(Carolina Journal) – City officials of Rocky Mount say they have made significant headway in dealing with its financial issues that were the subject of an audit by first-term Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek’s office in March.
The report came in an update delivered to the North Carolina Local Government Commission at its Tuesday meeting.
According to the March audit, a former city manager was left unchecked from August 2023 to August 2025 contributing to the town’s financial crisis. During that time, the city’s cash and investment balances declined by approximately $80 million, falling from about $100 million to $21.8 million — a 78% drop in two years.
City officials were first asked to attend commission meetings beginning in April. At that time, the commission agreed to postpone a state takeover of Rocky Mount’s finances contingent on the city complying with specific requirements.
They attended in again in May, where it was noted the town had noticeable progress, and have substantially built upon their efforts.
“Every time we see you, the news gets a little bit better, so I guess keep coming back,” first-term Republican state Treasurer Brad Briner, who oversees the commission, told city officials on Tuesday.
Elton Daniels, city manager, said the audit has been submitted and accepted, and most of the things that they’ve discussed have already been addressed from an operational standpoint. Everything from an administrative standpoint that the city has stated that it would do they have done, and they are seeing the results of those decisions now.
The budget has been presented to City Council and will be up for a vote on June 22.
“You all have received our monthly updates for quite some time now,” he said. “You’ll see steady improvements and over the last close out for May, we were actually $8 million above our projections. We’re not out of the woods, but we feel like we’re making steady incremental progress.”
The only exception to that progress is the transit fund which remains at a negative balance.
Daniels said they are looking at multiple ways to offer that service, possibly change routes or reducing them in some areas. Because federal funds are tied to them, he said the city can’t take actions just yet.
“Ideally, we have to reach out to the federal government and our state partners, but we’re also looking at adjusting raising fees as well,” he said. “So, a combination of different things, but we do plan to address that in the near future.”
Daniels said it isn’t really profitable for anyone operating a transit system across the state.
“It’s one of those quality-of-life things that you deal with and so it’s similar to parks and recreation,” he said. “It is something that you put in and you don’t expect to have a full return.”
Daniels dismissed any concerns in dealing with federal authorities because former city employees in those positions requested funding that required a match that the city could not afford and that’s not something that they will do moving forward.
He also added that the city has a proposed 7 cent tax increase because of obligations they want to continue and a need to close a financial gap.
