The Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C., published a story on its website early June 8 focusing on potential fallout from the federal plea deal received by former Cherryville, N.C., official Bonny Alexander.
Cherryville’s former finance director stole hundreds of thousands of dollars while working for the city, but that won’t mean taxpayers will stop footing the bill for her health insurance.
Her guilty plea in federal court also does not mean an end to Bonny Alexander’s pension from the city.
That’s not the only scandal faced by the city’s government in recent years, as this Charlotte Observer story from late last year outlined. The problem with Saturday’s story? The City Council had already dealt with the issue earlier this year. This revelation led to the following text replacing the early morning post:
A story was published on GastonGazette.com earlier Saturday concerning the city of Cherryville and how it has dealt with health insurance payments for a former city employee that pleaded guilty to embezzling from the town.
There [were] errors in that story and it has since been taken down from our website.
City Council took a vote in February so that the town would no longer have to pay the former employee’s health insurance, according to City Manager Ben Blackburn.
We apologize for the error.
