at least some of this. Stewart wasn’t the only one in the Chair’s seat when this was going on.

  9. Moon-howler

    If the County Executive continually asked for the tools needed to ensure everyone was on the up and up, and this was refused by the BOCS, then one has to drop the responsibility for the fiscal mess squarely on the desks of the BOS.

    I also want to know how long the bos knew about monetary indiscrepancies before they called in the police. Was this another power struggle?

  10. Moon-howler

    Also, doesn’t the audit staff work for the county?

  11. Moon-howler

    @Howard Roark
    Howard, has Mr. Gerhart appointed you to be his spokesman or are your just offering your opinion here?

    You are speaking as though your opinion is fact. There are those who work for the county who would disagree with your assessment.

  12. Mom

    Some of the alleged monetary discrepancies (particularly those tied to Federal grants) have been documented and known to some members of the BOCS for 18-24 months. It took FOIAs from those outside the PWC govt. to put the pieces together, FOIAs for documents from several agencies which when combined with documents willingly disclosed by other employees gave a clear indication of possible misconduct.

    Now before anyone screams coverup or wonders why this took so long, it is not unusual for the forensic investigation, coordination with Federal authorities and ultimately pursuit of legal action, to take at least that long.

  13. Moon-howler

    Mom, the problem I can see is the word SOME members of the bocs.

    Were the FOIAs from people from within county government or were the FOIAs from private citizens?

    You have just added another layer to the mystery rather than providing transparency.

    I just find it rather incredible that certain people know things in this county and release the information on blogs rather than to proper authorities. Did you not find it strange that guts of a story back in May really came off a blog? I find what Lucky Duck reports to be consistent with what I observed myself:

    The Chairman WAS given the fact no less than ten days ago…then suddenly the same facts showed up on the other side….hmm…why did that happen?… So why would anyone give more facts to that guy? So he could share what he knows? The police do not trust the Chairman’s office.

    Gerheart had no idea this was taking place until it was brought to him…a manager delegates…as does the Board Chairman… if one is guilty, so is the other.

    I am not screaming cover up at all. I want to know when the chair of the bos learned, from the auditors, that there was malfeasance (since they report to him) and when he first contacted the police.

  14. Mom

    By outside the PWC govt., I meant private citizens. As to it being known by some BOCS members and potentially not others, that is only because the documents were given to one supervisor, whether the information was shared, discussed in Executive session, etc. is an unknown thus I can’t make the assertion that all of them had knowledge although that is certainly within the realm of posssiblity.

  15. Rebecca

    Seems to me the PWCBoS should be working together and sharing information..not working against one another, as they seem to do. I’ll venture to say nothing is beyond the realm of possiblities with our board.

  16. Wendy

    Mom – where on EARTH did you get THAT information???!!!! Do you believe yourself?

  17. Moon-howler

    I find that a mighty alarming revelation Mom.

    Actually, I am not even sure what you just said. You are telling us that private citizens are writing FOIA requests on the county and then that information is being used to determine what is happening in county government?

  18. Alanna

    I wanted to include this statement about Craig Gerhart from James Young that was posted on bvbl. For those unaware James Young runs a Conservative Republican blog, called Skeptical Observer and here’s what he has to say about Gerhart –

    James Young said on 26 May 2009 at 7:13 pm: Flag comment

    Greg, I have no way to know if Gerhart is involved in the alleged corruption, but I would be shocked if he were. We have attended church together for more than a decade, and while he may be a man of the Left, I would dispute the blanket assertion that he is personally venal or corrupt.

    And — in all seriousness, and without rancor or ill-will — you might want to consult with your attorney before publicly suggesting that he is.

  19. Rebecca

    Interesting! Thanks for sharing Alanna.

  20. Mom

    I’m not sure I understand why its alarming. This type of document analysis and follow up happens all the time, particularly in this area given the presence of the Federal Government. Many watchdog groups or corporate entities with business interests or contract bids engage in this type of review on an ongoing basis. Much of this began long before the resolution and the leader of the leader of the Loyal Order of Red Dots doesn’t have exclusive access to members of the BOCS. Perhaps I’m a little jaded to the process but thats only through experience. As to Mr. Young’s comment, I can’t attest to this attendance at church and haven’t asserted that he is corrupt, responsible for the actions of agencies under his direction, yes, corrupt, no.

