The story was published in The Sylva Herald, April 15 edition.
Jackson County leaders heard a presentation from the HERE Committee at the Board of Commissioners meeting on April 7, as the organization seeks continued funding while recovering from a recent financial controversy.
Cris Weatherford, HERE’s board chair, and Paul Phillips, interim director, shared an overview of the committee’s programs, its 2025 impact and its goals for 2026. Their presentation arises after reports that former HERE director Gretta Worley faces criminal charges for allegedly misusing more than $100,000 from the agency.
“While it has been a tough year and coming on the heels of what happened last week and our former director being next door, we’ve been working with that and dealing with that since last October. We’ve been through it with this whole process,” Weatherford said.
Worley’s alleged crime was centered around credit cards she used that funds from HERE paid off.
Weatherford said it took time and help from board members and former staff to work through the expenses and come up with an estimate.
“And again, it was a little bit at the time,” he said. “These things kind of get peppered into normal payments and when you have an organization that buys normal things, it’s really hard to determine at first what is a legitimate expense and what’s not.”
“She was very hostile, and I believe that she was that way, so you wouldn’t look deep enough,” Phillips said. “Now that we see what’s been going on, there was a lot that’s been covered.”
Weatherford said the organization is focused on accountability and moving forward.
“That person responsible for this is being held to account,” he said. “Her actions are not a reflection of this organization.”
Commissioner Todd Bryson asked if other HERE staffers were involved in Worley’s scheme.
“Not in the office,” Weatherford said. “There were a couple of brave staff members who stepped forward and said ‘Hey, we’re seeing some stuff that’s not quite right.’ As a board, we take that kind of thing seriously and started looking into things immediately.”
According to Weatherford, the financial discrepancies were not on the radar at the beginning of the investigation.
“It was the kind of workplace it was, the kind of treatment people were having,” Weatherford said.
Bryson asked how long Worley had allegedly been embezzling since she started there in 2022.
“For the past four years,” Weatherford said. “The state is not holding us liable for those particular funds.”
“We’ve been audited by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, we received a forensic audit that helped us determine what occurred and how it occurred,” Weatherford said. “As soon as we had the information we needed, we turned it over to law enforcement and they did their job.”
Phillips said staff were discouraged from communicating with one another, which made it difficult to identify concerns early on. He said employees later shared information, allowing them to piece the puzzle together.
“As staff we weren’t allowed to talk to each other, we couldn’t learn what my partner over here; who his clients were, what they were doing,” he said. “We started talking, and we learned what this person said and this person had a little bit and that person had a little bit.”
Phillips said it took months to verify the concerns, and that early claims were difficult to prove without documented evidence.
“Whenever we tried to find proof, because it’s just an allegation, it’s just person’s word, it took until about October before we was able to find some charts that was hidden in archive files,” he said. “We were able to find some information. We started finding receipts that this supposed boyfriend was a consultant that she was paying money to.”
The HERE Committee provides temporary emergency shelter, housing-focused case management and short-term financial assistance to residents at risk of homelessness. Weatherford said the organization remains focused on helping residents secure stable housing despite recent challenges.
The committee requested $220,000 in continued funding to support operations and expand services. They plan to put the money towards their new rebranding, hotel room services, new board members and other expenses that cover the services.
The request comes as the organization works to strengthen oversight, support staff and maintain core programs despite recent challenges.
