From Staff Reports

The Asheville Citizen-Times in May continued its own detective work in trying to uncover information underlying the current criminal investigation of former Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene. 

Federal authorities have instructed county leadership not to release any information that could compromise the ongoing investigation.

 While authorities have divulged that Greene could be held accountable for $257,000 in improper purchases made over a decade; the Citizen-Times claims to have uncovered close to $3.6 million in controversial transactions. Federal authorities have not denied the existence of additional charges.

 Greene and her son Michael have pleaded not-guilty to a total of 56 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy, and embezzlement. A few of the charges could result in a prison sentence of up to 20 years, each; and the civil servants’ pensions could also be in jeopardy. Both Greenes were scheduled to appear in court May 29, after the Daily Planet’s news deadline for this edition.

 Greene has been faulted for purchasing home décor and other personal items in a smokescreen of $90,000 in gift cards, while turning in her county purchasing card, reportedly to avoid scrutiny.

 Questionable charges uncovered by the local daily newspaper include an early retirement bonus program that was followed by a round of retention bonuses. While perhaps bad management, current County Manager Mandy Stone explained the moves were not illegal and were responding to needs for balancing the budget and retaining qualified talent in top management positions.

 Economic development expenditures, while disrespectful of hard-working taxpayers, actually don’t push the envelope, either. When it comes to extravagant wining and dining, state and local politicians are known to shower on corporate executives to attract jobs to their jurisdictions.

 Some of the more ridiculous “economic development” expenditures the newspaper has called attention to include lavish expenditures on equestrian entrepreneur Mark Bellissimo’s organizations – like $600,000 spent on advertising. Greene claimed the money would bring tourists to regional events in Polk County, and Bellissimo does not appear to be under investigation.

 Greene also would spend hundreds of dollars per meal at exotic restaurants, again something executive big-wheels say is not a problem.

 Nobody is making excuses for home décor and personal telephone bills paid by the county, though. 

The county’s current CFO, Tim Flora, played a part in putting an end to the problem. Following “peculiar” decisions and direction, he reported staff detected a potential breach leading to a call to auditors and investigators and the locking down of accounts.

 Auditors explained Greene took advantage of the county by expanding her control, sometimes through budget ordinances. Greene’s administration was marked by ambiguity in reporting both to the board of commissioners and to the public. She is accused of only providing summaries of spending plans instead of line-item budgets.

 Auditors found that employees colluded, but they were not in a position to state if it was out of mutual enrichment or fear. 

The former manager has also been accused of not being up-front with budget requests, as in the instance where the commissioners were led to believe they were allocating $1.4 million to boost the wages of the county’s lowest-paid workers, and that money went instead to the county’s highest-paid executives.

 Then, there were the documents that had been tampered with. Receipts and documents released to the press have been found to inaccurately represent purchases, sometimes showing blacked- or whited-out redactions. 

All the while this was occurring, the county was receiving the same accolades for financial reporting the City of Asheville was earning. It won the highest grades in transparency from the John Locke Foundation, the same Certificates of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting on its CAFRs from the Government Finance Officers Association, and the same unqualified annual reports from its auditors.

 County leadership, including new management and members of the Board of Commissioners, at first responded to the problem with a rash of policy changes. It was awkward, as the county was spewing effulgent damage-control language as changes were properly adopted at public meetings, but nobody could say why for fear of violating the federal gag order protecting the investigation.

 Changes have since been made to limit the powers of the county manager and commission chair. As a sampling of progress, reports are now published in greater detail, odd transactions like voting oneself a raise through a budget ordinance are far from being tolerated, the use of purchasing cards has been restricted, employee reimbursements for dining are now capped at reasonable levels, an anti-nepotism policy has been adopted, the county’s internal auditing function has been strengthened, no-retaliation hotlines for whistleblowers have been secured, and the commissioners must now vote on any expenditures made in the name of economic development.

 While amounts involved in the breach are huge to the common citizen, they were not large enough to impact the county’s financial position. That said, local leadership has taken the stance that fraud involving a single penny of taxpayer money is a wrong that must be righted.