Woodfin audit revised after local officials pushback; was 'misleading,' town officials say

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07-07-2025

WOODFIN - After the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor released a report stating the town of Woodfin violated a state statute governing ethics education, the auditor has revised the report and walked back several of its original assessments, including its claims the town broke the law.
A May 21 report released by the office investigated a tip that "alleged potential wrongdoing between the Town Manager and the business Equinox Environmental." Woodfin Town Manager Shannon Tuch is married to the president of Equinox Environmental. Tuch was hired in March 2022, after the town entered initial contracts with the firm for work on Riverside and Silver-Line parks, which were the primary according to contracts provided by the auditor's office.
At the time of her hiring, she verbally disclosed the conflict of interest to all town council members, Mayor Jim McAllister told the Citizen Times June 13. The discussion to manage the conflict of interest is also documented in Woodfin Board of Commissioners meeting minutes before Tuch took the role, at which time the commission decided contracts with the company would be handled by a consultant, former Town Manager Eric Hardy.
Despite this information being public the auditor's report was jarring, town officials said.
In the original report, the auditor's office outlined seven contracts signed between Equinox Environmental, a landscape architecture firm, and the town of Woodfin from 2021-2025 for development and maintenance of Riverside and Silver-Line parks but said there was "no formal documentation of notification or public discussion" of the conflict of interest. Most of the contracts were signed as part of Woodfin's Greenway Blueway project, which includes the much-anticipated Taylor's Wave project.
The auditor's office also claimed the town lacked a "formal Ethics Education program," which would put it in violation of a state statute requiring that public officials go to ethics education classes each year.
But Woodfin officials said the initial auditor's report misrepresented the town's contracts with the firm and its ethics procedures. Both were readily available, but not reflected in the initial report, they told the Citizen Times.
In a letter to the auditor's office, Woodfin town attorney John Henning wrote the report was "misleading" for omitting that the auditor's office found no wrongdoing between the town and business and that it neglected to acknowledge steps taken by town officials to prevent an actual conflict of interest, including hiring Hardy.
By not stating that no wrongdoing was found in the report, it essentially misled those who read it, he argued in the June 18 letter.
"Based upon reactions received anecdotally and online, readers of the Report are not making this leap, and have instead made comments supposing the Town to be somehow corrupt, citing the Report as evidence. This is patently unfair to the Town and the citizens it serves," Henning wrote in the letter obtained by the Citizen Times.
Systems were already in place for both, town officials said.
Contracts were overseen by former town manager Hardy, who was hired as a consultant, McAllister told the Citizen Times. Most contracts were signed by Hardy or prior administrators, not Tuch, according to copies of the contracts provided to the Citizen Times. Only one, which was approved by the Town Council, received Tuch's signature.
"Nothing came to Shannon (Tuch) before it went to Eric (Hardy) and had been talked about with the attorney as necessary," McAllister told the Citizen Times. "We thought we had found a good solution for it."
Additionally, the town already sends publicly elected officials to an ethics education program through the University of North Carolina School of Government. The letter provides certificates of completion for all town council members as verification of participation in order to comply with North Carolina General Statutes.
After Woodfin's town attorney sent the letter, the auditor's office offered a revised version of the report on June 23.
Though the report was revised, on June 16, Woodfin Town Council passed extra measures that all Woodfin town council members, employees and contractors would have to formally notify town administration in writing after the potential conflict is identified. It follows one of the transparency-related recommendations in the original report. The report's impacts have been felt in other areas, too.
The report had led to a delay in Woodfin's admission to the State Mission Assigned Recovery Task Force, or SMART, Program, Tuch said. The program was launched in response to Tropical Storm Helene. Since then, it's gotten "back on track" but it is the "kind of thing that happens when people rush to judgment," she told the Citizen Times.
Equinox and Woodfin signed contracts worth $796,492, according to the auditor's office, including one contract for $447,538 for the design of Riverside Park. Tuch took the manager position a year after that contract was signed by then-Woodfin Mayor Jerry VeHaun.
When contacted by the Citizen Times, the auditor's office spokesperson Randy Brechbiel said the revision was necessary "in light of additional information received from the Town."
"OSA made no findings with respect to the contractual agreements at issue, and it appears the Town took sufficient steps to address the conflict of interest," the revised report states.
Tuch said the problem was not with being reviewed, it was the matter in which it was published. It needed more time, she argued.
"It'd just be good if people would pause long enough to make sure that they're being fair and appropriate and thorough in the work that they're doing," Tuch told the Citizen Times.
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Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at [e-mail] or message will_hofmann.01 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: NC Auditor Woodfin report revised after officials call it 'misleading'