Officials respond to state investigation of city finances under former administration

JACKSON, Tenn. — An investigation into the spending habits of the former City of Jackson leadership has revealed shocking decisions.

The state comptroller’s office released a report, centering around former Mayor Jerry Gist’s administration and how they spent taxpayer money.

“Failures to provide good oversight, failures to be transparent, failures to do due diligence,” said John Dunn, the Director of Communications for the Comptroller of Treasury.

Dunn says the report focuses on two subjects: the city’s financial dealings with the Jackson Generals and the city’s contract with Waste Management of Tennessee.

The bulk of the report details just how the Jackson Baseball Club, better known as the Jackson Generals, received more money than most knew.

“The report says that a lot of these things were put into budget items that weren’t necessarily as transparent as they should have been, and the city council wasn’t aware of that. That’s what we’ve worked hard to change now,” said Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.

The report says former Mayor Jerry Gist and former city recorder Al Laffoon bypassed the city council, and, in a private meeting with the baseball team in 2011, signed a letter on the city’s behalf, agreeing to pay up to $500,000 annually to the team.

The report says the former mayor told investigators it was a tactic to try to keep the team in the city.

“We believe that that letter should have been reviewed by more than the former mayor and the former city recorder, that others should have been involved in that discussion before guaranteeing that the city would reimburse up to $500,000,” Dunn said.

The report shows how the city poured more money into the team, and how the former administration hid the true amount through creative budgeting.

“The city was putting those expenditures into other areas, to somewhat disguise what it was doing, and that’s where transparency is a problem,” Dunn said.

Karen Bell worked under Gist’s administration. She said the report is not surprising, and she says her hands were tied.

“I will go to my grave believing this: the taxpayers paid a lot more money for that ball stadium than they ever should have had to,” Bell said. “There was only one year where we had a budget committee, and it was basically a farce. I don’t wish ill on anyone, but again it was misappropriation and misuse by governmental powers.”

The report closes out with issues in the city’s contract with Waste Management.

According to the report’s findings, Waste Management agreed to a contract, stating they would handle almost all the trash and bulky waste, but the City of Jackson inexplicably used its own money and employees to supply those services.

“What was happening was that the City of Jackson was handling over 80 percent of that bulky waste pickup using its own resources,” Dunn said.

That amounted to over five million tax dollars that investigators say the city did not need to pay. Mayor Conger says he’s unsure if the city can ever get that money back.

“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know the answer to that, and that’s something we’ve got to ask the experts on,” Mayor Conger said.

Mayor Conger, who has already chosen to not renew the Waste Management contract, promises transparency and sound financial decisions.

“That’s what it has been all about in every contract we’ve renegotiated. Everything we put out to bid is for that purpose,” Mayor Conger said.

The District Attorney’s Office released a statement on the report, saying there was not evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, and a Madison County grand jury declined to pursue further actions in the investigation.

The city informed the Jackson Generals that they have until Feb. 15 to vacate the Ballpark at Jackson.

Waste Management responded to our requests for comment just before 6 p.m. Thursday. A representative said the company is reviewing the the report internally, and they could not provide any other information.