Police Arrest 2 CDS Employees in 2 Weeks

Aramark's contract with the University does not require that background checks are run on CDS employees.

In the past two weeks, two Carolina Dining Services employees have been taken out of the dining halls and into police custody on felony charges.

Mary Riggsbee, a CDS cashier, was arrested Aug. 26 and charged with illegal possession of a firearm on campus. According to police reports, coworkers accused Riggsbee of making verbal threats to another worker and keeping a gun in her purse while she was at work in Lenoir Dining Hall.

The arrest came 10 days after another CDS employee, Michael Justice, was taken into custody when a University police background check -- conducted during a routine traffic stop -- revealed that there were three counts of outstanding warrants for Justice's arrest in New Jersey.

University police turned Justice over to the city of Newark, N.J., for extradition.

Although both individuals worked for the University's dining services, CDS administrator Ira Simon directed questions about the arrests to Aramark, the University's food service provider.

"All CDS employees are Aramark employees," Simon said. "It's an Aramark human resource policy to deal with these situations on their own."

Simon said Riggsbee worked as a CDS cashier for only one day before being charged, but he could not comment further because of Aramark's legal policies to protect its employees.

Aramark is a service managing company that provides food services for 400 colleges and universities nationwide and abroad, including Duke University. UNC chose the company as its food services provider in May to replace its former provider, Sodexho-Marriott, whose contract expired in August.

Doug Warner, a public relations representative for Aramark, said the company's agreement with the University does not require background checks on CDS employees, although some of the company's contracts with other universities do stipulate such checks. "It's a decision that is made on a case-to-case basis," he said.

"I am aware that other universities do have a different agreement and do run background checks, but I could not tell you which ones."

Warner said the company has no corporate policy regarding background checks for its employees and that it varies its hiring procedures based on different clients. "Background checks are decided on a case-by-case basis," Warner said.

"Typically we will work with a university to find a hiring policy that works the best."

Evan Klingman, Aramark's food service director for UNC, did not comment on the arrests and directed questions to the corporation's public relations department.

Warner said none of the CDS employees hired by Aramark are given access to students' personal records.

He also said the choice of whether to run background checks in the future or rehire the arrested employees rests with Aramark's local human resources department, which is not governed by corporate policy.

"It just comes down to a mutual agreement between the employer and the client," he said.

"It's a decision that's made on an individual basis."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.