Edison officials call for GBI Investigation; find ‘potentially criminal’ inconsistencies

EDISON — City officials here decided at a special called meeting Monday night to request an open investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations into “inconsistencies” found in city records.

City Council member Tamara Shedrick said these inconsistencies “could potentially be criminal.”

Mayor Shirley Worthy, who was sworn in on Oct. 2, said no city officials or employees could comment on the investigation at this time.

City Attorney Tommy Coleman said there are unexplained expenditures, credit card bills and unexplained payroll entry deductions that were revealed.

While this is an issue that needs to be taken care of, Coleman said, he warned Edison residents to be aware that the inconsistencies aren’t even close to all of the financial problems the city has.

Since July, the city has been unraveling a financial crisis and administrative failures that many lay at the feet of former Mayor Reeves Lane and former City Clerk Tami Fincher. In August, Coleman announced the city was upwards of a half-million dollars in debt. The city hadn’t filed a legally required audit detailing city expenditures and revenue since 2018, making it ineligible for state help.

Multiple Edison residents suspected criminal activity early on and have been active in council meetings, often appearing in numbers greater than 20 to demand answers from officials on how the city got into this position.

Cheryl Timpson is one of those residents. Timpson and her husband, Troy Timpson, have attended, recorded and live-streamed city meetings for more than a year. They’ve put on community fundraisers to help raise funds for the city.

For the first time since these city failures came to light, Cheryl Timpson said she now has reason to feel hopeful, noting that she feels her and other citizens’ commitment hasn’t been in vain. Timpson also said she hopes whoever is responsible for misusing funds is held accountable.

“It wasn’t their money to misuse,” she said. “It was the citizens of Edison’s money. It’s been a long time coming, but I think we’ll finally see what’s been going on with the … money.”

Timpson said she believes civil engagement and staying involved in local government is important when it comes to accountability.

“If you’re not going … how do you know what’s going on?” she said. “I feel like people are finally doing more to hold (officials) accountable.”

Through the months of September and October, city dynamics have changed. Not only was Worthy sworn in as mayor, but the city swore in Curtis Adams to replace former councilman Jack Johnson, who resigned in September. Lori Moore, an accounting clerk, was hired to aid city clerk Demetric Jackson in sorting the city’s financial records and put together the city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024.

The city’s officials were committed to transparency throughout the creation of the budget as well as with increases on property taxes and utility bills that residents would see in order to begin paying off some of the city’s debt. Special called meetings and required public hearings to discuss these items have become frequent.

Things have changed for the better, and we’re headed in the right direction, Cheryl Timpson said.

“I know that the citizens were going to have to take some of the hit in order for them to bring the city back,” she said.

Tia Ingram, a Post 4 City Council candidate, echoed Timpson’s sentiment. Uncovering malfeasance is the first step in getting the answers that every concerned citizen and city official wants to know, she wrote in a statement to The Albany Herald. But she cautioned that the recovery process isn’t going to happen overnight.

Full recovery is far from near, but new city officials and employees are hard at work in sorting through city documents.

Adams joked during the meeting that, these days City Hall looks like “a paper bomb exploded” as the mayor, Moore and city clerk comb through records.

Edison’s debt is creating struggles in other areas, like funding city workers and keeping up necessary infrastructure like water and sewer systems. Every department the city has is overtaxed, Adams said.

“(Public Works Director) Michael (Sinquefield) is a one-man show right now trying to maintain everything we’ve got out there,” Adams said. “We’ve got two police officers that are doing the best they can with everything they have to work with.”

The city has brought outside organizations like the Georgia Rural Water Association, a nonprofit organization representing rural water systems, to assess the city’s water and sewer systems, which are in need of repair. Assessments found that 110 water meters throughout the city aren’t functioning properly out of about 570, Sinquefield said. This creates inaccurate bills.

Staff is working toward repairing these meters, and GRW has suggested the city look into getting meters donated from outside cities undergoing upgrades to their own system.

The city’s sewage treatment plant also is lacking, Adams said. There are broken pumps and cables that need to be repaired in the system. Two pumps aren’t functioning, and the repairs are expensive. If the sewage ends up failing due to broken parts, it may face fines from the Environmental Protection Division. The city needs to be proactive for an upcoming Nov. 8 EPD inspection, he said.

“It’s on us to decide to spend the money to get it fixed,” Adams said. “It has to be done.”

It’s all a work in progress. Moore let attendees know that there is no set deadline in sight for sorting through the city’s books and working toward complete financial recovery.

It’s like lifting a rock and revealing more creatures that hop out from underneath it, she said.

File Photo: Lucille Lannigan[email protected]