Should Farmville manager be fired and elected officials voted out?

August 10, 2023

If a town manager is a nice guy with good intentions, but costs the municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars, how long should he remain employed by that town? If everyone deserves a second chance, how long should that second chance last? On June 15, 2012 WSOC-TV in NC reported, “The town of Cherryville is now searching for a new city manager. The town fired David Hodgkins, but did not explain why.” Multiple newspaper articles described a year of tumult in City Hall. On October 30, 2012 the WCNC Charlotte headline was “Police chief resigns in scandal-plagued Cherryville.” A Gaston Gazette article on January 14, 2013 noted that, “Two former Cherryville employees admitted to embezzling more than half a million dollars from the city of Cherryville Tuesday in federal court.”  Close to the time it was revealed that these scandals happened under Hodgkins’ watch, and he was terminated, the Town of Farmville hired him. Reportedly, one then-commissioner practically insisted on him becoming Farmville’s new Town Manager. Why?

No accounts hinted that David Hodkins knew anything about the illegal affairs going on in the Cherryville City Hall or that he had any part in anything immoral. The suggestion was that he was a nice guy with good intentions whose biggest shortcoming was a lack of skills in administration and financial management. In discussions about the severance package for Hodgkins, one resident asked why they should give him anything after he let people walk away with about half of the city. That was an exaggeration, of course. According to WRAL News reporting on June 15, 1998, The Town of Morrisville forced Hodgkins out of his job as town manager, but then quickly restored him a week later.

Nice people still must be held accountable in their jobs or elected positions. They can say that something was a “good deal,” but if we taxpayers notice a pattern of overspending and officials not being sworn to the best financial interest of the town, there should come a time for change.

In the past ten years in Farmville we have witnessed:

• Town potentially losing up to $490,585 on two exchanges with one person, related to the fire station and temporary library
• That one person paying for a 2019 campaign flyer for four candidates, all of whom were elected
• Town Manager disregarding the $485K appraisal of the Main St. fire station the Town wanted to get rid of and deciding it was only worth $325K, without having a second appraisal at the time
• Town Manager deciding the former Red’s TV plot that Farmville wanted to acquire was valued at $250K when a retrospective appraisal gave a value of only $142K (Buying high and selling low is being a bad fiduciary.)
• Commissioners failing to ask for official appraisals for properties involved in Town exchanges
• One month after agreeing to the fire station swap, commissioners voting unanimously to take out a $5M loan to build a new library
• Commissioners agreeing to pay for depot parking lot & lighting before they knew the cost
• The “exchange for rent” of former train depot costing Town over $18K per month for 18 months, 3 months of which only entailed storage for misc. items not yet moved (over $54K for 3 months of storage)
• Promises of new fire station with NO new fire station & practically no financial plan to build it
• Town failing to form the required selection committee to administer part of the $520K Community Development Block Grant, but instead having Commissioners serve as the selection committee regarding which modest-income homeowners would receive money for repairs
• Town’s Unassigned General Fund balance plummeting from 46% to 12% between 2020 and 2022
• Town selling the current Lanoca Coffee building on Main St. to a sitting commissioner for $1,100, in a technically legal bid
• Bonnie’s Alley parking lot price tag ballooning from $200K to $520K cost-to-the-Town to create THIRTEEN parking spaces
• Town selling two-parcel parking lot on Main Street next to Farmville Furniture for $22,500 after repeatedly citing our desperate need for downtown parking (increasing $10K starting bid to $20K after public outcry)
• Fiasco of Town buying iconic former Farmville Hardware in order to demolish it and build a parking lot
• Streets and curbs deteriorating, with potholes on many Town-maintained roads
• Our utility bills rising dramatically

In the Investigative Report by the State Auditor released on August 8, 2023 the Town of Farmville was found to have horribly mishandled several important transactions or projects without the best interest of us taxpayers in mind. Sadly, after the Office of the State Auditor took over a year and a half to investigate nine allegations against the Town, elected officials and the Town Manager responded with misleading excuses. They gave vague rationale and little indication that they planned to change course. The State Auditor was forced to report that, “The Town’s response, which is included in the Investigative Audit Report, did not include these details. Therefore, the stakeholders of the Town are unable to hold the Town accountable for its corrective action.”

