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Prosecutor Asks State To Probe Chowan County Finances

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Posted: 5:48 AM Aug 5, 2008
Last Updated: 9:55 AM Aug 6, 2008
Reporter: Heather King

27 comments

A | A | A

A prosecutor has asked state investigators to look into the budget problems in a northeastern North Carolina county for possible criminal misconduct.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported Wednesday that District Attorney Frank Parrish said he asked for help from the State Bureau of Investigation's Financial Crimes Unit.

Chowan County's reserves dropped in recent years from more than $20 million to $3.4 million in June of last year. The commission says the reserve had dropped to $723,000 by June 30 of this year.

Retired county manager Cliff Copeland said the reserve funds were borrowed internally and are still on the county's books as assets.

ORIGINAL STORY
What happened to $20 million in Chowan County's reserve account? No one knows right now, and that's prompting a criminal investigation.

In the county seat of Edenton Monday night, the Chowan County Board of Commissioners gave the board's attorney the green light to look for evidence of a crime. That's according to the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk.

Last week it was reported that more than $20 million in reserve funds are gone but only one instance was documented of money being taken from the accounts.

The paper says Chowan County Manager Peter Rascoe said Monday night that the county does not have the money to pay its bills, leaving it $262,000 in debt. Chowan County commissioners plan to
consider four ways to deal with the county's $4.1 million budget
shortfall.

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Comments are posted from viewers like you and do not always reflect the views of this station.

Posted by: Sarah Location: Springlake, NC/Creswell, NC on Aug 8, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Ok people, something definitely is not right here. FIRE EVERYBODY! and start new. Ya know, this happens in many town, people just don't find out about it. I agree with the chown county property owner, there are alot of honest decent people who would love a good job, but yet the dis-honest are the ones who get them. Next, we should be checking all these other towns in Carolina. I bet theres some dirt there nobody knows about:)

Posted by: Chowan County Property Owner Location: Edenton on Aug 7, 2008 at 09:32 PM
Wipe the slate clean. New people for every position (including the finance officer, county commissioners, etc). I guarantee that there are great, upstanding, honest, hard working residents in Chowan County that would be happy to hold these fiduciary positions for decent salaries...

Posted by: concerned4all Location: Elizabeth City, NC on Aug 7, 2008 at 01:12 PM
This is a really big mess in Chowan. And it is a real shame that it seems that innocent people are going to have to pay the price for something they had no hand in. In my surfing of the net, I found a forum online. If anyone is interested in venting, this may be the place to visit. http://eastnc.craigslist.org/pol/786609934.html

Posted by: carlos Location: nc on Aug 7, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Money spent was not a loan.

Posted by: Oh Yeah.... Location: Eastern NC on Aug 6, 2008 at 09:17 PM
Thanks for the info Mike!!! Poor judgement definitely isn't a crime, unless they did something illegal, and you are right it shouldn't go unpunished!

Posted by: Mike Location: Edenton on Aug 6, 2008 at 06:01 PM
To Oh Yeah...: The new county manager is an attorney but was not the county attorney. He was a "special projects manager" who did a good job after Hurricane Isabelle, though he was overpaid like many of the managers in this county. How about $90K for parks and recreation manager in the smallest county in the state? With 17 full time employees? $125K for county manager in the smallest county. They were still paying the old manager $10K/month as consultant til this broke! Poor judgement should not go unpunished.

Posted by: Oh Yeah.... Location: Eastern NC on Aug 6, 2008 at 12:24 PM
What people seem to not want to address here is that the "new" county manager they have now, has been Chowan's county attorney for how long? All they seem to have is more of the same. Time to clear house, let the SBI investigate and start all over with some fresh faces come November.

Posted by: Concerned Location: Chowan County on Aug 6, 2008 at 12:13 PM
If anyone wants to really share their comments, I ran across one of the current commissioner's compettition pages. He has a group on Yahoo and a myspace page. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stallingsforcommish/ (the myspace site is on there too) I guess whether you can or will vote for him, looks like he wants to hear what Chowan County's opinions are.

Posted by: Anonymous Location: now on Aug 6, 2008 at 09:03 AM
that we got one county out in the open, let work on the other good-ole boys county. I am sure the same thing is going on there as well.dumb greedy criminals.

Posted by: LD Location: NC on Aug 6, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Ummm.. That amount of money is gone and they just find out it's MISSING..There's something fishey going on here!!

Posted by: Anonymous Location: Perquimans on Aug 6, 2008 at 02:00 AM
I would first like to know how you just walk away with that much money. My second question would be how many other "small town counties" are missing the same amount of money in the same way. Seems like most of the "good-ole-boy" ways are predominant in a lot of the North Carolina counties that are small. Guess most of us are in the wrong business and need to become county officials in North Carolina to be able to pay for the high gas prices!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Ed Location: Williamston on Aug 5, 2008 at 09:16 PM
Maybe Green Bay got the money to payoff Brett Farve to not play football. I hear that's the amount offered to stop him from returning. Just let him come back and give the money to Chowan County. I would look for someone who loves money. That should keep the Feds. busy for a while. Good luck.

Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 5, 2008 at 07:50 PM
The Daily Advance just broke the story that the SBI is coming in to investigate criminal wrongdoing. That is wonderful news!!!! Now we need the State Auditor's office/Les Merritt in here to investigate.

