Press Release
In recent media interviews, Pilot Mountain Mayor Evan Cockerham has asserted that the Local Government Commission (LGC) “failed to alert us to financial discrepancies and, thus far, have offered only limited guidance.” This statement is factually inaccurate. In fact, LGC staff have been meeting with the town representatives for the last eight years, expressing concerns about Pilot Mountain’s financial health and fiscal management.
Staff visited the town and met with local officials in October of 2016, February of 2019 and again in 2020 in a meeting attended by Mayor Cockerham. Since 2018, three separate letters were sent to the town manager expressing concerns regarding the town’s financial position and internal controls. Those alerts included the specific issue that the “[G]eneral Fund Balance available for appropriation relative to expenditures is inadequate to support operations,” an indicator that the potential for mishandling money might exist. In each case, Mayor Cockerham responded to LGC staff defending the town’s actions.
The town entered into a Fiscal Accountability Agreement with the LGC in both 2021 and 2023. Those included requirements for fiscal management training by the town manager and newly elected or appointed board members to help them meet statutory budget and fiscal control obligations and duties. It is not the function of the LGC to investigate and solve the problems of governmental units, but to identify issues from their audited financial statements and make them aware so that they may take appropriate action to solve or mitigate the negative findings.
To act as if the commissioners and mayor were unaware that there were fiscal problems is disingenuous at best. LGC staff identified multiple “red flags” that should have initiated further inquiries by elected officials into the town manager’s fiscal management practices. The failure of Mayor Cockerham, the Board of Commissioners and town staff to properly heed the LGC warnings is not the fault of LGC staff or other government agencies, but rests solely with the government officials in Pilot Mountain.
Following the above press release, Mayor Cockerham posted the following on social media:
On Wednesday, the State Treasurer's office released a statement in response to a comment I made at a recent board meeting. While discussing town manager Michael Boaz's misappropriation of funds, I said:
"In addition to the trust placed in our staff, the town relies on external safeguards like the Local Government Commission, the State Auditor, and an annual third-party audit. These institutions failed to alert us to the discrepancies in our finances and have only offered limited guidance."
I regret that my comments were heard as an attack on the LGC and the Treasurer's office. My first duty to the people of Pilot Mountain is transparency, and I only wanted to let them know that we had pursued these avenues for assistance.
Our board has received notices in the past from the LGC and taken appropriate action when necessary, but mis-appropriation of funds by a staff member is not a function of the board's legislative duties. To be clear, the budget we adopted was not adhered to, and that is the reason that the town manager was placed on leave.
To date, there has been no investigation or formal recommendation made by any of the aforementioned agencies. We reached out to these offices through our legal counsel on day one and have been ready and willing to fully cooperate. Because there was no direct assistance or recommendation, I brought in our own financial analyst, former auditor (and member of the LGC during many of the years in question) Beth Wood.
We have serious and urgent business to attend to, and I welcome constructive recommendations or assistance in further investigating this matter.
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