Town's Mayor Urged To Resign After Being Caught On Camera Without Pants On During Late Night Town Hall Visit
A quiet night at a town hall without pants turned into a major issue for a North Carolina mayor.
Is getting caught on camera inside town hall after hours without pants on really a reason to call for a mayor to resign? Isn't hanging out during a late night partially clothed in a government building a perk of being mayor?
It's not if you're the mayor of Mooresvile, North Carolina. Members of Mooresville’s Board of Commissioners want the mayor to resign over an October 2024 incident that has resulted in several lawsuits.
Mayor Chris Carney received a vote of no confidence on Monday night as the board voted to adopt a resolution that formally requests that he resign. There's been more than a year of drama surrounding the town hall incident.
Police found the mayor at town hall at 4 am. He was, according to WBTV, there with a woman receiving taxpayer money as a town communications consultant.
The lawsuits were filed by former employees who allege they were retaliated against after expressing concerns about the incident. They claim that the mayor was caught on security cameras without pants on and that he was acting unethically.
Mayor Apologizes For "Poor Judgment," Board Asks For His Resignation
The surveillance video from the incident has not been released and members of the board haven't seen it. Mayor Carney has apologized for using poor judgment.
"I could not apologize more or feel worse," Carney said of the incident, according to FOX 8.
"The evening that we talk about, I practiced poor judgment and poor judgment in the fact of in 2024 I didn’t think anything about the fact of walking in here and coming back to get my phone and having a person with me who I’ve known a very long time, but who’s a member of the opposite sex. I know on paper that raises questions."
Raise those questions on paper all you want. The surveillance video can't come out because town leaders say it's "not considered public record."
In other words, let's not open that can of worms. Who knows who else may or may not have paid a visit to town hall after hours and wandered around without any pants on?
Which, this is news to me, doesn’t appear to be a perk of being the mayor or a town leader for that matter.