Posted by: Michael Location: Edenton on Aug 5, 2008 at 05:29 PM
According to reports the county commissioners failed to do their jobs by reviewing the financial report. They also failed to do their jobs to exercise oversight of the count manager. The reports also indicate the county auditor and county finance officer brought concerns of dwindling funds to the count manager who told them everything would be OK. The current county manager is the former's hand picked "boy" and ended up thrown under the bus by his "friend". A question remains if the new manager knew anything. Yeah, the county is investigating itself. That makes as much good sense as the commission not reviewing the county finances at least yearly. The commission chairman is up for reelection, but I'll wager he is still on the commission because "his people" will vote for him anyway. He has certainly made his mark on the county commission. Now all involved are pointing fingers. A few have admitted they failed their responsibility but the water is over the dam. They all gotta GO!!!!

Posted by: sandra Location: edenton on Aug 5, 2008 at 02:00 PM
I agree. Others had to know more about the finances. Someone had to know something. I think they all should lay it on the table. How can the commissioners and the finance officer sit there and say that they know nothing? Those involved should cough up the money themselves instead of others loosing their jobs.Keep the investigation going on the front burners.

Posted by: wonder why Location: Eastern NC on Aug 5, 2008 at 01:00 PM
Edenton decided to keep out industry (including many super stores in the past) to retain the integrity of the historic community...many people were displaced by the Mill Village being assumed by those folks wishing to create another Williamsburg...Not accepting of many new residents and "old money" rules the place. Somebody knows what happened to the money and somebody needs to be accountable! People have to leave to work, if you are not retired or wealthy there is noting for you in Edenton...wonder if they will accept industry and growth now? (a former Edenton resident)

Posted by: Concerned Location: Adjoinging county on Aug 5, 2008 at 11:35 AM
How on earth could that kind of funds just get gone? Who in the world is the finance officer? How come the commissioners weren't watching their budget printouts closer?

Posted by: Red State Location: Washington Co. on Aug 5, 2008 at 11:23 AM
What a terrible situation for the residents of Chowan county. I love Edenton. It's a beautiful small town with a friendly atmosphere and a thriving business community. I have many friends and family members who live there and have friends from outside the state who have invested there. It's a shame that they might not get what they've paid for and been promised by county officials. I agree that it sounds like outside auditors would be far better to sort it all out. Why would you trust the people who lost the money in the first place to find it now?

Posted by: need air! Location: nc on Aug 5, 2008 at 10:53 AM
ok guys, heres the deal. 20 some-odd million can be ours, i think i have a plan. first off, which one of us is going to take one for the team? you have to do a little time to make it look good, we have that covered. you see stealing is easy, all you have to do is offer the public a "whipping child". i think we have it worked out, you do six to eighteen months. i mean think about it, have you ever heard of the money being recovered? this is just too easy!

Posted by: can help Location: belhaven on Aug 5, 2008 at 10:39 AM
I can help ya'll, just get our Adam O'neal out there he will straighten it all out for you! Won't you Adam, you are excellent in finding things that are wrong.

Posted by: Disgusted Location: Edenton on Aug 5, 2008 at 09:40 AM
We must seek help ourselves. County officials are NOT going to do that. We need an unbiased outside party to investigate, not an internal Chowan county investigation. We need the NC State Auditor, Les Merritt, or someone of that caliber, in here immediately. We cannot wait. This group does more damage, to the already catastrophic damage done, every hour they continue to stay in their positions. We cannot trust them & we cannot let them deteriorate the situation for Chowan County any further. We can't wait until November! All contact information for Les Merritt / NC State Auditor's office, and the NC Attorney General & SBI offices, are online. It just takes a google, to find it. They have snail mail addresses, 800 numbers, fax numbers, email addressess, as well as, confidential email tip addresses, and phone hot lines to contact them. Provide your name, or do it anonomously, but please pick one and contact them. Make a loud plead for an immediate emergency investigation.

Posted by: Concerned Location: NC on Aug 5, 2008 at 09:09 AM
These books are supposed to be audited once a year. How did the auditors miss that?

POST EDITED

Posted by: voter Location: nc on Aug 5, 2008 at 07:59 AM
the wife of the craven detective had TWO part time jobs??

Posted by: Anonymous Location: Columbia on Aug 5, 2008 at 07:47 AM
My prayers are for the everyday hard working people of Chowan County who are going to suffer and some even lose their jobs for this. It is a shame. When are we going to wake up and look at the ridculus salaries some of those people and in other counties are making. Are they really working that hard. It is an ego trip while the world goes lacking.

Posted by: VBush Location: MCHY on Aug 5, 2008 at 06:45 AM
They are missing 20 million dollars and are just now going to "look for evidence of a crime"? How does that much money become missing from a county budget before anyone starts noticing a problem? I don't know how many people have continuous access to this knowledge, but there is more than one person involved here.

Posted by: Mike Location: Edenton on Aug 5, 2008 at 06:35 AM
The County Commissioners have failed to oversee the former County Manager for nearly 30 years due to the good-ole-boy network. Now it has bitten them and everyone else in the arse. Everything is always a done deal in this county even before hearings. All the county commissioners need to go. There is nothing to prove they won't be asleep at the wheel again. The county auditor and county attorney also need to go. The fox is guarding the hen house. The state Attorney General needs to be in here asking hard questions. Someone should go to jail over this for misappropriation or criminal malfeasance.

Posted by: Resident Location: Edenton on Aug 5, 2008 at 05:56 AM
Congratulations Chowan County Officials ! We are now just as dysfunctional as Roanoke Rapids, NC !

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