    That having been said, although I haven’t shared a pew with him, I have sat across the table from him on several occasions and don’t share Mr. Young’s personal impression.

  21. Last Best Hope

    I agree with James Young and all those who have spoke in defense of Craig Gerhart and in opposition to Greg Letiecq. Unlike James Young, I do not know Mr. Gerhart personally, but I can say from my observation of his carrying out his duty, he has been an upstanding citizen and public servant.

  22. Gainesville Resident

    I would agree with the following – if indeed it took FOIA requests by private citizens of PWC to unearth some info about this scandal – that is very very scary. I would like to see confirmation of that – although gettig such confirmation might be difficult indeed.

    This is coming down to a typical scandal – “who said what when, who knew what when”, etc. etc. We’ve seen this all before in other gov’t scandals (I’m talking at the federal level – not the county level).

  23. Gainesville Resident

    It seems to me we are peeling the onion on this scandal, and there are many possible layers to it. I don’t know if I believe everything I read (generally I don’t) but to me it does seem like all the facts aren’t out yet – and we may just be seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The money amounts seem to get revised every time I look at them – and they are going UP (as to amount of dollars defrauded). Not a good sign.

  24. Wendy

    Hard to judge when you don’t know a person. But then again some can tell by looking at ya whether you’re illegal or not – I imagine it’s the same mindset.

    The citizens have spoken, Mr. Stewart is the winner – maybe he will apppoint himself acting CE and save us all from a terrible fate….

    Somewhat akin to the following quote:
    “And the English, who by considering themselves a race of self-made men, thereby relieve the Almighty of a terrible burden”

  25. I think it’s great that residents are using their right to FOIA to keep our government accountable.

    It shouldn’t be necessary, but if that’s the only way to get the transparency we all went, then so be it. Do this often enough and our leaders should understand it looks bad on them, is expensive and will eventually cost some people votes.

  26. we all “want” that is.

  27. Gainesville Resident

    I have another take on the FOIA stuff. It costs money, and I suspect a lot of FOIA’s are frivolous. I don’t like my taxpayer dollars being spent that way. At the federal gov’t level, it’s OK, at the county level, I’m not so sure. Just my opinion, other’s will disagree obviously.

  28. Gainesville Resident

    And again, if the assertion that it took FOIA’s to unearth this scandal is in any way true, that to me is very scary, indeed. I am stil suspicious of that assertion however, but it will be difficult to prove/disprove it I think.

  29. Last Best Hope

    Gerhart is a public figure, which means Leteicq is free to lie and slander him. My concern is that such a disreputable figure in the Republican party (Mr. Letiecq) seems to be acting on behalf of our County Chairman Mr. Stewart. There is something not quite right about that. It set off alarm bells a year ago, as it became clear that Stewart is susceptible to Letiecq’s penchant for straying from reality, evidence, facts, etc, when launching politically motivated attacks. Now it sets off alarm bells again, because there seems to be confidential information sensitive to an investigation being fed to Letiecq. It is also alarming that the police force has lost trust in the Chairman according to this blogs most reliable source on goings on within our police department.

    I am tired of seeing our county government run this way. What must we do to peel Stewart off of Letiecq?

  30. Wendy

    Encourage him to run for higher office? And pray he makes it?

  31. Wendy

    Gainesville Resident – Well the Police Chief, Commonwealth Attorney and the CE all spoke about how this was unearthed. They said it was a whistleblower (usually the case). Doesn’t sound like a FOIA to me. Sounds like a pissed off employee. I don’t think I could believe a conspiracy theory that involves sooooo many people to think those three are in cahoots and are telling stories….. 🙂

  32. Last Best Hope

    Remember: FOIA was the “cover story” we were told to explain how emails written by Caddigan, Nohe, Jenkins, and Principi got fed from Stewart to Letiecq when the aim was to accuse Chief Deane of treason. Stewart forwarded board members emails to Letiecq, and Letiecq used them to attack board members who supported Chief Deane, stupidly thinking that this would cause them to buckle under.

