The Charlottesville Electoral Board accepted the resignation of General Registrar Sheri Iachetta last Thursday. Iachetta was accused of embezzling and misappropriating at least $7,195.86 of taxpayer money.
Iachetta allegedly spent city money to pay cell-phone bills for several private lines. Iachetta is also accused of abusing her city-funded credit card while attending educational conferences in various cities.
Both Iachetta and the Electoral Board received intense criticism in wake of these events. On Oct. 29, several prominent Charlottesville citizens — including former mayors Tom Vandever and Nancy O’Brien — wrote a letter to the Board, criticizing it for failing to be proactive and uphold city laws.
“We have lost all confidence in your individual and collective judgment,” they wrote, and explicitly requested the resignation of each Board member. The letter suggested the Board had known there was a possibility of embezzlement as early as August, but neglected to take action until much more recently.
However, Electoral Board Member Joan Schatzman said there were several other city officials who may have known about the embezzlement before the Board did, and that the Board does not deserve total blame for the events that have unfolded.
The Electoral Board held a closed meeting this past Thursday to discuss the issue, and released a handwritten statement after the meeting.
“As an Electoral Board, our ultimate allegiance and responsibility is to the voters of the City of Charlottesville, to ensure that they realize their fundamental right to an open, fair, and honest election,” the statement said.
The Board did not seek to pin blame on Iachetta, and maintained this was an unfortunate mistake made by an otherwise respectable woman who excelled at her job. Iachetta was thanked for her years of commendable public service, and commended for her, “accumulated expertise in election law and procedures, and her willingness to endure the pressures of the past few months.”
The statement also said that, “Iachetta and the entire staff played an important part in seeing that our city’s election was conducted properly and as planned.”
Separately, Schatzman said the Board “acted with justice and mercy for a person who did perform very well for 15 years,” and emphasized that now the Board is “looking forward.” She said that the situation, though controversial, did not reduce the integrity of recent Charlottesville elections.
“It has not affected the efficient running of the election,” Schatzman said. “We got all the booths up and running, everyone got to vote who wanted to vote, and all the votes were counted accurately.”
Fellow Electoral Board member Jim Nix also said last Tuesday’s election was handled well.
“The just completed election was locally conducted with the same high standards for precision, efficiency and transparency that Charlottesville voters have learned to expect from the staff of the registrar's office and the election officials working at the polls,” he said. “We have a long history of near flawless elections in Charlottesville and the voters have every reason to expect that that standard will be maintained.”
To that end, a series of steps are being taken to reform certain aspects of the election process and find a replacement for Iachetta.
“The problems with the registrar that have come to light in the past three months have revealed shortcomings in communication and coordination between the Charlottesville City Government and the Electoral Board with regard to the management of the Registrar's Office,” Nix said. “In addition to working together to recruit a replacement registrar with office management skills and experience, as well as expertise in election law and procedures, we will work to establish a clear lines of communication and control between the city and the board to ensure that problems of this sort do not recur.”
The Electoral Board hopes to find an appropriate replacement in time for the primary elections next June. Iachetta’s resignation will be effective December 31.
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