The mayor of Mooresville, North Carolina, has refused to resign despite suffering a 4-2 “no confidence” vote over an incident in which he was caught on video roaming the town hall without pants in the company of a female staffer.
Republican Chris Carney was defiant after the Mooresville Board of Commissioners heard a presentation Monday alleging he had violated its code of ethics and ultimately found against him.
“You’ve got to remember, this was in 2024,” he said. “It’s been so long ago, and obviously, as I tell people, I was fighting through a lot of stuff at the time.
“At the end of the day, each person is just trying to survive on their own political merit. I know this has been a lot, and although we keep saying let’s let the truth come out in the lawsuits, they’ve had to answer some questions. I’m sure they’re tired of it.”
The events that brought Carney to his present embarrassment took place on October 10 2024, when he pitched up at the town hall after midnight with a woman he had hired as a communications consultant at taxpayers’ expense, according to WBTV.
When the duo accidentally set off motion detectors twice, local police officers arrived to investigate the disturbance.
The network subsequently asked Carney precisely what had taken place, which he answered by blaming a mixture of alcohol and anxiety medication for his wayward decision-making, explaining that he had been taken ill after dining with colleagues at a local restaurant and that the woman involved had been assisting him.
WBTV subsequently attempted to acquire the surveillance footage from that night, but its request was rebuffed, prompting it to sue for access in June 2025.
Then, this January, former town hall IT employee Jeff Noble revived the story by launching his own lawsuit, alleging that he had been retaliated against for his handling of the video, which he said revealed Carney walking around without his pants.
“You can see the mayor on at least a couple of different occasions, without wearing pants, which is a very big issue. That’s unethical,” Noble said, later amending his initial complaint to include the allegation that Carney’s female companion was also partially undressed.
A third lawsuit was launched last month, this time by ex-IT director Chris Lee, who accused his former town hall employers of pressuring him to delete or suppress the video.
Lee said the couple could be seen entering Carney’s office for an extended period. “And then after midnight again, you see back and forth to the bathroom a couple times, and then eventually you know, I did see him come out – and there was no clothing whatsoever on there. And you can very directly see that,” he said.
Lee further claimed that Carney was visibly in a state of arousal at one stage and said the mayor’s version of events “does not line up at all.”
At Monday’s meeting, calls for the official to resign were met with applause from residents. Before recusing himself, Carney acknowledged that the incident had shown him in a poor light and apologized for its impact on the community.
“The conduct and the choices made by the mayor that particular evening were not in keeping with the expected conduct of the mayor’s office,” said Commissioner Gary West.
“I am concerned that public confidence in the board and the mayor is not high right now,” Commissioner Dana Tucker added.
“There is a perception that the fabric of trust has not just been torn, but it is shredded and tattered. That is the problem we wrestle with.”
Carney still has 19 months of his term to serve and cannot be disqualified or recalled because of the censure, but Tucker said the board could yet force him out.
Before his brush with infamy, Carney served in the U.S. Navy from 1991 to 1999, was first elected to the town commission in 2005, and appointed mayor pro tem in 2009, according to The Charlotte Observer.
From 2011 to 2013, he served as his state’s senator after incumbent James Forrester died in office, and later returned to local politics by running for mayor in 2023.
Carney has said he does not plan to fight for re-election but is proud of his legislative legacy.
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