She was describing the nearly nine-month-long controversy over continued funding of the region’s official convention andvisitors bureau, Visit Lake Norman (VLN), with a portion of hotel and prepared meals taxes collected locally. That was almosttwo weeks ago, when the Cornelius Town Board was the last of the three north Mecklenburg towns to approve a new interlocal agreement on the governance of the tourism group into its second decade.

Last Thursday, that “baby” quickly grew into tantrum-pitching toddler as a wayward e-mail written by Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce President Bill Russell to a close friend and personal political mentor in South Carolina somehow made it into the hands of the Huntersville Town Board of Commissioners and select local media.

The flurry of activity that followed included mini-meetings around the region between political leaders and business leaders, both separate and together, culminating in the regularly scheduled Lake Norman Chamber Board of Directors meeting Monday evening. There, the Board gave Russell a vote of confidence and decided to embark on an investigation to determine just how a personal e-mail Russell sent nearly two months ago to a friend and confidant — and copied to his father — made it to the e-mail accounts of the Huntersville board.

In his e-mail, Russell boasted of how, with his help, Visit Lake Norman — a 10-year-old spinoff organization of the Chamber — secured continued funding via state legislation. The battle was bloody, as the hospitality industry perceived a stealthily formed task force formed in February by the three towns’ mayors as a threat to VLN funding just as the interlocal agreement in was set to expire in June. With almost one-half million dollars at stake, they took the fight to Raleigh, and positioned Russell as the torchbearer for their cause.

And in early August, Russell says after a telephone conversation with close-friend and long-time mentor Charles Madsen of Rock Hill, he wrote an e-mail summarizing his feelings about the legislative victory. Because the e-mail was private between two individuals, its contents won’t be printed here. Suffice it to say, however, it enraged some of its recipients, some of them calling for Russell’s resignation or termination by Monday.

“Bill’s one of the good guys who works hard for what he believes in,” Madsen told the Citizen. “If anything, he could be accused of some chest thumping, but as I understand the issue, he basically was on the winning side in a Chamber battle (along) with the hospitality and business community.”

On Friday, Russell sent an e-mail to all the eventual recipients of the original e-mail, admitting to it and attempting to explain that some of the comments were taken out of context. That did little to soothe the feelings of those who felt slighted.

Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte called the incident “both unfortunate and disappointing,” adding, “I was given good advice long ago, if you are going to write an e-mail, before you send it you better be comfortable with three people reading it: your spouse, your mother and your pastor.”

Cornelius Commissioner Jim Bensman, the town’s representative to the Lake Norman Chamber Board of Directors, characterized the e-mail as more of the same divisiveness. “The towns are very concerned about the whole thing obviously,” Bensman said Tuesday. “It’s not so much the single e-mail but the overall tone of the conversation since the VLN thing blew up. It’s consistent with things Bill has said in the past.”

Huntersville Commissioner Charles Jeter, however, said some of those pointing a finger at Russell should consider who may be pointing back at them.

“I just find it funny that those who would publicly vilify Mr. Russell’s e-mail have sent similar e-mails on the same subject but from their side of the argument,” says Jeter. “They have sent the same kinds of e-mails to their trusted associates, but the difference is they haven’t come to public light. I know, because I’ve seen them. For them to say that Russell has done
something outrageous is disingenuous. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

The trail

But what about the e-mail itself? Some Chamber board members are convinced that Russell’s e-mail account has been compromised, and that his message to Madsen was pirated. The first step of the trail, appearances would indicate, goes from Madsen’s account to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The message contained only the letter “z”.

Next on the chain appears to be another forward from a Ralph Rimes from the account This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to that same gwbates account. It reads, “Obviously I received this by accident, but it intriged(sic) me and I thought since you know some of these folks you might be interested.....”

The next stop is from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It reads: “This is the email I mentioned. I don’t quite know what to do about it...wish I had never seen it. It seems Mr. Russell has a puppet board and little regard for elected officials. I can’t find a list of the chamber board members or Cornelius and Davidson’s email addresses, but think someone
should let them know.”

That message also contains a list of several e-mail addresses, including official and personal addresses of Huntersville commissioners and two media outlets.

Finally, from a “David Lawson” at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it the message is forwarded to a pared-down list from the prior email to include the Chamber, Huntersville Mayor Jill Swain; commissioners Ron Julian, Sarah McAulay, Charles Jeter and Danae Caulfield; and two newspapers.

