Apex Mayor and Town Council Navigate an Increasingly Strained Relationship

Apex mayor Jacques Gilbert was trying to push through a nomination for the town’s board of adjustment last month. 

Normally, the town council would sign off on such appointments with little debate. But on this September 9 night, things were going to be different.

Several council members saw the nominee as someone who had riled up citizens against town staff in the past. And behind closed doors, they were telling the mayor they’d sink the nomination if he brought it to a vote.

Months earlier, Gilbert had ended debate on the same nomination when it became clear he didn’t have the votes. The kerfuffle prompted the Apex Town Council to update its meeting minutes to reflect that the mayor had apparently violated parliamentary procedures known as Robert’s Rules. 

“I requested that he not nominate her so that we didn’t embarrass this person,” councilman Brett Gantt told the INDY.

Gantt is one of two outgoing council members who isn’t seeking reelection next month, which has freed him up to be more vocal on such matters than in years past. Now, he and his colleagues are sounding the alarm on a mayor they see as pitting the public against town staff. They also worry a Gilbert-endorsed candidate will make the council more deferential to the mayor.

The two sides continue to butt heads on the response to a cyberattack that decimated the town’s billing system last year, a private parking lot across the street from Apex Friendship High School, and much more. Meanwhile, an INDY records request uncovered questionable reimbursements given to the mayor.

The board of adjustment debate represents the latest in a string of public dustups between a fed-up town council and a mayor known for utilizing the political capital he’s gained through his wide social media following.

When Gilbert once again brought the same nominee forward last month, he hoped for a different outcome. If the town council wanted to reject his adjustment board nominee, they’d also have to turn down a different person with whom they had no qualms, as Gilbert had bundled the two nominees together.

This time, however, the council members stepped in to do something few have been willing to publicly: tell the mayor no.

A council member began a motion to split the vote to circumvent the nomination. Gilbert stood up and interrupted.

“We’re going to recess,” Gilbert said. “I need to go to speak with an attorney.”

He banged the gavel and the livestream cut off. 

But footage from a backup camera later released publicly showed the frenetic scene that unfolded. The council proceeded in spite of Gilbert, declaring the mayor’s attempt to unilaterally shut down debate out of order.

“There’s unprecedented things going on,” Gilbert said, shuffling through papers.

The town attorney weighed in and rejected Gilbert’s call for a recess. The glaring mayor was left dumbfounded.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Gilbert recalls thinking at the time. “That was the look I had. I was like, ‘Wow, this happened so fast.’”

“A loose cannon”

The INDY spoke with 10 past and current town employees and local elected officials, many of whom declined to be named for fear of retribution. They all described an increasingly hostile relationship among the town’s top brass and a highly demoralized staff.

“It’s kind of like being a child of parents divorcing,” one town employee says.

Another employee compared the mayor to a child throwing a fit at a candy store after a parent denies them something they want. “He throws these spells of outrage because he’s not getting what he wants,” the person says.

“The mayor has been a loose cannon,” a third source adds.

Asked if he knew any town employees who could speak to his defense, Gilbert said he’d spoken “with several staff members” willing to speak on his behalf.  

“However, they’re extremely nervous that their names could get back to the town manager or senior staff who have influence over their careers,” he says. “They’ve heard from other employees who have worked with certain council members to attempt to defame my character.”

The INDY offered to provide the same anonymity to protect those individuals. Even so, no town employee came forward to speak favorably of Gilbert. 

During a Friday phone interview, Gilbert further questioned the timing of the criticisms leveled against him. “Come on, man, you know, this is election season. The timing is interesting.”

Shortly before this story was published, Gilbert posted a seven-minute video on Facebook downplaying the divides within the town. “No matter what opposition or distractions arise, my focus will remain on the community at large,” he told his followers.

“There is no process”

Town P-cards are usually reserved for lower-level staff to cover small purchases, such as food and gas. Gilbert already has a stipend, and unlike the mayor, no sitting council members have a P-card.

An analysis of the mayor’s P-card purchases since 2024 shows Gilbert paid $375.38 to a porta-potty company, $343.20 to a local arts and crafts store, $402.14 to a hotel in Wilmington, $598.30 to a Hilton hotel, and hundreds of dollars to local restaurants. 

