GASTONIA, N.C. — A WCNC Charlotte Defenders investigation reveals Piedmont Lithium, the company that's hoping to mine lithium in western Gaston County, reached out to a county commissioner through his personal email account to discuss his employer’s steel distribution business.
Commissioner Chad Brown told WCNC Charlotte he didn't respond to the company and immediately forwarded the email to the county manager.
On March 19, 2021, Malissa Gordon, Piedmont Lithium's community and government relations manager, messaged Commissioner Brown on his personal email, asking to arrange a meeting with the commissioner and Piedmont Lithium’s Chief Development Officer Patrick Brindle.
Gordon wrote in the email, "We would like to get a better understanding of the current construction environment as you see it and what resources your company provides."
Because the email was sent to Commissioner Brown’s private email account, it was not subject to public records laws that allow disclosure of commissioners' official emails.
"We ended up sending it to our lawyer and also to the county manager just to make sure because it did come to my personal email," Commissioner Brown said. "I didn't answer them to make sure we didn’t have any issues or conflict."
Commissioner Brown was concerned about the appearance of a conflict of interest since he and his fellow board members will eventually vote on Piedmont Lithium's rezoning application, which the company needs before it can start mining.
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Piedmont Lithium declined WCNC Charlotte's request to interview Gordon.
In a statement, the company said Gordon, "did in fact reach out to [Commissioner Brown's] personal email, because he is in sales for a steel company. There would be no reason to reach out to him through the County website."
Piedmont Lithium said no matter what, they were planning to speak to Commissioner Brown’s employer, and asked, "At what point does us reaching out to any local company about possibly doing business with us not get reported as something nefarious?"
WCNC Charlotte shared the email exchange with Catawba College Assistant Professor of Management Jeremiah Nelson as well as with a business ethics expert.
Both said the language in this email doesn't appear to be ethically wrong, but Professor Nelson said there is a perception problem.
"The fact that it wasn't sent to his government email address opens Ms. Gordon up to the potential for assumptions," Nelson said. "Given the lack of transparency or communication issues that they faced before and how contentious the rezoning issue has been, if I were her, I would have erred on the side of caution and been intentional about communicating with him through his government account."
Nelson said if he presented this case to his business students, he would specifically highlight Commissioner Brown’s actions.
"The commissioner responded in the most perfect way possible," Nelson said. "He was savvy enough to forward it to the county manager and make sure that it was recorded in the public record."
Gordon emailed county commissioners again on April 19, 2021, this time to the commissioners' government emails.
On April 20, Commissioner Tom Keigher emailed his fellow board members, writing he spoke to the county manager, and, "asked her to inform PL that it might be best if Ms. Gordon did not reach out to individual commissioners to discuss the various circumstances surrounding their plans."
Since the summer, Commissioner Brown said Piedmont Lithium has only been communicating with the county’s attorneys and staff.
Piedmont Lithium's full statement to WCNC Charlotte:
"As we have said on numerous occasions, we want our project to be a job creation engine for Gaston County. To our knowledge, there are only two steel companies in Gaston County, and we have reached out to both. Ms. Gordon happens to know Commissioner Brown and did in fact reach out to his personal email, because he is in sales for a steel company. There would be no reason to reach out to him through the County website. With only two steel companies in the County, we wanted to start in the County first as we access our needs, and that limits our choices. No matter what, we were going to speak with the company he happens to work for, as well as the other company in the area, because they are our options. If our project is approved, we would prefer to use local businesses, but that doesn’t preclude us from looking elsewhere as well, though that is not our preference. There is no smoking gun here. We’re just trying to find ways to include local businesses in our project and keep as much work with companies in the County as possible. At what point does us reaching out to any local company about possibly doing business with us not get reported as something nefarious?"
Contact Brandon Golder at bgoldner@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.