As documents detail Rocky Mount financial crisis, residents meet with city leaders for answers

Rocky Mount residents met with city leaders on Thursday as they discussed how the city planned to get out of a multimillion-dollar budget crisis.

Many people said they came to the meeting because the wanted answers.

"I want to find out what happened," said Carmen Eddins, who lives in Rocky Mount. "What is going on from the horse's mouth and what the plans are for the future. It doesn't paint a good picture of what our elected officials are supposed to do."

In a review of  Rocky Mount's finances, the city had been spending millions more than what it brought in for at least two years, with the city’s savings fund dropping from $100 million to $20 million in that same time frame.

Mayor Sandy Roberson said the North Carolina State Auditor’s Office is now looking into the city’s financial situation.

Documents detail the depth of financial crisis in Rocky Mount

WRAL News on Thursday learned that multiple city leaders were notified of the severity of the financial crisis Rocky Mount was facing more than two years before the review.

In the documents, the state said the city's operating income for 2022 had a negative balance of $283,932, and the city continued going further in debt each following year.

"A negative balance indicates that your rates are not covering your operation expenses," the letter reads in part.

The state began sending the city Financial Performance Indicators of Concern (FPIC) in 2022. In 2023, the state's FPIC to the city said Rocky Mount's General Fund had a deficit that would make it difficult to support the city's operations, and a 2024 FPIC said the city had "expenditures that exceed legal budget ordinance."

In each FPIC, city leaders had 60 days to respond with an outline of improvements that would address the financial concerns. All seven city council members, the city manager, the city's finance director and the mayor signed off on the outlines for improvements each year.

The documents obtained from the state do not explain the millions of dollars that are missing from the city's savings fund.

WRAL News went to the meeting Thursday and asked two city councilmembers about the letters, both of whom said they had no memory of it, but wanted to look forward.

"I would have done a lot of things different, like you, but we asked all the questions," said councilmember Jabaris Walker. "As a council from the mayor's office, we asked those questions. This is what we was presented. We really felt and thought every decision we made was for the betterment of the city."

The city said it would need to lay off workers and said as many as 15 employees would be laid off from the Rocky Mount Police Department and up to 10 employees from the Rocky Mount Fire Department. The city also said it would look to cut at least $30 million over the next 10 months.

For residents, this will mean a bump in natural gas and electricity rates. Estimates put the increase at about $20 per month for natural gas for the typical household. An approximate $8 monthly increase for electricity is expected, according to a release from the city.

Former State Treasurer Dale Folwell said it isn’t the first time the city has found itself in financial trouble. In 2020, WRAL News reported that city officials bent or broke rules to benefit other city officials, and local taxpayers didn’t know about it because of lax record-keeping.

"When it comes down to this, it's either incompetence or complicity," Folwell said.

WRAL anchor/reporter Ashley Rowe contributed to this report.