RFP Staff
♦ As a result of a public records request, Rowan Free Press discovered that City of Salisbury Finance Director Wade Furches requested free tickets to a banquet at the beach for his family from a city vendor that he has influence over. The earlier story was published by Rowan Free Press and includes images of the emails he sent to audit vendor Martin and Starnes requesting the free tickets. Martin and Starnes contract with the city is in excess of $30,000 per year for audit services. Furches requested tickets with a value of $120. Martin and Starnes agreed to provide him with three tickets for the beach banquet.
Page 50 of the City of Salisbury Employee Handbook outlines Rules of Conduct for city employees. An image of that page is below. A listed example of misconduct that will cause discipline up to and including dismissal is “acceptance of gifts in exchange for favors or influence.” As the Finance Director, Furches plays a role in developing and administering the annual auditing contract. He also has influence on whether Martin and Starnes continues to be the city auditor. He has the ability to push for a change in the auditing firm. As the city’s Finance Director, such a push would likely be successful. Martin and Starnes was put in a tough spot by his request. We at Rowan Free Press feel Furches’ action was additionally egregious in the fact that he did more than accept a gift as outlined in the employee handbook, but he solicited the gift and then pushed for it when he did not get a timely response from the vendor.
State law (G.S. 133-32) prohibits employees who are involved in developing, approving, or administering contracts from receiving anything of value from vendors who currently contract with a city, have had a contract within the past year, or anticipate biding on a contract in the future. At the time of the Furches request, Martin and Starnes had been contracted with to provide the prior year audit, current year audit, and received the audit contract for the following year after the tickets were given. Violation of this law is a misdemeanor for both the giver and recipient. A summary of this statute below:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_133/GS_133-32.html
We at Rowan Free Press feel that Furches’ action was a significant ethical breach, violation of the employee handbook, and potential violation of the state law. We call on him to resign and for the city to refer the matter to the SBI for investigation.
