Cary needs a dose of sunlight as ugly town council issues are handled in secret | Editorial
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Town council keeps key personnel and finance details hidden from residents.
- Mayor and council cite confidentiality while declining to explain leave or payments.
- Silence erodes public trust and demands prompt disclosure and council accountability.
Cary is a pleasant town of winding parkways and manicured subdivisions, but it has suddenly run out of sunlight.
The leaders of North Carolina’s seventh-largest municipality are refusing to say why the town manager is on paid leave or why the town paid $37,397 to help Mayor Pro Tem Lori Bush obtain a master’s degree in public policy. The town won’t even say whether the manager’s absence and the tuition assistance to Bush – since repaid by her – are related.
The Town Council met for a work session Tuesday night and promptly disappeared into a closed session that lasted for more than two hours.
Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said the public portion of the work session was livestreamed for the first time because the council is committed to transparency, but he refused to say anything about the agenda of the closed session.
“And while I would like to provide more details about the manager’s leave, state law currently prevents me from doing so,” the mayor said. “However, as soon as we are legally permitted to share additional information, we will.”
It may be easier to get the Epstein files than to get the town to explain what’s going on.
Whatever the town manager did or Bush received, the silence is making the situation worse. Yes, personnel issues and consultations with attorneys are protected by confidentiality provisions, but that doesn’t entitle the town from the mayor on down to engage in a complete clam up.
The town manager has been on paid leave for almost three weeks. The mayor pro tem has been receiving and repaying the town thousands of dollars as part of an arrangement brought light by a public records request. But the public isn’t being told why the manager is absent, who authorized the payments to Bush or who made the public records request.
The irony is that Bush was paid to get an advanced degree in public policy, and now it appears the entire town council needs one. Democracy requires accountability.
The mayor and the council need to tell the people of Cary what is happening in their government. Hiding behind extreme interpretations of confidentiality isn’t acceptable. In the end, it may be a more serious abuse of the public’s trust than whatever the town is trying to shield.
This story was originally published December 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM.