Two months ago, Sean Stegall was the successful, seemingly uncontroversial town manager of Cary—a low-profile but influential position that gave him control of a 1300-person staff and a $500 million annual budget to work with. Stegall was nearing his 10-year work anniversary and had just published a book chronicling his accomplishments and leadership philosophy. By all accounts, he deserved as much credit as anyone for making Cary a prosperous, well-run town.
Then, on November 20, the Cary Town Council placed Stegall on administrative leave after learning he had engaged in excessive spending without council approval. In the following weeks, public records requests and reporting revealed that Stegall had unilaterally signed off on land purchases totaling over a million dollars, approved the town’s payment of a council member’s tuition, and violated the town’s fund balance policy, all without informing the full town council. A few weeks later, Stegall resigned.
In an emergency town council meeting, Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said Stegall had misled council members and created an “unhealthy work environment.” The town hired Womble Bond Dickinson, a law firm that specializes in employment investigations, to conduct a full probe of Stegall’s activities. The state auditor’s office announced its own investigation…