To The Honorable Members of the North Carolina Senate, North Carolina House of Representatives, the NC General Assembly, the Citizens of Rocky Mount, and the Rocky Mount City Council.

Rocky Mount is at a critical crossroads. Following severe state audits exposed in 2026, our city's cash reserves plummeted by 78% due to unchecked overspending and a total failure of administrative oversight.

Now, there is a dangerous push by outside groups to strip Rocky Mount of its historic Ward-Based Voting System and replace it with an at-large system. 

We cannot let this happen. Eliminating our 7 wards will completely dilute minority voting power, silence historic neighborhoods, and allow a single political elite block to sweep every seat on the council. Changing how we vote is a political overreaction to an administrative failure.

We do not need to destroy our neighborhoods to fix City Hall. By signing this petition, you are demanding a Structural Charter Compromise.

We will keep our 7 geographic ward seats completely intact, but we will legally rewrite the City Charter to strip the City Manager of unchecked power and hold council members legally accountable as citywide fiduciaries.

Our 5-Point Plan for Accountability While Protecting Our Wards:

1. Strip Unilateral Executive Power: Rewrite the City Charter to strip the City Manager of solo hiring authority. Mandatory City Council confirmation votes must be required for key positions like the Finance Director, Police Chief, and Utilities Director. This ensures no manager can ignore or neglect specific neighborhoods without facing a block from those wards' representatives.

2. Automated Spending "Circuit Breakers": Lower the manager's independent spending cap to $50,000. If the city's unassigned cash reserves drop by 5% or more in a single quarter, an automatic freeze on all non-essential spending is instantly triggered by law.

3. Independent "Dual-Line" Auditor: Move the Internal Auditor out from under the City Manager's thumb. The auditor will report directly to the full City Council and an independent panel of resident CPAs. All financial alerts must be sent simultaneously to all 7 ward representatives and a public open-data portal so nothing can ever be hidden again.

4. The Innovation: A Two-Phase Citywide Recall: Address the core complaint of at-large proponents. If a council member in any ward mismanages city funds, a citywide petition (requiring signatures from 15% of voters citywide, including at least 10% from each of the 7 wards) can trigger a recall. The final removal vote will be opened to 100% of the city's voters. Because they vote on citywide taxes, the whole city has a right to fire them—but the ward map remains untouched.

5. Close the Residency Loophole: Use the framework of NCGS § 163-85 to mandate strict residency audits and file formal Voter Registration Challenges against any politician trying to use sham addresses or nominal "$1 room rentals" to run in a ward they do not actually live in. The Real-World Precedent:

If opponents argue this cannot be done in North Carolina, look at Section 2.16 of the Raleigh City Charter. NC courts have repeatedly upheld that if a local charter specifies a citywide vote for a municipal recall, that charter dictates the law for that city.

This hybrid approach gives every voter in the city the power to fire an irresponsible council member who mismanages our money, satisfying the need for citywide accountability. 

At the same time, it keeps our 7-ward boundaries completely intact, ensuring that newly elected replacements must still genuinely live in and represent their specific geographic neighborhoods.

Sign this petition today to protect our community's voice, enforce absolute financial transparency, and demand that the City Council enact these charter safeguards!