The State Bureau of Investigations has served Martin County government with a search warrant for personnel records.
A group of residents and two county commissioners sued Ronnie Smith, Dempsey Bond and Emily Biggs over the hiring and pay raises for County Manger James Bennett, and the lawsuit alleges several violations of the North Carolina Open Meetings Laws, and the Public Records Law.
The suit seeks to reverse the results of meetings or approvals by commissioners concerning the hiring and salary increases for Bennett.
Bennett, who has since retired, was given seven pay raises in the two and a half years he worked for the county, and when he retired he was making more than $186,000 a year. Commissioners Joe Ayers and Skip Gurganus said they were unaware of four of those raises.
Interim County Manager Ben Eisner said the county is cooperating with producing the requested information and will continue to comply with all requests.
