Cary Council addresses audit findings on former manager's misconduct
The Cary Town Council held a news conference on July 17 to respond to a state auditor's report detailing misconduct by former Town Manager Sean Stegall, who took administrative leave and resigned in November 2025. Council members outlined systemic failures and announced plans to strengthen oversight and transparency.
The State Auditor's report, released earlier today, found that Stegall eliminated key finance positions, discouraged staff from following policy, and controlled information flow between staff and council members. Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said the auditor "did an excellent job" documenting what happened, calling the findings "really bad." Stegall's actions went undetected for years because he strategically withheld information from both staff and council, Weinbrecht explained.
The council commissioned a separate investigation from law firm Womble Bond Dickinson to understand why and how the misconduct occurred. Mayor Pro Tem Lori Bush identified an "implementation gap" — the town had policies on the books that simply weren't being followed. Council members emphasized that while some spending decisions were inappropriate, the broader staff culture was not one of extravagance. Council Member Carissa Cone Johnson said the issues represented "pockets of poor decisions" rather than systemic overspending.
Weinbrecht argued that the real financial damage came from Stegall's suppression of critical infrastructure needs. The town hasn't hired a police officer in 10 years or built a new fire station, and response times in western Cary have stretched to 12 minutes instead of 5 minutes. These deferred investments, not extravagant expenses, will have the greater long-term impact on taxes and public safety, he said.
The council has already begun implementing changes. Interim Town Manager Russ Overton was sworn in and immediately restored direct communication between staff and council. The newly approved budget includes funding for an internal auditor position. The council plans to create anti-retaliation and whistleblower protection policies, review P-card usage rules, and address council compensation transparency. Council Member Sarika Bansal emphasized the need for public votes on any council benefits like car allowances. The town has launched a public dashboard at carync.gov/movingforward to track progress on implementing audit recommendations. Weinbrecht concluded by reassuring residents that "Cary is still Cary" — noting the town maintains the second-lowest tax rate in Wake County and a strong quality of life.
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Votes (1)
Town's Response to State Auditor's Report and Former Town Manager's Actions
The news conference addressed the State Auditor's report regarding former Town Manager Sean Stegall's misconduct, including eliminating key finance roles, encouraging policy disregard, and suppressing feedback mechanisms. Council members detailed how staff concerns led to Stegall's administrative leave and resignation on November 20th, 2025. They emphasized cooperation with investigations and efforts to understand systemic failures. The differences between the State Auditor's report (focus on 'what happened') and the Womble Bond Dickinson report (focus on 'why and how') were highlighted, with both providing recommendations for strengthening oversight, transparency, and culture. The council also addressed public and media concerns regarding extravagant spending and accountability, clarifying that some issues were unknown to them and that the culture of the broader staff was not one of extravagance. They committed to implementing recommendations, creating new policies like anti-retaliation and whistleblower programs, and revisiting existing policies like P-card usage and council compensation.
Notable Quotes (9)
I thought the state auditor did an excellent job on the what. Here's all the things that happened. Really bad, really bad, bad. Um the auditor did a fantastic job over the months really digging in deep and finding stuff that honestly I had no idea was going on. ... Womble Bond Dickinson is into the what and I mean the why and the how. And that's very important, especially if you're trying to fix problems and situations. You need to understand the whole picture.
I believe something that both of those resources did, which was important, was to illustrate what I would call an implementation gap. So, we do and we've talked about this as a body fairly frequently. We have a lot of policy and a lot of those policies just weren't followed.
For me it would be two words, culture and transparency. And on day one the mayor put forward a process and a for us to stream everything we do.
He was a master at making sure he had information from staff and he had information from council and he determined who got what information. That was a big problem and that was corrected on day one when we swore in Russ Overton as the interim manager.
I don't believe that it's accurate to classify the culture of our staff as one of extravagant spending. I believe that what we had was pockets of poor decisions and poor money management that we need to address. But, I would I stand by the fact that our staff works diligently to deliver the best product, the best services possible, and to do that at the most reasonable cost they can without compromising safety or quality.
All the damage that has been done with the extravagant expenses has minimal impact on the tax rate. Those expenditures, the extravagant expenses, what has a bigger impact was the information he withheld from us. We haven't hired a police officer in 10 years. That and he kept telling us we are fine. We are fine. We haven't built a new fire station. We are fine. We are fine. And now we find out instead of a 5-minutes response time, we have a 12-minute response time out west. That's a problem, and that's what we got to dig ourselves out of, and that's how he impacted the tax rate, not with the extravagant expenses, but I totally agree it was horrifying.
I think people want to pin blame on somebody and I'm getting a lot of it. Uh but I can tell you that a lot of it has to do with a council-manager form of government, which is all the municipalities in North Carolina, most mid-size cities in the nation. And that vulnerability exists in all of our brothers and sisters in Wake County. It could happen to them tomorrow.
I don't mind you having that money allocated for the car given to allowances for the council, but go vote in front of public. Let people know. Be transparent about this information. And I think that's fair.
Cary is still Cary. Cary is still one of the most desirable places to be, live, work, play, run a business. We're a safe community. We're a thriving community. That has not changed. We're a good value for the dollar. We have the second lowest tax rate in Wake County and the highest quality of life. Uh so Cary is still Cary. We will start to move forward and uh this council is committed to doing that.
Ordinances & Resolutions (6)
Report on Cary released earlier today, identifying oversight gaps and misconduct.
Separate investigation commissioned by Council in January, focusing on 'why and how' misconduct occurred.
Online platform to track progress on implementing recommendations.
Noted deficiency of 'tone at the top'.
Approved last month, includes positions like internal auditor.
Referenced by council member Carissa Cone Johnson to show her annual compensation.
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Other Topics from This Document
Systemic Vulnerabilities and Proposed Safeguards in Council-Manager Government
Addressing Spending Practices and Council Compensation
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