State auditor to release findings on Rocky Mount's budget crisis investigation soon

The state auditor said his investigation into Rocky Mount’s finances will soon be made public.

The probe follows the city’s admission of a budget crisis late last year. 

In September, city leaders revealed they spent millions more than the city brought in each month for two consecutive years. 

That's when State Auditor Dave Boliek stepped in.

“The public can expect a very professional, thorough, data-driven approach to the final audit result in Rocky Mount," he said.

Many residents believe the city’s financial troubles could be connected to an ongoing utility billing issue.

At a special council meeting last week, the city leaders said the two are not related, explaining the billing problem was caused by an inadvertent increase in the time between meter readings and billing dates. When that issue was corrected, it resulted in back-to-back bills for customers.

We asked the state auditor whether the discovery of the billing issue is at all connected to the audit. 

“I don’t really want to confirm that one way or the other. What I can say is that we have here at the State Auditor’s Office, we do have a cybersecurity unit that audits information technology systems across the state of North Carolina, and I can confirm our IT systems auditors have been actively engaged with Rocky Mount," Boliek said.

Residents who continue to pack city meetings said the billing issue is just the latest disappointment in a long line of frustrations.

WRAL asked City Manager Elton Daniels at a special meeting last week how the city plans to move forward amid the distrust. 

“My goal as a manager now is trying to be as transparent as possible. That's one of the reasons why we're having this meeting," he said.

WRAL asked the state auditor when the findings of his investigation would be released. He said it would be made public “in days or weeks,” but did not provide a specific timeline.