    Since that time, “FOIA” has taken on a duel meaning. In our county, it also means coverup for a very unhealthy relationship between Cory Stewart, Greg Letiecq, and some of the most extreme reality-challenged members of our community.

    If the cover story is the same, perhaps the deed is the same. Stewart goes to Letiecq when he needs a political hatchet job, and he has no qualms about leaking sensitive information from an on-going investigation, or betraying the trust of his fellow Supervisors.

  33. Gainesville Resident

    OK Wendy, I confess to not having time to really follow this in detail so thanks for summarizing to me the story. If indeed it was an internal whistle blower – I sort of feel better. Rather it by that than an FOIA request by someone outside the gov’t. Neither is good, but internal whistle blowers are the way lots of scandals are found out – in private industry as well – particularly in the federal contracting business.

  34. Mom

    You guys are wrapping everything up into one big ball which isn’t the case. There were a number of monetary discrepancies that the have been demonstrated to the BOCS over the last several years. Some by private citizens, others ostensibly by whistleblowers or auditors. Is there commonality to some, probably. Is the current set of indictments tied to both private and internal sources, its impossible for me to say without knowing which contracts or specific Federal grants are being referenced.

    What can not be debated is that there has been input by private citizens, whether that is augmented by internal whistleblowing or if that is merely a cover to protect the residents is conjecture at best and largely irrelevant to me so long as the underlying problems are investigated.

  35. Rebecca

    Last Best Hope, don’t forget there is another snake in the grass out there doing some of the dirty work. Don’t leave out the FOIA Queen.

  36. Wendy

    The federal grants, according to the Commonwealth Attorney, CE and Police Chief are all Police Department programs. I would imagine a quick call to OIG in DC would clear up all your concerns. It also tells me why the FBI are involved. All stories said these federal dollars were tied up in the few fake companies run by Gupta et al. So, unless there are two Gupta’s I think there is one ball.

    Not sure what the ‘other ball’ is but certainly if you suspect something it should be reported.

  37. Moon-howler

    Last,

    That was the fastest rollover on a FOIA I have ever seen, speaking of the released emails from Caddigan, Jenkins, Nohe, and Principi. Whoever said there is no such thing as an instant FOIA had never met our chairman.

    Does anyone still have a copy of all that? Perhaps our readers need a refresher course in how to stir up the masses against 4 of our supervisors, starting at the top of course. Or, perhaps it could be renamed, puppetry at its best, or …whose pulling whose strings.

  38. Mom

    PWC has taken advantage of numerous grant and block grant programs for the PD afforded by Justice and Homeland security, particularly since 9/11 (See: County Rescue Boat, Command Vehicles, 800mhz radios, etc.) I might have a better idea of the back story if I knew which particular grant they were investigating. If it is one other than that which I know about, then there are definitely other balls.

  39. Wendy

    I understand Mom. Correct, we don’t know which grants they are referring to. However, what are the complaints on the Boat and Vehicles and the radios -that is news…

  40. Wendy

    Stewart said he does not blame — or think anyone blames — Gerhart for what happened. “I don’t think this has tainted his tenure,” Stewart said. “The lack of oversight was primarily in the [information technology] office and doesn’t reflect any inherent problems with the organization as a whole.”

    I guess this ends the debate. Unless we don’t believe Mr. Stewart?

  41. Bryanna

    I think it’s important to recognize that an anonymous low level employee in OIT who became suspicious, gathered information and went to the authorities.

    There are a lot of assumptions being made. Auditors have no way of knowing when business expenditures are unethical. The vetting process for contracts is handled independently and the BOCS provides approval and oversight. Not all supervisors were on the BOCS 24 months ago.

    Since many of us who post here consider ourselves to be activist, we need to make sure this isn’t swept under the rug. The public has the right to be informed. And, if certain elected officials were alerted to concerns and did nothing, then they need to be held accountable.