Gilbert says he rented two porta-potties for a town event at a park without restrooms, bought backpack tags for elementary school kids taking field trips to the town, and dined and traveled for official town business purposes.

One employee informed of the purchases by the INDY replied, “The porta-potty is certainly a head-scratcher.” 

Gilbert clapped back, “To ensure the dignity of our residents, yes, I did it.”

Officials and council members say that while the P-card purchases may not necessarily be illegal, they were questionable.

Gantt says no elected official should have such purchasing power. 

“It can be kind of easily abused, so it’s better for none of us to have that,” Gantt says. “These things get people in trouble sometimes.”

Others saw a larger concern being a pattern of the mayor reaching unilateral decisions and seeking permission later.

“The mayor has used that card in ways that may be perfectly legal but are at least questionable because those purchases have not gone through the proper control system that we have in place that governs the purchases that we make on behalf of the town,” says town council member Arno Zegerman.

Gilbert says the town’s policies are unclear.

“There is no process,” Gilbert says. “There has never been a process to what they’re talking about. I thought there was trust in the elected officials, which is why anyone can go and look at the P-card transactions and challenge it.”

A lot of headache

The mayor’s reimbursement process isn’t the only financial arrangement raising eyebrows.

Gilbert announced at an August 22 news conference this year that he found a resolution that would allow Annie Scott, an Apex resident and property owner, to continue operating a for-profit parking lot in a residential area across from Apex Friendship High School. Gilbert said the state Department of Transportation signed off on Scott’s continued operations through a special public vehicular access (PVA) designation.

It’s a remedy other town council members see as a false, disingenuous, and unlawful attempt to usurp zoning rules.

Terry Mahaffey, one of the council members, says the lot needs to be rezoned and have fewer cars permitted to ensure student safety. He’s since been in touch with outside experts.

“We do not believe the state’s designation of private property as a PVA preempts local zoning,” Derrick Applewhite, a lobbyist for the North Carolina League of Municipalities, wrote in an August 28 email to Mahaffey. 

Scott says she thinks Mahaffey and others are pushing her to rezone for the town’s financial gain and to force her to move. Scott says she’s rented out her yard for extra parking since the school opened in 2015. She charges $300 for the school year, which is $100 more than the Wake County Public School System rate.

“They wanted me to rezone for them [to collect] high taxes,” Scott says.

Meanwhile, around the time of the announcement, Scott donated to the campaign of T.J. Evans, the partner of Gilbert’s daughter, father of his grandson, and the only candidate he’s endorsed thus far for next month’s town council elections.

Campaign finance records show Scott gave Evans’s campaign $900 across three payments on August 16, August 25, and September 1. 

“It might not be illegal, but it is ethically not looking good at all,” Zegerman says. “It is a very, very slippery slope. Annie gets the help from the mayor and T.J. Evans and subsequently makes some substantial donations to T.J.’s campaign. That is a huge red flag.”

Gilbert and Scott deny any suggestion of a quid pro quo. Scott says that while she greatly appreciated the mayor’s assistance, she donated to Evans because of a nephew’s friendship with him.

“If I knew somebody else that was running for the town council that would’ve been as nice to me as T.J. was, I would’ve helped them too,” Scott says.

Gilbert added there was no coordination between him and Scott on the donation.

“What T.J. Evans and Annie Scott have going on, that’s between them,” Gilbert says. “She does not support my campaign. She has never supported my campaign. But she is a person in this community who can contribute to whoever she wants to.”

Evans called the speculation of impropriety “ridiculous” and cited his record of civic engagement and volunteering in Apex. He believes the concerns are being raised to undermine his candidacy.

“I think it’s very clear what’s going on here given the time that we’re in right with the election season coming up,” Evans says. 

“It’s a crisis”

There’s perhaps no greater disconnect between the mayor and staff than the issue of utility billing. 

In July 2024, a cyberattack crushed the town’s billing system, which impacted Apex’s ability to create utility bills showing accurate usage for the months of July and August. The attack couldn’t have come at a worse time. 

