Brittany McLaurin, finance director for Hope Mills, made it clear from the outset.
On September 2, the state’s Local Government Commission (LGC) notified the town it was added to a monitoring list for local governments that may need additional financial oversight or support. Putting Hope Mills on the Unit Assistance List (UAL) is the latest step in a months-long saga over the town’s troubled finances.
“Placement on the UAL list should not be interpreted as a state takeover of the town of Hope Mills finances,” McLaurin said Monday during a board of commissioners meeting. “That is not what that means.”
It means, McLaurin said, that the financially troubled town is getting help from the state going forward.
“The LGC specifically states that this is a monitoring process not intended to be punitive to the town,” she said. “Its purpose is to provide routine assistance to the town and its governing board as we work together to improve our financial condition, strengthen our fiscal practices and ultimately achieve removal from the UAL list.”
But it does come in the wake of a State Auditor’s report in April that the town mismanaged finances with a lack of transparency on the part of town officials and commissioners.
“The people of Hope Mills,” State Auditor Dave Boliek told CityView in May, “deserve peace of mind knowing that their town is being managed effectively and with proper care.”
The 66‑page state audit said the town overspent its savings, relied on mid‑year budget amendments to keep departments afloat, and nearly adopted a tax cut that would have accelerated its financial decline.
In fiscal year 2025, which ended June 20, 2025, the town spent $1.7 million from reserves, according to CityView reporting about the audit. It was triple the usual amount and $1.2 million more than budgeted. That overspending caused a $1.55 million loss in the town’s fund balance, the first loss in five years.
While Mayor Jessie Bellflowers later acknowledged the audit findings that the town had depleted its funds from the general reserves for emergency funding, he said it was not done with “malice,” but he did acknowledge “mismanagement.”
“It wasn’t like we went in there to drain the town reserves,” he said.
Spending, Bellflowers said, was a matter of public safety decisions, including funding for school resource officers, purchasing police vehicles, and a server for police data operations.
The town’s longtime finance manager, Drew Holland, retired in March. After Boliek’s office released its audit, commissioners voted 3-2 on June 22 against renewing the contract of Town Manager Chancer McLaughlin when it ends in March.
McLaurin said Monday the town has implemented measures to strengthen fiscal controls and improve financial disciplines and oversights.
“These are not short-term measures or solely just in response to the UAL designation,” she said. “They’re part of our broader effort to improve the town’s finances as the town has recognized that strengthening its financial condition will take time. Our goal is not simply to satisfy this monitoring requirement but to address any underlying financial and operation conditions that contributed to the town’s placement on the UAL.”
McLaurin said the town was notified about being placed on the UAL on September 2, and that she, Bellflowers, Mayor Pro Tem Hope Page, McLaughlin, and Commissioner Lisa Tremmel conferred Monday with an LGC representative.
“Under the monitoring requirements provided by the LGC, the town will participate in a combination of in-person and virtual visits from the LGC team, and we will receive assistance with developing financial planning documents,” McLaurin said. “The monitoring process would include periodic budget to actual reporting, submission of our 2028 budget and draft documents and fiscal training not only for staff but also the governing board, the town manager, and I will work directly with the LGC team through this process.”
In the notification to the town from Kendra Boyle, director of the Fiscal Management Section for the State and Local Government Finance Division in the State Treasurer’s office, the correspondence said governments on the watchlist must:
• Obtain LGC approval of financing contracts for the purchase, lease, or lease with an option to purchase motor vehicles where the contract amount equals or exceeds $50,000.
• Obtain LGC approval of financing contracts relating to the lease, acquisition, or construction of capital assets, with terms that exceed 3 years and $50,000 (and meet other criteria).
Additionally, the town manager must complete a minimum of six hours of education about fiscal management, budgeting, and debt issuance..
McLaurin said town commissioners will receive updates regarding the town’s process and any LGC recommendations.
“Our overall objective is to work collectively with the LGC, town management, the board and our departments,” McLaurin said, “to ensure that the town is initially removed from the UAL list placement.”
‘We Want Their Help’
Bellflowers said that while the town never has been monitored by the Local Government Commission, he welcomes it.
“And that’s OK,” Bellflowers said Monday. “It is because it’s additional resources if this is an educational opportunity for us.”
He said the town did not immediately notify residents of the UAL because it was waiting to meet Monday with a UAL team coach.
“I welcome them. I thank them in advance for the resources that they are going to provide us over the coming months,” Bellflowers said. They’re here to help us. That’s why we’re on the list. They are here to help us, and we want their help. We need their help, so we’re going to have a series of meetings over the next bunch of months until our financial health is at a position where we can be removed from the list.
“We’re going to use it, and we have a solid team in place to engage and strengthen our budget process,” he said. “We have already instituted a number of internal control measures. Policies procedures, oversight … we’ve already put that in place. Brittany knows this. She’s been the guiding factor through the five months of her tenure that she’s been here to navigate this process right on the heels of the state auditor report, which was very comprehensive that was the road map.”
Bellflowers said the work includes a review of the past financial management of the town and where it goes from this point.
“That is the important direction and the vision that we will take going forward to strengthen our financial position and not to return to the list,” he said.
Bellflowers said he is taking the town’s UAL placement seriously.
“We’re unified as a board to address and make changes where need be and accept the educational resources.”
‘Quality Control’
What you found Monday were commissioners looking ahead to bringing Hope Mills back to financial stability with assistance from the state.
“If you go into it with an attitude of we have a hammer over our head now and this was a bad thing that we did, it was the wrong attitude,” said Tremmel, a retired banker elected to the board in November. “This is educational to pull us out of the problem that we’ve had for years. This isn’t something that we stepped into. This was going on long before we got here. Trust me, we don’t want the state to walk in here. We heard about what happens when they do, and it’s not pretty.”
Commissioner Grilley Mitchell said the LOC’s presence is a matter of “quality control.”
“You welcome quality control because they help you stay out of trouble,” he said. “It identifies the mistakes that you could make and helps you prevent from making those mistakes. We asked Brittany when she came on board, ‘What do we need to do to get financially healthy,’ and this right here is a tool that’s gonna help us get there. So, I welcome the opportunity for somebody from the outside in identifying where we have made our mistakes in the past to put us back on the road so that we can get to what we need to be so we can get back to doing the people’s business.”
First term Commissioner Cynthia Hamilton said that McLaurin has been an essential voice in leading the town board about financial decisions.
“Mrs. McLaurin is really digging into everything,” she said. “If she hadn’t or wouldn’t have done this, I don’t know where we would be right now. We would really, I think, seriously be in a lot of trouble.”
Page said what’s done in the dark always comes to light.
“I’m looking forward to the growth and the health and the healing for the town and the future,” the first term commissioner said. “As the mayor said, this is not planning for now. This is planning for the future.”
Commissioner Bryan Marley did not attend Monday’s meeting.
Epilogue
Lisa Tremmel certainly said it well when saying Hope Mills does not want the state to take control of town finances.
It’s what happened to Spring Lake in 2021 after years of mismanagement, budget deficits and embezzlement involving a finance director. Spring Lake didn’t regain control of its finances until the summer of 2024.
Now, Hope Mills has an opportunity to avoid Spring Lake’s fate.
Jessie Bellfowers, Hope Page, Bryan Marley, Grilley Mitchell, Cynthia Hamilton and Lisa Tremmel hopefully will need to heed the words of the state auditor in digging out of the town’s financial quagmire that has left some town residents angry, frustrated, and bewildered.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
