Cary council plans oversight after audit findings: 'Things started to go really off the rails'
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Cary town leaders acknowledged they have work to do to rebuild public trust as property taxes rise and officials respond to a state auditor's report that found what it described as a culture of extravagant spending.
On Tuesday, the Cary Town Council voted to create a committee to examine potential policy changes related to how town money is spent following the findings of the lengthy state audit.
Council members said the committee will review areas including travel, compensation and meals. The action comes after former Cary Town Manager Sean Stegall stepped down amid questions about spending practices that State Auditor Dave Boliek characterized as extravagant.
"The only conclusion you can come to is, is that the culture in Cary that has developed into one of extravagant spending, and it's time for the leaders of Cary to bottle up and get right, on behalf of the taxpayers in Cary and right the ship there in terms of being more austere with what they spend money on," Boliek said.
Boliek also is examining similar spending issues in Zebulon and utility billing issues in Rocky Mount.
The Cary audit highlighted expenditures that included meals, hotels and Ray-Ban sunglasses for council members.
Councilmember Carissa Kohn-Johnson said she regrets not speaking up sooner when she saw actions she believed were inappropriate.
"I should have said, hey, wait a minute. Why are you offering me a pair of Ray-Bans? This is inappropriate. Oh, I should have said it repeatedly. And so it's not acceptable that I can, you know, for me to say, hey, I didn't participate, so I have no culpability. My failure in this situation has been not being loud enough and not being, I think, proactive enough to ask enough questions," Kohn-Johnson said.
As the town considers reforms, officials said the town manager position already has significant financial authority but could be subject to additional safeguards. Potential changes include limiting discretionary spending authority in line with similarly sized cities and requiring land deals to receive council approval.
Kohn-Johnson said accountability will be critical moving forward.
"There are far too many examples. In the last, especially the last couple of years when things started to go really off the rails, there's just far too many instances where policy existed, and it was ignored," she said.
The Cary Town Council is scheduled to hold a full council meeting Thursday, where members are expected to review the results of an independent investigation that reached many of the same conclusions as the state audit. The town also has launched a dashboard on its website to track progress on proposed changes.
