Mayor Conger discusses Comptroller investigation

JACKSON, Tenn. — Shortly after Mayor Scott Conger was inaugurated in July, he says his administration looked over the city’s contracts and noticed something was amiss.

“As soon as we started finding some abnormalities, we decided we needed to get the Comptroller’s assistance,” Conger said. “Right now they’re looking at the contract with Waste Management, and the lease agreement with the Jackson Generals.”

For the Waste Management contract, Conger did not directly answer what was under investigation. He says the state Tennessee Comptroller’s office has asked him not to comment.

Instead, he pointed to parts of the contract he says they need help understanding.

“I would say, probably structure. There’s several items in the contract that they are looking into, that we’ve asked them guidance on how to remedy,” Conger said.

He claims it was unrelated to the dispute they had in September. The contract was originally signed by former Mayor Jerry Gist in 2016.

In relation to the Ballpark, city officials confirmed that the former administration paid the Jackson Generals more than what was allotted to them in the contract with the team.

WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News asked Conger if that was still the case.

He says currently, they are only paying what was approved by the city council.

“The way that the license and lease agreement is written, we are honoring the contracts and honoring our obligations to our license and lease agreements,” Conger said.

He says he is unaware if the Comptroller is investigating anything beyond those two contracts at this time.

“I don’t know that they’re investigating people. We’ve asked them to investigate or look for guidance on the contracts,” Conger said.

In light of the investigation, he says they will not change anything with their current capital budget plans.

“This involves my current plan, so our current plan is to analyze everything that we have done and are doing with the city,” Conger said.

Conger says he was not given a timeline of when the investigation might wrap up.