NC audit shows fiscal mismanagement in Wilson County town, risking fraud and abuse
A report from the state auditor’s office shows a long string of financial irregularities in the tiny Wilson County town of Elm City, including a former mayor who got paid for shampooing the town’s carpets, buying a town truck on Facebook marketplace and purchasing a trailer at her cousin’s auction.
The 47-page report from NC Auditor Dave Boliek’s office describes slipshod record-keeping in the town of 1,200, notably town officials doing work for Elm City without approval, reimbursement payments made without documentation and expense card purchases without clear purpose.
“Purchasing policies are enacted to prevent fraud, waste and abuse,” Boliek said in a news release. “As documented in this report, Elm City officials have on several occasions violated the town’s policies and increased the risk of fraud, waste or abuse of tax dollars. Officials from Elm City have agreed with each of the findings and recommendations in this report.”
The auditor’s office produced its report after a call to its tipline alleging questionable reimbursements to town officials and payments for services that never happened. It covers roughly the years 2022 to 2025, and it neither names the officials involved nor recommends any criminal investigation.
‘That can’t happen today’
Reached Friday, Elm City Mayor Gil Wheeler said all the town officials referenced in the audit have since been voted out of office, and the town is taking steps to make sure financial policy is followed.
“We’re already putting steps in place where that can’t happen today,” he said.
Sitting just outside Wilson, Elm City is on the “unit assistance list” maintained by the NC Treasurer’s Local Government Commission, where it and other governments can get fiscal monitoring and guidance. It is not under state financial control, as was the Cumberland County town of Spring Lake in 2022.
Shampooing carpets, fixing cars
Elm City, the audit showed, employed five different finance officers between 2021 and 2025, and little documentation exists to show who got hired when.
Between 2023 and 2025, the town wrote four checks totaling $2,420 to a former mayor and commissioner for services they provided without getting approval from the board. This violated the town’s conflict-of-interest policy, the audit said.
For example, the commissioner received more than $2,000 for working on the town’s vehicles, but did not provide an invoice showing the cost of parts or labor.
The former commissioner also received $75 to turn on a resident’s water at midnight on a Friday, which he did at the former mayor’s request because a public works employee lived too far away.
Another time, the former mayor received $275 to shampoo the carpets at Town Hall and a sheriff’s substation using a cleaning machine borrowed from a church. The invoice did not show the hourly rate, how long the job took or any comparison prices, the audit said.
In 2024, the former mayor received $2,500 in reimbursement from the town for buying a 2009 truck on Facebook Marketplace “because she knew the public works department needed another truck,” the audit said. No documented board approval could be found.
The audit further details 54 expense card purchases made without an itemized receipt, totaling $5,725. This included nearly $2,000 in gas station expenses, $487 at a tire store and $288 at a Sam’s Club.
“Town officials do not know, based on the documentation, who made the purchase,” the audit said.
Wheeler said the town accepted the audit as guidance.
“I think it’s a road map for us to go by,” he said.