But it was the cat that prompted action. During a meeting among the supervisors’ aides, McGimsey’s current aide Alex Delgado mentioned he was going to feed her cat and clean out the kitty the litter.
“That upset so many of us that one of the aides went to [County Administrator Tim] Hemstreet about it,” said an aide from another office. At least four aides present at the meeting confirmed the account, including Jessica Echard, who made the complaint.
“I went to the county administrator,” said Echard, who worked for Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) before leaving town for an internship. “The meeting was actually over,” Echard explained, saying Delgado raised the cat care half-jokingly. “’Oh yeah, she just told me to put it on my time sheet.’ We all just stopped and said, ‘Whoa, that’s not OK.’”
Delgado said the entire situation was a misunderstanding with the other aides and that the situation got blown beyond what it actually was.
“No county money was spent to take care of her cat,” he said. “She and I have a friendship beyond [supervisor-aide]. That’s all that was.”
I think it's important to remember that staff aides are at-will employees, entirely dependent on their employer's good will to keep their jobs. If you were in that position, and your employer asked you to do them a favor, whether or not it was on the clock, would you feel like you could say "no"?
And, as a reminder, here is an example of how she treats COUNTY staff, on camera:
[first posted on Without Supervision]
I did tell you so.
