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LEDGER IN-DEPTH
by Cristina Bolling
In early March of last year, it seemed like the walls were closing in at Aldersgate.
Four high-level staff members of the east Charlotte retirement community — one of Charlotte’s longest-running and best-known communities for seniors — wanted to meet in secret with state regulators. They worried financial mismanagement was putting the community and its residents in jeopardy, and feared they’d be fired if word got out that they’d spoken up.
The group that sought the meeting to share their concerns included Brooke Hodge , the sister-in-law of Aldersgate’s CEO, Suzanne Pugh .
Around noon on Thursday, March 2, Hodge, executive director of Aldersgate, logged into her personal email account and messaged Jeff Trendel , a deputy insurance commissioner based in Raleigh.
“I think my ethical obligation to the stakeholders of Aldersgate now outweighs remaining tight lipped,” Hodge wrote in an email obtained by The Ledger in a public records request.
“Many of us feel the DOI [the N.C. Department of Insurance] is our only hope in getting to a better place.”
The two agreed to meet after work four days later in the lobby of a Marriott on the UNC Charlotte campus.
The meeting was emblematic of the tensions that were ratcheting up among staff, Aldersgate board members and residents as financial troubles mounted and state regulators upped their oversight.
Within six months, the state would step in to oversee Aldersgate’s finances — the first time that North Carolina regulators have ever exercised such supervision. In less than a year, Pugh would be dismissed.
Aldersgate leaders have declined to be interviewed about the community’s financial troubles, and many residents don’t want to speak publicly, either. But an examination of public records, including emails between the state insurance department and Aldersgate leaders and residents, shows that Aldersgate’s financial difficulties were years in the making.
The Ledger’s investigation also shows for the first time some of the behind-the-scenes activity last year among residents, Aldersgate’s leadership and state regulators, as the retirement community came to terms with — and sought to recover from — its financial troubles.
