RALEIGH — The “People’s House,” otherwise known as the North Carolina Executive Mansion where Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper resides, has seen over $4.5 million spent on renovations and repairs since he took office. Yet the people of North Carolina still do not know how that mounting figure has been spent.
The skyrocketing dollar tag has received little attention beyond North State Journal’s reporting, a vast change from the media attention former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory received for requesting $230,000 in renovations of six bathrooms in the mansion that had not had work done on them since the early 1970s.
The bathrooms never did get their refurbishment, as McCory dropped the request in October 2013. It is not known if those bathroom repairs and refurbishments are now part of the over $4.5 million spent under Cooper due to the Department of Administration refusing to turn over a list of repairs.
North State Journal began reporting on repair information on the Executive Mansion in 2020, however, the investigation began in 2018.
A records request for repairs for the Executive Mansion in Raleigh was sent to the N.C. Department of Administration (NCDOA) in 2018 but it would be over two years before Cooper’s NCDOA would fill that request. The response was finally received in late 2020, after 820 days, after dozens of follow-up requests and email exchanges. The cost ascertained at that time was over $2.1 million.
By September 2022, the cost had risen to over $2.5 million, however, an April 2022 memo issued by the Office of State Budget and Management listed repairs of $3.263 million labeled as “Executive Residence Foundation, Envelope, and System Renovation.” The governor’s retreat and residence in the western part of the state also was cited in the memo as needing site structure renovations costing $512,000.
Documents received by North State Journal in early 2023 put the new total at over $4.1 million. Another $1.645 million was announced that summer for a new round of repairs in a contract awarded to CT Wilson Construction Company, bringing the new total to over $4.5 million.
A Feb. 8, 2023, “Project Funding and Costs” document obtained by North State Journal showed two North Carolina taxpayer-funded sources for the money; $1.239 million from the Renovations and Repairs (R&R) General Fund and $3.326 million from the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF).
Throughout North State Journal’s pursuit of the repair costs to the Executive Mansion, the NCDOA has refused to furnish a list of repairs or a list of contractors conducting the work. This is, again, a vast change from the DOA’s actions under the McCrory administration which turned over such information to media outlets when bathroom repairs were requested.
The requests for details of the repairs were denied by two separate directors of communications for NCDOA. Both officials denied the repair details to North State Journal claiming “security concerns,” yet the NCDOA failed to respond when asked for a copy of a policy, email, or memo that supported its denial of our records request.