An expert in tracking e-mails says the trail is immediately suspicious because the trail is not unbroken, and the first generation resembles more of an item that was copied and pasted before being sent on. Additionally, two of the accounts,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it appear to be protected accounts, in that the owner pays the e-mail host an annual fee to prevent data searches from the ownership of the accounts. “People just don’t do that,” the expert tells the Citizen, “unless they have something to hide.”

The Citizen sent e-mails to both accounts in an attempt to make contact, both going unanswered. The third account,  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , is actually registered to 38-year-old Darryl Lawson of North Muskegon, Mich. Attempts to contact Lawson went unanswered.

John Hettwer, former Chamber president and ex-officio Chamber Board member, says the apparent breach is serious, and that the Chamber will aggressively investigate the electronic trail in an attempt to find how the e-mail addressed to Charles Madsen and Russell’s father made it to the Huntersville Town Board. Madsen would like to know that as well.

“I have no idea who GW Bates is and have no record of that e-mail address in my address book or any record of any e-mail to him in my sent box,” says Madsen. “I have an Apple computer that is not prone to viruses, so I am at a loss as to how he would have come by that e-mail unless someone hacked Bill’s e-mail account, which is what I suspect happened. The forward message of ‘z’ was also a little suspect.”

The letter z, it should be pointed out, is next to the letter x on a keyboard. On a McIntosh computer, to cut text to paste it elsewhere, the letter x is used in conjunction with the “command” key.

Huntersville’s Swain says how the e-mail made it to the public domain isn’t as important as the message it contained.

“I don’t believe it matters at this point,” Swain said Tuesday. “It is more of an issue of appropriateness.”

Hettwer takes a different view. “This was a hack,” he said Tuesday, “I look at it like terrorism in that, if someone does something illegal, the worst thing you can do is give them something they are trying to achieve out of it.”

That “something,” Hettwer said, is to force Russell out, which he added was apparent at the Chamber Board meeting. “From some of the actions by individuals (Monday), their agenda was very transparent, even though they acted like it wasn’t,” Hettwer said. “It was the Chamber membership and Board that sent Bill up that hill to fight that battle and defend the hoteliers and restaurants. Now he’s the target.”

September surprise?

Contents of e-mails notwithstanding, at the crux of the ire is how some local officials view the surprise discovery that the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Executive Committee held veto power over any changes in the VLN’s bylaws, which some provisions of the negotiated interlocal agreement would have required. That provision, put in place when the Chamber created VLN to prevent the spinoff from eventually poaching Chamber membership, was discovered by attorneys from both sides as negotiations concluded, delaying the deal for a few weeks.

Russell says the provision was used twice in the last decade to approve minor bylaw changes, and he had forgotten about it. Some town officials think otherwise.

“A lot of damage was done to the Chamber by this, and the one thing Bill continues to repeat is he did not know about the Chamber’s control of VLN,” said Bensman. “Most of us don’t believe him.”

Russell doesn’t apologize for his comments made to what he believed was a private audience, but he says he is remorseful about the outcome.

“I am as devastated and hurt as anybody that a comment of mine, regardless of whether or not I intended for it to be viewed by anybody else, was used to hurt the business community,” Russell said Tuesday. “Any comment that I make, whether intended to be in the public domain or not, if it was offensive, I apologize for that. I didn’t intend for it to be seen by anyone other than my closest confidant, but that it was seen by other people, I am apologetic for that.”

Russell added that political retribution is part of the job.

“I stand between government regulations and businesses,” he said. “I have made some powerful enemies along the way. If you are going to be an effective advocate for whatever you are standing for, you are going to make some enemies.”

Meanwhile Madsen, who has a penchant for helping get people elected to office in the Palmetto State, says perhaps it’s time for Russell to return home to South Carolina.

“Your community is lucky to have him, and if I get my way, I’ll have him back here in South Carolina running for office,” Madsen said.

Jeter echoes the sentiments of some that the battle over VLN funding is over, and it’s time to heal wounds.

“I don’t know what political scores are trying to be settled here, but if we spent half as much time trying to help this community as we are bickering at each other, we’d all be better off,” he said. “We’re arguing over a two percent surcharge on your McDonald’s bill. ... It’s time for all of us to grow up and put on our big boy pants and get over it.”

In other words, it’s time to stop acting like a baby.