From Staff Reports

After conferring in closed session for 15 minutes, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to accept a settlement from former county manager Mandy Stone during an April 16 meeting.

The commissioners “agreed to end their civil suit against her in exchange for more than $171,000,” Asheville’s WLOS-TV News 13 reported on April 17. County leaders also accepted an $82,000 settlement with Guardian Life Insurance.

“According to court documents, Stone agreed to plead guilty to count 30 of a 32-count indictment. According to count 30, beginning in 2014 and continuing through June 30, 2018, Stone, along with former assistant county manager Jon Creighton, former county manager Wanda Greene and contractor Joe Wiseman, ‘used their official positions to enrich and benefit themselves, and, in doing so, they deprived Buncombe County citizens of their right to the honest services of the defendants.’”

In its story on the settlement, the Asheville Citizen Times reported that “Stone, the longtime employee who briefly served as Buncombe’s highest-appointed official, is the last of former staffers named in the county’s civil lawsuit to reach a settlement. 

“Joe Wiseman, the Georgia-based engineer who prosecutors said bribed the former county employees, along with his company, Environmental Infrastructure Consulting, are the remaining defendants,” the ACT noted.