Channel 9 investigates city manager's new hire, past communications

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Channel 9 obtained phone records that show the date, time and length of phone calls between Charlotte's new city manager and the woman he just hired as his deputy.

Charlotte's city manager, Marcus Jones, and Sabrina Joy-Hogg worked side-by-side in Norfolk, Virginia.

(Sabrina Joy-Hogg)

Work cellphone records that span a six-month period were originally obtained by the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

The data shows 886 phone calls were made between Jones and Joy-Hogg over those six months, which is four times as many phone calls as he had with his next-closest deputy.

Ninety-nine phone calls took place between 9 p.m. and midnight. Thirty phone calls happened on state holidays, including Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The length of those holiday phone calls encompassed nearly four hours.

A total of 155 phone calls were made on the weekend, encompassing more than 18 hours.

On Tuesday, City Council leaders supported Jones' decision to hire his former top deputy.

"I seem to recall some conversations that on the personnel front there may be a person or two from Norfolk that may come along," Councilman Kenny Smith said.

"I think that the community is going to see that he is the right person for the job at this time and his deputy will be the same," Mayor Jennifer Roberts said.

The city of Charlotte said the deputy manager position was posted for two weeks and insists proper procedures were followed.

However, the hiring process is confidential so we don't know how extensive the search was for other candidates or if internal options were seriously considered.

Channel 9 learned that Joy-Hogg will earn a $225,000 salary in her new role as Charlotte's deputy city manager. Compare that salary to current deputy city manager Ron Kimble who earns $229,000. He's retiring but worked at the city for 16 years.

Joy-Hogg's new salary marks a $40,000 pay raise from her previous job.

The city of Charlotte's communication office responded to the phone records between Marcus Jones and Joy-Hogg with the following statement:

“While Mr. Jones was city manager in Norfolk, Sabrina Joy-Hogg served as his chief deputy city manager and budget director. In addition, she spearheaded critical internal operations like Human Resources, IT, fleet management and facilities management. The city manager also worked closely with the chief deputy city manager on the time-consuming and lengthy budget process, which she led. In fact, part of the reason Mr. Jones brought Ms. Joy-Hogg to the City of Charlotte is because of her dedication and commitment to her role. Jones communicated with other deputy city managers in various ways based on their roles and responsibilities.”

It should be noted that Joy-Hogg was not serving as "chief deputy city manager" during the time period analyzed with the phone records.

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