Cary council holds first meeting with new interim manager

Cary Town Council Meets After Manager’s Resignation

CARY, N.C. (WTVD) — Cary’s town council held its first meeting since Sean Stegall resigned as town manager. His resignation followed the discovery of financial issues, including a questionable land deal and the payment of councilmember Lori Bush’s tuition by the town.

Stegall stepped down in exchange for a nearly $200,000 severance package. Interim town manager Russ Overton was sworn in following his departure.

During the public comment period on Thursday night, many Cary residents expressed their concerns. One resident stated, “It seems like this corruption was visible to anyone who was paying attention.”

Another resident urged the mayor and council to resign, saying, “So the most honorable thing to do would be to step down, say a mistake was made.”

ABC11 learned about the next steps. Overton stated that the town is committed to cooperating with both the state auditor’s investigation and Cary’s independent financial investigation.

“We don’t have information on when they might finish or when we’ll see their reports. We’re doing everything we know to do to help them help us at this time,” Overton said. “They are looking at and receiving copies of hundreds of thousands of financial transactions, emails, and other records. So I would suggest we all be patient.”

Amid what the mayor described as a culture of excessive spending and a lack of transparency, some councilmembers proposed reforms. These reforms include requiring all land deals to receive council approval and lowering the town manager’s discretionary authority from $1 million to a lower amount, such as $100,000.

This issue arose after a million-dollar land deal was approved without council approval.

Former Councilmember Jennifer Robinson, who attempted to address these issues while in office, expressed relief at the progress being made. “I’m just heartbroken that this happened to our organization. We are an organization of great employees, and I know many of them are just as upset as the citizens are,” Robinson said.

However, she is concerned that the financial issues may be more extensive than what has been revealed through open records requests. “I really don’t know what it would be. But a lot of times when you have indicators of misuse of funds, you will see that that’s just the tip of the iceberg and that there’s probably other liberties that were taken,” Robinson said. “I hope it’s not extensive, but it will not surprise me if it has occurred.”