Cary leaders advocate including extra eyes on journey bills after state audit :: WRAL.com

A committee of Cary Town Council members met Tuesday night as fallout continues from a latest state auditor’s report that exposed “questionable” spending of taxpayer {dollars}.

For the primary time, the committee met to debate suggestions stemming from a number of critiques of Cary’s monetary practices, together with the state audit.

The state auditor’s report, launched in July, uncovered what officers have referred to as an extravagant spending tradition in Cary. Flagged bills included costly meals and journey prices, expensive video manufacturing and a council member automobile allowance of greater than $9,000 a yr.

In response to the audit, Cary officers have stated considerations about gaps in oversight, processes and tradition stem from the actions of former city supervisor Sean Stegall. Town employees say they’ve already begun taking steps to extend transparency following Stegall’s departure in late 2025.

The city of Cary has launched an online dashboard the place the general public can observe its progress in implementing practically 40 suggestions that city officers say will enhance oversight.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the dashboard confirmed simply over 5% completion in implementing the modifications.

The committee mentioned a number of council-related suggestions, together with including extra eyes to approving bills for allowances and journey.

The committee advisable the council create a evaluate course of for any council journey bills. It additionally advisable councilmembers to affirm their code of ethics yearly in some kind, comparable to signing a written pledge. No date was set for when the council ought to take up these measures.

The committee additionally went over broader monetary accountability measures on compensation, journey and meal reimbursement, and council advantages that it stated will want extra analysis earlier than finalizing. Each of the members was given one space to analysis earlier than the subsequent assembly on Monday, Sept. 14 at 5:15 p.m.

“I think it’s important, very important that we have transparency on everything that’s been uncovered,” Cary resident Michael Green stated. “I think people need to know what happened, and then, I think we need to know what are they doing to prevent recurrence.”

Neighboring cities in latest weeks have additionally mentioned how taxpayer {dollars} are spent as requires accountability and transparency develop.

Directly referencing Cary’s latest monetary information, Apex’s city supervisor final month offered an replace on the usage of town-issued bank cards, often known as P-cards.

Town Manager Randy Vosburg stated Apex’s P-card spending totaled $2.7 million in fiscal yr 2026. He famous that the proportion of city workers with a P-card mirrored the state common of 16%.

“Some of our neighbors have reported a number that’s much higher than that, but we’re at 16%,” Vosburg stated throughout an Aug. 11 Town Council assembly.

The state auditor’s report stated P-card prevalence amongst Cary city workers was far larger than the state common and contributed to spending issues.

Meanwhile, the Local Government Commission, a state oversight physique, introduced that it has positioned further monetary oversight measures on Cary and another North Carolina cities based mostly on latest audit experiences.

“Financial concerns should be taken seriously regardless of the size of the local government,” North Carolina State Treasurer Brad Briner stated in a information launch.