Charlotte city government had been humming along quietly for a while, avoiding any major controversy. But WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says that when things changed, they changed in a hurry.
Up until recently, the Charlotte City Council was the perfect government body, meaning that you rarely had to pay them any attention.
At least from the outside, it appeared as if city officials were just doing their jobs and sidestepping any drama, allowing those of us who live here to think about other things. That’s a valuable service! I don’t want to think about the government every day. Lord knows there is enough government in our collective headspace as it is.
Turns out the quiet was too good to last.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced that they have indicted City Council member Tiawana Brown on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The indictments say she and her daughters submitted false applications for COVID-era business loans and received more than $124,000 in return, which they then spent on personal expenses – including $15,000 for Brown’s birthday party, which included a horse-drawn carriage and a rented throne.
The charges date back to 2020, before Brown’s election to City Council in 2022. She won her seat despite having served time in federal prison on different fraud charges in the 1990s. She became the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the council, much as our current president became the first convicted felon elected to the White House. Who says America doesn’t believe in second chances?
Brown has denied the charges and says she has paid back her share of the loans. She and her daughters pleaded not guilty in court on Friday. Brown also says she’s not stepping down from the council. Which means she’s got a bunch of other muck to wade through.
That involves the reported $300,000 settlement the city paid to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings, seemingly because he had felt threatened by then-council member Tariq Bokhari, who — circle of life alert — has moved on to the Trump administration.
State Auditor David Boliek sent the city a letter saying he would investigate the settlement. The city has not only not made the terms public, but interim City Attorney Anthony Fox has opined that it would be a crime to even publicly discuss the settlement.
Let’s recap: The city is now under investigation by the state to see whether its six-figure payout to the police chief is legit, while at the same time, a council member is being accused by the feds of scamming taxpayers out of COVID relief money.
And we didn’t even get into the contest to replace Tariq Bokhari, which ended up with Mayor Vi Lyles casting a tie-breaker to choose Edwin Peacock — and to pointedly not choose Bokhari’s wife, Krista.
That is quite enough news for a while, City Council. Slow down. Let your citizens catch up. Not to mention the legal system.
And it might be good to remember something from Tiawana Brown’s birthday party. Those thrones are rented. They don’t belong to you.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
