Tennessee comptroller finds Bradley County commissioner violated conflict of interest law - WTVC
BRADLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — A Tennessee state comptroller’s report finds a Bradley County Commissioner violated the state conflict of interest statute by indirectly benefitting from a county contract.
Read the full report below.
Bradley County Commissioner Erica Davis is the owner of Tristar Trucking.
According to the comptroller's audit, Davis indirectly benefitted from a county contract to demolish county buildings, when the contractors who commission approved for the project subcontracted with her company.
Bradley county entered a contract with Berrywood Landscaping LLC on May 18th, 2020 for the demolition work of 3 county buildings at Lake Forest Middle School. Berrywood was acknowledged as the low bidder for this project at $45,000.
After the contract was approved by county commissioners, Berrywood Landscaping subcontracted with Tristar Trucking company, which is owned by county commissioner Erica Davis.
Tristar trucking company received more than half of the contract, a total of $23,422.50 for their hauling service.
The state says Davis indirectly benefitted from the county contract and violated a conflict of interest statute.
The state audit says, “county officials should review these payments and resolve the conflict of interest.”
"The point of pointing this out is not because oh, this person intentionally did something wrong. The point is, as taxpayers, we deserve to know that our money is being used for things that they consider to be in their best interest," said Mark Cunningham with the Beacon Center.
According to Cunningham, the biggest problem here is lack of transparency.
"Whether it there's impropriety or not, the smell of impropriety is what lessons you know, people's trust in government," said Cunningham.
In the audit, Davis shares her response where she says she does not believe that her company, the company that subcontracted to her, nor the county “committed any wrong or engaged in misconduct.”
But the state auditor maintains this act was still a violation of conflict of interest statutes.
"The Attorney General’s Office has opined on several occasions regarding conflict of interest statutes that persons who vote on budgets and appropriations “superintend” the contracts paid for by those budgets and appropriations. Therefore, we believe this is an indirect conflict of interest as defined by the governing statute," reads the auditors comments in the report.
We reached out to Commissioner Davis for comment:
"Doing the work as a subcontractor was not in and of itself wrong. It was the fact that I didn't disclose my company's involvement in the work performed. At the time of my vote, I had not been contacted to do any work, and therefore a conflict did not exist. In hindsight, a simple disclosure statement after the fact would have been sufficient, but another vote was never taken on the issue for it to come up," Davis said in a statement.
The state report says county officials should now quote “review these payments and resolve the conflict of interest."
We tried to ask county commissioners how they are planning to address this and whether Davis would need to pay back the contract, but didn’t hear back on Monday.
It's something longtime Cleveland resident Rodney West says he is concerned about and wants an answer to.
"It should have been announced the very first moment that it was presented. And we shouldn't have to discover anything they should be up upfront, full disclosure on everything," said West.
West says he will be voicing his concerns during Monday's county commission meeting at 7pm.
This is a developing story and will be updated as we learn more.
Read the full Tennessee Comptroller's report below:
source: https://newschannel9.com/news/local/tennessee-comptroller-finds-bradley-county-commissioner-had-conflict-of-interest-erica-davis-cleveland
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