LAURINBURG — The Laurinburg City Council meeting took a late turn Tuesday during the comments from the council session.

Mayor Jim Willis questioned Mayor Pro Tem Mary Evans about a private meeting she had with auditor Carl Head prior to the last city council meeting.

“It came to my attention that she had met with our auditor about some of the city finances,” Willis said. “She went in with questions and took notes, only to ask those questions again at the (city council) meeting. After I heard about it I consulted with the N.C. School of Government because I just felt something wasn’t right about the situation.”

On Tuesday, Willis informed Evans that if the city were to be billed for this meeting with the auditor it would have to come from her own pocket. He also asked for any notes she might have taken during the meeting to be shared with the council.

“We all go take classes on ethics and proper behavior,” Willis said. “No individual council members should be acting on their own accord without authorization from the council … any council member with questions, the proper action with any questions on the budget should be directed to the city manager.”

Evans, however, questioned why the issue was being posed during the council meeting in place of being asked in private or closed session.

“I was blindsided by this,” Evans said. “I could have answered the questions he posed but I was thrown off by him asking it to me during the meeting … I had some questions and wanted clarification about what I was looking at on the budget and he (Head) has always extended an invitation to the council for any questions.”

Evans added she felt it was an odd thing for the mayor to bring up and she hadn’t expected that the meeting, which had just been a drop-in according to her, would be an issue. During the meeting, Evans questioned why she was being asked.

“So you think I’m going to try and overthrow the government?” Evans asked. “Are you going to impeach me?”

There was no further open discussion on the incident.

Katelin Gandee can be reached at [email protected]. To support the Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/subscribe.