CHARLOTTE — There’s no corruption in the Charlotte City Council. That’s the verdict from a third-party investigation, which was sparked by a Channel 9 investigation earlier this year exposing a secret settlement between the city council and the police chief.
After that, Councilmember Victoria Watlington, D-At Large, sent an email about corruption concerns.
Channel 9’s Joe Bruno investigated every development and has the latest report.
The news isn’t particularly surprising considering Watlington has been clear that her email was not alleging financial corruption. However, the city said the investigation was needed to make it clear to airport bond investors that the city is conducting business properly.
“There was no unethical, immoral or illegal activities occurring within our city’s government,” Mayor Vi Lyles, D-Charlotte, announced Tuesday afternoon.
Lyles repeated the finding twice. Independent attorneys from Cranfill Sumner concluded, “We found no evidence of illegal, immoral or unethical conduct.”
“These egregious allegations hurt our team, and we owe it to them to investigate,” Lyles said.
New: Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and some members of Charlotte City Council will hold a press conference today at 1:30 to unveil the results of the third party investigation into Councilmember Victoria Watlington's "corruption" comments.
— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) October 14, 2025
The investigation was launched after the email sent by Watlington entitled “Power Corrupts” and saying she was concerned about “unethical, immoral and frankly illegal activities occurring within city government.”
Channel 9 had just broken the news that the Charlotte City Council secretly settled a potential lawsuit from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Johnny Jennings. He claimed former Councilman Tariq Bokhari created a hostile work environment during the debate over outer carrier vests.
Within a day of her statement, Watlington made it clear she was not alleging financial corruption. She said she doesn’t regret sending it.
“I absolutely stand by what I said,” Watlington said. “I also acknowledge that what was interpreted from what I said was different than what I intended.”
The independent attorneys interviewed Watlington and all members of city council about her claims. They found no evidence the chief settlement was handled in an improper manner.
However, they did write that the issue “appears to stem primarily from procedural and communication challenges.”
Watlington accepted the report’s findings but said she wishes more information was provided on how the attorneys reached these conclusions.
“I would have liked an analysis included in the report to really understand, because each of us are our own people, and we have our own interpretation, our own moral standard, our own what we consider unethical, our own interpretation of what’s in the statutes and what is in our own ethics policy,” Watlington said.
When it comes to disclosing Chief Jennings’ allegations to council, the report said that the interim city attorney conducted a risk assessment and weighed the sensitivity of the situation since it was viewed as a personnel issue.
The mayor hurried out after reading the statement and did not take questions.
The Charlotte City Council budgeted $25,000 for the investigation.
>>Click here for the full report.
VIDEO: Charlotte City Council hires outside counsel to investigate corruption allegations
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
