Cary mayor Harold Weinbrecht called an emergency town news conference Thursday night to address the findings of State Auditor Dave Boliek’s investigation into the town’s finances under former town manager Sean Stegall. The tone of the conference was somber but forward-looking; council members accepted responsibility for their failed oversight of Stegall and pledged to take concrete actions to improve accountability and transparency.
You can read the INDY’s coverage of the state auditor’s investigation here. The top-line finding was that Stegall fostered a culture of excessive spending by town staff, which was made possible by widespread, often unchecked use of purchasing cards, or p-cards, credit cards issued to town employees for work-related purchases. The investigation also found that the town council was lax in its oversight of Stegall and the town’s finances, and that Stegall fostered a workplace culture of intimidation, bullying, and automatic compliance.
Also on Thursday night, Cary shared the report prepared by the law firm Womble Bond Dickinson at the town council’s request. The firm investigated procurement card transactions and reimbursements, financial reporting practices, and the town’s workplace environment over a four-year period from July 2021 through November 2025. Many of its findings overlap with the state auditor’s report.
The focus of the news conference was on how the town is going to reform. Cary’s leaders have been working hard to project a balance of contrition and competence for the last seven months, and Thursday was much the same. The town has a new dashboard tracking its progress toward fulfilling the recommendations in the state auditor’s report and the Womble report. So far it has not begun work on 15 of the recommendations and is researching an additional 17; five are in development, and two recommendations—related to adopting new fund balance and financial oversight policies—have been completed.
The Womble report blames Stegall directly for several “operational failures” in town government, but also identifies flaws in Cary’s government structure which made Stegall’s overreach and misconduct possible. Cary, like many North Carolina municipalities, uses a council-manager system: the town council operates like a board of directors, setting high-level policy and hiring the town manager, who acts as chief executive and runs the government’s day-to-day operations.
“The Town Council’s trust in Mr. Stegall—combined with the Council-Manager model’s separation of the elected body from day-to-day operations—contributed to certain financial matters not being reported to Town Council members in a timely, complete, or accurate manner,” the Womble report concludes.
The council-manager structure “works well when information is complete, accurate, and timely. It works less well when information is incomplete, delayed, selectively presented, or filtered by a manager whose own conduct is at issue,” the report says.
The Womble report doesn’t advocate that Cary toss its government structure altogether—something it couldn’t do without permission from the state legislature anyway. Instead, many of the recommendations in the report deal with minimizing the inherent risks of the council-manager system and instituting new checks on the manager’s power. Most have to do with staff purchasing cards, financial oversight, and improving the workplace environment.
Here are some of key recommendations Cary says it will implement in the coming months:
- Publish all p-card transactions and reimbursements of the town manager, the manager’s direct reports, and department heads on the town website.
- Publish all p-card transactions and reimbursements in the categories of travel, lodging, meals, and education over a threshold amount to be determined by the town council on the town website.
- Require the town manager to provide written notice to the town council before initiating any budget amendment that appropriates fund balance (the town’s emergency savings).
- Amend the budget ordinance to require the town manager to report changes to the approved budget to the town council.
- Require advance notice to the council before any purchase of property above $300,000.
- Reinstate and fill the position of town internal auditor.
- Hire an outside consultant to assist with the council’s annual performance review of the town manager, town attorney, and town clerk.
- Adopt a policy providing protection against retaliation for employees who report problematic behavior (whistleblowers).
- Require the town manager to provide the town council with written notice and justification for all positions added, eliminated, or repurposed.
- Consider establishing an Organizational Ombuds program to help employees discuss concerns and resolve conflicts.
The law firm prioritized recommendations that are either relatively inexpensive to implement or so important as to be worth the added cost.
According to Weinbrecht, the distinction between the two reports is that the state auditor’s deals mainly with the “what” of Stegall’s behavior—“Here’s all the things that happened: really bad, really bad, bad,” the mayor said—while the Womble report digs deeper into the “why” and “how.” Armed with both reports, Weinbrecht said the town now has some real solutions to work through.
The recommendations seem comprehensive, but neither report explicitly advises on how the council should rebuild trust with residents and voters, some of whom still feel bewildered and distrustful after Cary boasted about its own excellence for years, then took a tumble. That’s where the news conference came in. The council members sat in folding chairs stationed in front of (rather than behind) their dais and answered questions for about an hour, offering seemingly heartfelt, candid responses.
“Those costs outlined in the [reports,] I make no excuses for those expenses. That spending pattern was unacceptable,” said council member Carissa Kohn-Johnson. “Also, that is not reflective of the habits of the broader staff.”
The council reminded residents that “Cary is still Cary,” in Weinbrecht’s words. “We’re a safe community. We’re a thriving community. That has not changed.”
“I hate to say it, but in every crisis there’s an opportunity,” added mayor pro tem Lori Bush. “Maybe what we have here is an opportunity for our regional partners … to use us as a case of what they can do to strengthen their own government.”
You can read the Womble Bond Dickinson report here.
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