In other words, don’t get your hopes up that anything at Farmville’s Town Hall under the current Manager, Mayor and Commissioners will improve. According to the State Auditor, they are not taking responsibility for the Town’s failings, and are misleading us with their deflections. On a personal note, I hoped never to feel the need to bring to light information about the illegal activities in Cherryville and under normal circumstances would not want to embarrass anyone professionally. Once the Farmville Manager went on various channels after news broke of the investigation by the Office of the State Auditor and attempted to minimize its four findings, I decided enough was enough. Hundreds of Farmville households have been and continue to be hurt financially by bad municipal decisions. Without a light shining on documented history, I believed this would not change.

Please remember that the buck stops with our Town Manager. Our elected officials have the power to hire and fire managers, and are commissioned with safeguarding the best interest of the Town. They are accountable to us taxpayers and we must direct our concerns to them. NO private citizen who might benefit from transactions with the Town is accountable to us taxpayers. Also, there are numerous Town employees who do an excellent job and keep their noses to the grindstone. They have to bring home a paycheck and must follow the orders of the Town Manager. These good employees who operate with integrity have no desire to get caught up in messes which are not of their making. They simply want to do their jobs well, and might not approve of all directives made by their superior.

PORTIONS OF INVESTIGATIVE REPORT BY THE STATE AUDITOR

AUGUST 2023

FIRE STATION

“At the time of the exchange, the Town’s existing fire station appraised at $485,000. However, the Town Manager judgmentally valued the existing fire station at $325,000, or $160,000 less than the appraised value, despite not having a background in real estate or property appraisals.

Investigators obtained a retrospective appraisal as of June 2019, on the new [Red’s TV] property. This appraisal valued the property at $142,000, or $108,000 less than the $250,000 value estimated by the Town Manager.

The Board did not perform its due diligence to ensure that the Town received full and fair consideration for the Town’s fire station. Specifically, the Board minutes do not reflect that the Board reviewed any documentation to support the value of either property before approving the resolution authorizing the exchange. The Board meeting minutes did not reflect that the Board reviewed the appraisal of the Town’s existing fire station nor asked to see support or other evidence of the property values estimated by the Town Manager. Had the Board requested to review appraisals or other documentation to support the values of the properties included in the exchange, they would have known the appraised value of the Town’s existing fire station and that the new property was not appraised. Despite not having documents to support the values of either property, the Board approved the resolution authorizing the exchange of properties.”

TEMPORARY LIBRARY

About the Town’s agreement to pay for a new parking lot and lighting at the former train depot in exchange for using the depot to house the temporary library, the State Auditor found, “As a result of the Town renting the Depot for the equivalent of more than $18,000 per month, the Town paid an unreasonable amount in rent for its temporary library. Had the Town rented the Depot or similar property for $6,000 per month, which the Town Manager stated was the going rate at that time, then the Town could have saved approximately $12,000 per month, or up to $222,585 for space for the Town’s temporary library. Caused by Lack of Due Diligence by the Town Manager and Board The Town Manager and the Board did not do its due diligence to ensure the Town paid a reasonable monthly rent for its temporary library.”

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT

“The Town improperly administered $520,000 in Grant funds. Specifically, the Town did not form a selection committee that included the public, as required by the Town’s Grant Agreement with Commerce. Instead, the Board acted as the selection committee. The Grant funds, which were federally funded and administered by Commerce, were intended to assist low-to-moderate-income homeowners with housing improvements.”

CONCLUSIONS

“The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) strives to provide reports with complete and accurate information to the Governor, the General Assembly, the citizens of North Carolina, and the stakeholders of the Town of Farmville (Town). When the response of an auditee potentially obscures an issue, misleads the reader, or minimizes the importance of auditor findings and recommendations, OSA provides clarifications regarding the auditee’s response. In the Town’s response to this investigative audit report, statements were made that may mislead the reader.”