Auditing the NC auditor: settlements cost taxpayers and harm effectiveness | Opinion

As a Republican candidate for state auditor in 2024, Dave Boliek appeared on the PBS public affairs show “State Lines” and described his plans to transform the auditor’s office into a more proactive, wide-ranging agency.

Host Kelly McCullen noted that, if elected, Boliek would inherit a staff consisting mostly of career state employees who are protected by state personnel laws from being removed from their jobs without just cause. He asked, “So how do you get the ‘Boliek culture’ in that office with the limitations placed on you by the state?”

Boliek didn’t say how he would deal with the limitations, but once elected he worked around them. He converted a dozen protected employees to exempt, or at-will, and then terminated their positions.

When the employees objected or filed lawsuits, the office agreed to cash settlements. The cost, including attorney fees, totaled $747,000, according to Boliek. That amount is larger than the $630,355 total of settlements across all state agencies and universities the year before Boliek took office.

Randy Brechbiel, the auditor’s office spokesman, said settlements with employees are common in state government. “They happen every year, and in some cases at much higher costs than what’s been recorded by OSA (Office of State Auditor),” he said.

Settlements in employment disputes are common, but stripping career employees of their protected status and then eliminating their jobs is unusual.

Boliek was sensitive enough about the situation that he took time to announce the settlements in a video posted on social media in January of this year. He said the settlements were related to “shifts in staffing” and represented “less than 2 percent” of his office’s expenses. He noted that the Office of State Human Resources had approved the settlements.

“We have a change in vision, and we shifted staff to move forward,” Boliek told me.

But the cost of these settlements is not limited to dollars. There’s also a toll on the image and effectiveness of the auditor’s office.

An agency that monitors others for compliance with policies and procedures shouldn’t circumvent personnel laws simply because the new auditor feels entitled to his own team.

More importantly, stripping job protections affects the entire staff. Former state Auditor Beth Wood preferred that almost all her employees be protected so they would feel free to raise objections. Boliek’s approach effectively cows his staff. It’s a risk to disagree with the boss or his top managers. That’s not the culture you want in an auditor’s office, especially one that thus far has been seen as a bit partisan.

“They’re supposed to be watchdogs, but this gives them less incentive. You’re not going to dig in hard if you think your job is on the line,” said Ardis Watkins, head of the State Employees Association of North Carolina. “I definitely think it would have a chilling effect to see people being changed over to exempt and then shuttled out of there.”

The auditor’s office is more active under Boliek, whose expanded role now includes appointing members of the State Board of Elections and running the new Division of Accountability, Value and Efficiency. The office is issuing rapid response reports, examining local governments and has issued performance audits on the operations of the North Carolina Education Lottery and the Division of Motor Vehicles.

But the auditor’s reports have also drawn criticism from the governor’s office and his administration and two municipalities for lack of context, inaccuracies and failure to allow for a full response. Some of those complaints may have been avoided if staff members felt they could safely point out flaws in a report’s content or approach.

That is, after all, what auditors are supposed to do.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com

This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 4:30 AM with the headline "Auditing the NC auditor: settlements cost taxpayers and harm effectiveness | Opinion."