State auditor, Rocky Mount councilman battle on TV talkshow

State Auditor Beth Wood and Rocky Mount City Councilman Andre Knight are engaged in a war of words over a 2020 audit that accused Knight of using his position to have the city write off more than $47,000 of his utility bills.

Both appeared on a Rocky Mount call-in TV show this week to voice their side of the argument over the contentious audit report.

“It’s a lie,” Knight said. “Everything she put in that report was not true.”

For over a year, the Rocky Mount community has been divided over the results of an audit released in May 2020 that found, among other things, that Knight avoided paying more than $47,000 in utility bills from 1999 to 2013.

On Monday, Knight called into "The Morning Show" on WHIG-TV in Rocky Mount to attack the audit, claiming it didn’t provide proof of any findings and also implying that the auditor could have been racially biased against him.

“Look how many people have been incarcerated on lies that district attorneys told on people, especially people of color, and they had to serve 20 to 30 years,” Knight said. “I’m asking her to prove what she put in her report.”

On Wednesday, Wood did just that, going on the same talk show to stand by her report.

“This whole thing about, 'It can’t be. They don’t have the proof,' is irrational,” Wood said, “because the proof exists, and it’s sitting at the City of Rocky Mount.”

Wood said she and her team had copies of emails from two previous Rocky Mount city managers telling the city’s business office not to pursue payment from Knight and that there were 234 notes about utility bill payment issues on Knight’s account.

“There are detailed listings of delinquent interest, penalties, that all go with this $47,000,” Wood said.

Knight didn't respond to WRAL News' requests to provide proof that he paid the $47,704 in utility bills that he is accused of deferring.

Mayor Sandy Roberson told WRAL News that, when the audit came out last year, he asked Knight to pay the money back and to step down from the City Council, but Knight refused.

Rocky Mount officials said they legally can’t order Knight to pay back the money because there was a statute of limitations of five years on recouping it, and the last deferred bill was from 2013.

But Wood said help could be on the way in the form of Senate Bill 473, which would allow cities to garnish the compensation of officials who owe money and make it a felony for elected officials to financially benefit from their positions. The bill passed the Senate last month and is pending in the House.

“Senate Bill 473 is not about the City of Rocky Mount,” she said. “It is about cities all across our state whose elected officials are taking advantage of their position.”