As the town worked to recover, residents began receiving much higher bills than normal. This increase occurred for a number of reasons, both related and unrelated to the ransomware attack.

First, utility bills are often higher in the summer, as usage of water and air conditioning units noticeably increases. Second, the town adopted a budget a month earlier that would implement rate increases of 4 percent for water and 14 percent for electricity starting in July. And third, because of the ransomware attacks, customers received one invoice in September that was designed to cover expenses for anywhere from two to three months of usage. 

The town released a fact sheet to try to be more proactive in explaining the problem, but the messaging came too late, reached too few people, and became overshadowed by news reports and social media posts from the mayor. Employees repeatedly found themselves unable to get ahead of a problem that they felt Gilbert exacerbated through his 12,000-person Facebook following. 

The mayor repeatedly called it a “crisis” and at times amplified issues on social media without first speaking to staff or vetting the accuracy of residents’ concerns. This only increased what was already a high call volume following the cyberattack. 

A staff of around six people was left with the fallout and became inundated with angry calls from residents who saw Gilbert’s posts and suspected there was an issue with their bill as well.

Some people had legitimate issues with their utility bills, including residents who moved during the summer, saw their meters break, had solar panel credits, or didn’t have their bills transferred to a new account holder.

For many others, however, it was simply the combination of rate hikes in a new town budget, increased summer usage, and bundling of multiple months into one bill that caused surprise.

One employee says it’d be accurate to compare the mayor’s handling of the issue to the folk tale of Chicken Little exclaiming that the sky is falling.

The town started to turn the corner on billing issues earlier this year, but several employees continue to feel repeatedly undercut more than a year later, as Gilbert continues to provide updates on his Facebook page labeling utility billing issues as a “crisis.”

“I know people don’t like that word, but for seniors, single moms who can’t afford these bills, it’s a crisis to them,” Gilbert says. “I’ve had people in my office crying. Adults. You can check all my messages, and in all my messages, I’ve always said staff is working hard. This isn’t against staff.”

Audra Killingsworth, the other outgoing council member, sees things differently.

“I’m frustrated with all the levels of misinformation that are coming out,” Killingsworth says. 

She points to a September 24 post where Gilbert, in the comments section, alludes to a lack of cooperation among the council members and town manager to taking a different approach to solving the billing issue. And as many have pointed out, Gilbert’s assertion that the PVA designation has resolved Scott’s parking dispute is factually untrue.

“I’m frustrated with blatant lies that are being posted to stir up trouble,” Killingsworth says.

Sustained silence

Gilbert isn’t up for reelection himself this fall.

Indeed, some council members retiring this year may feel more emboldened to speak up as a result of their imminent departures. While many council members are concerned about what Evans’s ascension could mean for the town—particularly contentious appointment, zoning, and development votes—they say they’re far more concerned about social media posts the mayor has made about utility billing, abrupt news conferences over zoning disputes, and other issues that have negatively impacted staff.

Four of the town’s five council members spoke to the INDY on the record; Ed Gray, the mayor pro tem seeking reelection this year, was the only member who didn’t respond to a request for comment. Gantt and Killingsworth are retiring at the end of their terms this year, in part, they say, due to frustrations with the mayor and a sense they’ve done as much as they can for the town.

Mahaffey and Zegerman, whose terms expire in 2027, say they felt a need to come forward with their concerns over what they see as increasingly destructive behavior from the mayor.

“Morale with staff right now is terrible,” Zegerman says. “Staff has clearly expressed to the members of council frustration with the persistent meddling of the mayor in operational affairs. It has led to attrition.”

Meanwhile, a former Apex official says they wished council members would’ve summoned the courage to speak out sooner.

“For too long, the council members have not stood up and taken actions that were necessary for them to take to stand up against the mayor,” the former official says. “The council holds the power. It shouldn’t take two of them announcing that they’re not running for reelection before they start standing up and doing the right thing.”

Bryan Anderson is a freelance reporter who most recently covered elections, voting access, and state government for WRAL-TV. He previously reported for the Associated Press and The News & Observer. You can subscribe to his newsletter here.

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