After initially being split, Cary town leaders hope to preserve more than $1 million worth of property purchased by the previous town manager.
According to the State Auditor's Office, former town manager Sean Stegall bought two parcels of land at 600 and 604 Kildaire Farm Road without the knowledge of town council members. The land is located near Cary Elementary School.
Other WRAL Top Stories
While Mayor Harold Weinbrecht initially wanted to sell the properties after a more than an hour-long discussion Tuesday night, the town council decided to assign its staff to come back with a plan to permanently preserve the properties.
The state auditor's report says Stegall split the purchase into two parcels to stay below a $1 million spending limit that would require town council approval. The two parcels also had different owners, according to the state auditor.
Auditors say a lack of controls led to the land's eventual purchase.
The purchases were part of what the State Auditor, Dave Boliek, called a "culture of extravagant spending" that Stegall enabled. Boliek said Stegall and other town employees made more than a dozen “questionable” expenses — ranging from expensive dinners with no apparent business purpose, unauthorized land purchases and graduate-school tuition for a councilwoman.
And it highlighted other expenditures, such as $800-per-month car stipends and $1,600 worth of Ray-Ban sunglasses for council members, $121,314 for video production at a 2024 retreat in Wilmington, and thousands of dollars in hotel cancellation fees.
Stegall resigned in 2025 after the State Auditor's Office began questioning town staff members.
Some town council members leaned towards preserving the properties after hearing claims that Cary's first African-American church might've once stood tall in the wooded area.
"Selling it feels more like two wrongs don't make a right," said town councilwoman Brittany Richards. " We don't need to relitigate how we came to acquire the property. We know it did not happen through the process we wanted it to happen through."
Richards said that while the land was bought by Stegall, the town now owns it, and much of the role now is to come to a consensus on how the land is used.
"If we're doing our job well, hopefully we're shaping that land use for some community good," Richards said.
A timeline for when those plans are due, has not been announced yet.