    Open and transparent government are popular topics during the campaign season it’s time to see who is sincere and credible.

  42. Bryanna

    Mom,
    The press has reported that money from a $500k grant awarded to local government and intended for the police department is missing.

  43. Mom

    That’s $500 in grant money, it may be the entire grant or a portion of a larger grant. Again its difficult to know with any certainty as the actual grant hasn’t been identified.

  44. Gainesville, I agree that frivolous FOIA’s are bad for the county. And we do have people who abuse FOIA for their own petty gains.

    If FOIA were involved in this case, though, the person who did it did something good.

    Usually, however, a FOIA request or resident complaint won’t yield such a gang-buster investigation. Mom is right that there were many factors leading up to this.

  45. Elena

    Lucky Duck,
    Your comment seems to have been bypassed by many. We have been wondering the same thing, how did Greg have information that NO ONE had yet during the time there was and still is, and ongoing investigation.

  46. Moon-howler

    And how were so many people commenting on things that were not public knowledge? Too many people seemed to have the inside acoop. Much of it was posted on bvbl.

  47. Lucky Duck

    Members of the police department have complained privately that shortly after the chairman was briefed, some of the information was released to the media and “other sources”. This was as the investigation was in the middle stage.

    Don’t forget, these former employees designed,implemented and monitored all of the County’s computer systems. When it was released that they were targets of the investigation, what would have stopped them from sabotaging County systems? The County dodged a bullet there.

    There is a fine line in withholding information on an active investigation when it involves public trust and public money, but that information should not have been released, whoever released it, according to police detectives.

  48. Chris

    What about this information regarding the Planning Office from Virginia Virtucaon?? What is now a black-eye a day for PWC? Has this surfaced on any real media outlet?
    http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/

    Lucky Duck, agreed it’s a fine line regarding information of an investigation. Even investigations have to run their course and come to a conclusion before information is released.

  49. Chris

    Lucky, I left I would think. But what the heck do I know.

  50. Gainesville Resident

    Lucky Duck – you make an excellent point in your latest post. What if the investigation had been compromised due to the leak, or as you say, one of the employees under investigation sabotaged the computer system – while they still had access and possibly admin or “super” privelidges if they had such. Or if they had stolen valuable information.

    In my field I deal often with computer security issues on military systems. One of the very most important rules is – cut off access to the computer of any individual BEFORE they find out they are under investigation or about to be fired. DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) puts out a voluminous set of rules that any system hooked into the military network must follow – and the rule I mention above is kind of like “Rule #1” as it were. I know all this – as last year I took a system I’m the primary designer of – through the process of getting it certified for connection to the military network – and it was a long arduous process, and I had to write up a bunch of rules like that and put it into the system operating rules and regulations manual.

    Getting back to the county topic – I agree – there’s all sorts of dangerous ramifications to releasing information about an investigation in progress – even to the point of tipping off the people under investigation and giving them a chance to hide things or cover things up. Altogether, if there WAS a leak, and the results of the in-progress investigation were released prematurely – this is NOT a good thing. Not good at all, and who knows how it might have compromised the investigation. As you say, they did dodge a bullet in that evidently no harm was done to the computer system – assuming they didn’t erase any files of importance to the investigation.

    When someone has the “keys to the kingdom” of any computer system – it is very important safeguards be put in place to avoid tipping them off, if they somehow become untrustworthy – which happens more often than people might believe, in the world of information security. Let’s just say that in the military computer systems world – people are very paranoid about that, and rightfully so – there’s been too many cases of sabotage, or people covering their tracks, or stealing info and selling it to other govt’s, etc. In a perfect world the security clearance process would avoid this – but no one has ever claimed that having a security clearance guarantees an individual won’t do something underhanded, or try to make money off of information, or if he is disgruntled will sabotage a gov’t system. It happens more often than anyone wants to admit. Indeed, PWC was lucky it did not happen to them, as these people probably had what I would call “the keys to the kingdom” – that is super user or admin priviledges on the computer system.

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