While probing the sale of the county's $130,000-plus surveillance van to a Nashville bail bondsman, Bradley County commissioners made another discovery: The county sheriff's office has auctioned off at least five vehicles so far this year without commissioners' OK.
The new information adds urgency to the commission's push to revise rules on disposing of county assets, some commissioners say.
"Anything that needs to be sold or moved or disposed of should be approved by the commission," Chairman Louie Alford said in an interview last week.
After Sheriff Eric Watson and his top aide on April 4 gave what some commissioners called unsatisfactory answers to questions about the van sale, Commissioner Thomas Crye called for a review of asset disposal rules and Alford appointed an ad hoc committee to make recommendations.
Alford said Thursday he had just learned the sheriff's department appeared to have disposed of equipment without commissioners' permission, which would violate county policy.
"It's something I think we need to pursue. That's why I formed this ad hoc committee. We're going to go in and tighten up how county equipment is disposed of," he said. The committee will hold its second meeting Monday.
Watson did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Times Free Press obtained a copy of the list of sheriff's office assets disposed of to date in 2016, including cars, expired assault vests, a couple of computers and a commercial -scale ice maker. You can view the list in the document attached to this article.
Most of the equipment was auctioned on GovDeals.com after the commission OK'd its disposal. Five cars, a MacBook Pro laptop and a John Deere Gator were sold days or weeks before the commission authorized the sales, but all the sales eventually were authorized except for the laptop. A note on the list said the computer should have been recycled instead of sold for $151. The other sales netted around $20,000 all told.
Commissioners said county staff are examining 2015 sales to see if any took place before the sheriff's office got the official OK. They said there's no evidence to date that any other county department disposed of assets without commission authorization.
"We're looking at everyone, but this is the only one where there's been any particular cause to have concern and to investigate," said Commissioner Dan Rawls, who spearheaded the probe into the sale of the surveillance van.
Days of discord
Rawls pushed hard on Watson and his director of support services, Richard McAllister, in March and earlier this month when commissioners learned a 10-year-old Ford van they had authorized to be sold was actually packed with surveillance equipment.
At commission finance committee meetings, Watson and McAllister said the van and equipment were antique and obsolete, not worth keeping. Rawls said a former deputy trained to operate the van told him it had been upgraded multiple times with all-digital equipment and was fully operational.
Rawls submitted a public records request March 16 to McAllister for "all documents pertaining to [the van] from its time of purchase to its being sold" and "all documents regarding that sale."
McAllister showed commissioners a GovDeals auction listing and copies of the van's title and a $20,000 cashier's check to the sheriff's office from Gregory Sanford, the buyer.
At the April 4 finance committee meeting, McAllister and Watson said they had no bill of sale for the transaction and no records for the original equipment installed on the van or any upgrades. Rawls produced what he said was an inventory, complete with prices totaling some $111,000 for the original equipment, and said the document came from sheriff's office files.
"I'm surprised you haven't seen them," he told Watson.
Rawls said he was dissatisfied with the sheriff's responses and called for an investigation, but finance chairman Milan Blake deferred that question to the whole commission, with no action taken to date.
After the meeting ended, the Times Free Press asked Watson again about a bill of sale for the van. He said there wasn't one, but he and McAllister said they remembered some other paperwork associated with the sale and said they would fax it to the newspaper.
Later in the day April 4, the sheriff's office faxed a document to the Times Free Press labeled "Bill of Sale" and bearing the names of the seller and buyer, the vehicle description and purchase price. McAllister said in a telephone call the document was prepared by administrative staff and he didn't realize it was labeled as a bill of sale.
Rawls said Friday the sheriff's office never provided that document to him or other commissioners. He condemned what he called "the appearance of a lot of disinformation being perpetrated out of that department."
"We were told things that weren't true repeatedly. A [public records request] was put forward and the documents returned were not in full compliance. This breeds a certain level of mistrust, and rightfully so," Rawls said.
Questions about cars
One of the vehicles on the disposal list - a 2006 Crown Victoria - appears to be among a group of cars Watson and his wife picked up on a weekend trip to Hilton Head, S.C., in March 2015.
The couple, plus another department officer and his wife, traveled to the resort city to pick up three cars Watson bought on GovDeals.com, according to sheriff's office records.
The records show Watson has made at least three taxpayer-funded car-buying trips since he took office in September 2014. In November 2014, he and his wife, Tenille, flew to Washington, D.C., for a weekend and drove back in an auctioned car. In August 2015, Watson went with McAllister and his wife, Mary, to Orlando for the weekend to pick up cars. Sources told the Times Free Press that Tenille Watson went on that trip, but the sheriff did not answer a direct question whether she was present.
The 2006 Crown Vic and a 2008 model, both purchased March 10, 2015, were on the authorized disposal list.
The 2006 car, listed as totaled in a wreck, had a VIN matching the wire transfer for the GovDeals purchase. The 2008 Crown Vic's listed VIN number didn't match numbers on either the GovDeals wire transfer or an inventory of purchased vehicles obtained by the Times Free Press in an October public records request.
A third Crown Vic with a listed purchase date of November 2014 also had a VIN that didn't match the GovDeals wire transfer or the purchase inventory given to the newspaper.
Watson was asked about the details of those transactions in emails Friday but did not respond.
Rawls - who is serving on the ad hoc committee with Alford - Commissioner Terry Cawood, County Attorney Crystal Freiberg, a representative from County Mayor D. Gary Davis' office and commission and finance staff personnel, said he expects the group will move soon to recommend tighter controls over asset forfeiture for all county departments.
"I feel that our elected job is to provide the taxpayers of Bradley County with honest, frugal and transparent government. That is all we request of all the departments, no matter who [they are]," he said.
Contact staff writer Judy Walton at jwalton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6416.