One of Buncombe County’s top elected officials, Commissioner Jennifer Horton, has filed a lawsuit against the government she helps lead.
At the end of their regular meeting Tuesday night, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners moved to consult privately with an attorney about Horton’s action. Horton recused herself from that closed session, citing her conflict of interest.
Horton filed the suit Feb. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. It alleges that, after she was elected to the board, the county illegally suspended funding for five adult care homes she had been operating through her business, Living Waters Enterprises.
North Carolina law forbids counties from providing “special assistance” payments — state funds, administered by counties, meant to cover room and board for residents of care homes — to facilities that are owned or operated by government officials with potential conflicts of interest, including county commissioners. As previously reported by Asheville Watchdog, Buncombe County Health and Human Services staffers ceased those payments after Horton took office in December 2024.
Horton subsequently transferred ownership of the business to her father-in-law, Richard Horton. State Department of Health and Human Services staff, her lawsuit claims, then directed Buncombe County to reinstate the payments “with no break in coverage.” She argues that BCHHS staff proceeded to obstruct her case for months, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses.
The lawsuit contains a number of allegations against specific Buncombe elected officials and staff. For example, Horton said that Board Chair Amanda Edwards suggested Horton should resign so the fight over funding would “all go away.” Horton also alleges that Phillip Hardin, economic services director for BCHHS, called the state’s decision “blatantly wrong” in what she claims was “willful defiance of State authority and deliberate disregard of residents’ rights.”
Edwards declined to comment, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate” in light of the active legal matter. Buncombe County spokesperson Kassi Day did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Edwards told Asheville Watchdog in July that she “never had a discussion of that nature” with Horton about resigning. Hardin told the publication that North Carolina “had veered from policy and legal precedent” in dealing with Horton and that Buncombe “would not want to be responsible for any overpayments that could occur” as a result.
Horton is seeking unspecified monetary damages, “including but not limited to compensatory and punitive,” along with a formal declaration that the county’s actions violated both state and federal law. The case has been assigned to District Judge Max Cogburn and Magistrate Judge W. Carleton Metcalf, but no hearing dates have yet been set.
Other tidbits
- The board unanimously approved Buncombe’s participation in the state Commercial Property Assessed Capital Expenditure Program. As previously reported by BPR, C-PACE can provide lower-cost financing for green improvements such as solar panels and energy efficiency measures. Amy Kelly, whose Atlanta-based company, Hatteras Sky, owns Asheville hotels The Radical and Zelda Dearest, told commissioners that the program could help firms like hers rehab historic buildings and develop the community.
- Ryan Cole, Buncombe’s assistant director of emergency services, debriefed the board regarding the county’s response to the winter storm of Jan. 23-24. Buncombe opened three shelters with a total capacity of 240 people, well exceeding the maximum occupancy of 83. Cole did note a number of “preparedness gaps” that the county was working to address, including a dedicated shelter facility, suitable warehousing for emergency equipment, and sufficient weather stations to capture conditions across Buncombe’s mountainous terrain.
- Commissioners unanimously approved two grant applications for nearly $2 million in state funding to support sidewalk repairs in Swannanoa’s Beacon Village. The first was a formality, as the county already received $979,000 for work on Whitson Avenue. The second requested $1 million for repairs along Railroad Street.
- Buncombe accepted a $54,000 grant from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to offset the cost of a compost mixer at the county landfill. As previously reported by BPR, the county has found that over a third of residential trash can be composted, and officials hope to keep more of that material out of the landfill. The county must cover another $13,000 to complete the purchase.
- Commissioner Al Whitesides proclaimed February as “Black Legacy Month” in Buncombe County. “Being an African-American and a product of the 60s, when I was in college, I’ve seen so much going on today in our country that’s trying to do away with the history of people who look like me. And we can’t allow that to happen,” he said. Buncombe County, he added, wasn’t “falling into the same gutter, so to speak, that some parts of our country are falling in.”
Every first and third Tuesday, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meets at 200 College St., Room 326, in downtown Asheville, beginning at 5 p.m. The next meeting will take place Tuesday, Feb. 17. See the full recording and agenda of the Feb. 3 meeting.
