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State Auditor Beth Wood, standing by her office report of a City of Rocky Mount investigation over a year ago, has also refuted any claims or suggestions that she is racist or that his office work was racially motivated.
On Wednesday, Wood spent about the last half hour of a nearly hour and 15 minute segment on the WHIGs Live Morning Show television channel answering callers’ questions about the document released in mid-May 2020.
Towards the end of his appearance, Wood made it clear that if you know me and do your homework, you know I’m not a racist. However, it is a big distraction because I am a white woman.
Wood asked for airtime after City Councilor Andre Knight called the Live Morning Show on Monday to say his office’s report was not true.
On Wednesday the tone of some of the calls to Wood was pretty blunt, with one caller in particular asking her, Beth, you’re a registered Democrat, but aren’t you really a Republican and this issue turned black and white ?
Wood said she wasn’t sure she understood the question.
The show’s co-host, Wayne Holloman, told Wood that she was accused of being a racial thing, motivated by an attack on black leadership, and that he believed that was what the ‘calling asked him to approach.
Wood said, I would say that’s not true. If anyone wanted to do what a good listener does and research my background, you will find that I grew up very poor on a farm, working the fields with many good friends in my family who were black.
Wood has said she guesses some would call her biased on one point because she has an all-female management team.
There are five of us running this agency and we were all women, said Wood. Two in five are in the minority, a Latino and a Black.
She also said her office has eight directors.
And in this case, five of them are men and four of them are black, she said.
She also pointed out that she was hired by then-state auditor Ralph Campbell, who was not only the first black person to be elected state auditor, but also the first black person to be elected. is part of the North Carolina State Council.
She recounted starting at a lower position in the State Auditor’s Office during Campbell’s tenure and then rising through the ranks to a director position.
Campbell, a Democrat, was defeated in 2004 by Les Merritt, a Republican.
Wood told the Live Morning Show that Campbell came to see her and told her: Beth, you have to run for office in 2008. Wood defeated Merritt in 2008 and Campbell died in 2011.
So to say I’m a racist is an absolutely ridiculous statement, Wood said.
A key finding from the May 2020 report in the City of Rocky Mount case said that several officials allegedly prevented the municipal business service center from attempting to collect $ 47,704 in utility bills owed by a city councilor, who turned out to be Knight.
This finding indicated that the $ 47,704 was ultimately taken off the books by the Town of Rocky Mount and that Knight had since accrued an additional overdue balance of $ 2,989.
Knight said he had not asked for preferential treatment, had not done any wrongdoing and was not going to resign.
In an interview with regional television station WTVD that aired a week after Woods’ office report went public, Knight, in attempting to refute Wood, told the camera, I have proof, just as she does. made.
Wood, responding to calls from the Live Morning Show, also pointed out that no evidence had been provided to show that what his office had discovered about the town of Rocky Mount was false.
Earlier on the show’s call, a caller asked Wood how many audits his office had done in North Carolina.
The caller also asked: Why are you insisting on the Rocky Mount audit? It just doesn’t make sense. If you try to use us as peons to get to the governor’s mansion, it won’t work.
Wood said, “We do hundreds of audits a year, but she also noted that in the case of the Town of Rocky Mount, this was an investigation and not an audit.
Another caller asked Wood: Why are you so dogmatic when it comes to Rocky Mount and Mr. Knight?
Wood said the Knight board member constantly says there are lies in this report and there aren’t.
She also said that many people across the country depend on her work and that of her staff.
I am not dogmatic about anything except that the information in this report is not a lie, she said. It is supported by information to the City of Rocky Mount their records.
And so, I just reassure the citizens of North Carolina and the citizens of Rocky Mounts that there are no lies in this report, she said.
Another caller asked Wood if his office had spent 4,000 hours investigating the town of Rocky Mount.
Wood in his office report in May 2020 noted that the probe took 4,058 hours at an approximate cost of $ 421,284.
Wood on the Live Morning Show pointed out that state law requires his office to have an investigation unit and a hotline so people can call in confidence.
Wood has made it clear that state law does not give his office discretion as to what to investigate or not investigate and that state law does not tell him that a monetary value is involved to examine or not a complaint.
The Wood report in his office said that in the case of the City of Rocky Mount, an investigation was initiated in response to 213 complaints received through the hotline and other means regarding misconduct by elected officials and officials. municipal employees.
Wood on the Live Morning Show said that overall regarding the time spent and costs involved in audits or investigations, until my status is changed, I have to do as the law says.
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