Where Things Stand: A Main Street Look at Rocky Mount’s Audit Work

The holiday season is upon us, the Christmas lights already twinkling on homes and in the garden greenery. Foremost on our minds are our family and friends, and preparing a place in our hearts for Jesus to lay down his sweet head.

I plan to write and post on this Main Street blog a few times during December. Today’s post is because I feel the need to slide down my Main Street bench, pat the spot beside me, and say, “Let me tell you what I’ve learned.”

Rocky Mount continues to work through the financial crisis that has captured the city’s attention. We wonder where the investigation stands in understanding how our reserves dropped so dramatically.

After reviewing what is publicly available, I want to share where things stand, according to that research.

Nothing conclusive has been released. Not from the State Auditor. Not from the forensic investigation. What has been confirmed is this: the city has stated that the results will be released once the work is complete. That remains true.

It’s also important to understand that the annual financial statement audit, performed every year by an outside firm, is a separate process entirely. That audit determines whether the city’s financial statements comply with accounting rules. It does not dig into how overspending occurred or who made the decisions that drained the reserves.

The deeper work, the fact-finding, the tracing, the reconstruction of what actually happened, is what the State Auditor’s office and the forensic accountants are doing right now.

We all care about Rocky Mount’s stewardship and its future. This update is simple, even if the wait is not: the review is in progress, the experts are still examining records, and we are not yet at the point of conclusions.

When those findings are finished, they will enter the public record.

Sitting beside me on my Main Street bench, watching the late-season light slide across the storefronts, I tell you what I tell myself: transparency matters. Guardianship matters. The truth matters. And we are counting on the people charged with uncovering that truth who are doing the work, quietly, methodically, and out of sight.

While waiting I find myself thinking about what justice really means for a city like ours. It isn’t a spectacle or a headline. It’s clarity, plain and unguarded, so the community can breathe again. It’s the knowledge that the facts have finally caught up to the rumors.

Rocky Mount needs to know what happened, not to stay stuck in the past, but so we can move forward. We need this truth to restore confidence, rebuild trust, and begin shaping a future worthy of the people who call this place home.

So we wait. We watch. We care. And we keep believing that transparency is not too much to ask.

When the reports are released, we’ll have the clear picture we need, trusting that the truth will do what it always does, light the next step.

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