Monroe County Commissioners apologized on Tuesday, April 19 for mistakes made in the “execution” of a 2021 land deal in which Monroe County sold 103 acres of property on Camellia Plant Road.
District 4 Commissioner George Emami, who wrote a letter to the editor in the county’s legal organ, The Monroe County Reporter, last week explaining the county’s miscues in the transaction, described the situation on Tuesday as “a comedy of errors” except that the comedy wasn’t funny.
Commissioner Emami said, “It’s important for me and I think for all of us as commissioners to make sure the constituents understand and feel confident that what mistakes made were made in good faith and also that we’re gonna make and take proper procedures to ensure that those mistakes won’t happen again. To me, if I’m not a commissioner, if I’m a constituent, that’s kind of what I would hope or expect.”
Commissioner Emami then asked Monroe County Manager Jim Hedges to address the situation on Tuesday.
County Manager Hedges said Monroe County Attorney Ben Vaughn was asked by Commissioners in February 2021 to have an appraisal done of the Plant Camellia property. County Manager Hedges said two appraisers told Vaughn they were reluctant to give an appraisal due to hazardous materials at the site related to the long-defunct water treatment plant while a third appraiser failed to respond.
County Manager Hedges said Commissioners agreed soon after in March or April 2021 to surplus the entire Plant Camellia property and sell it to the highest bidder via sealed bid. County Manager Hedges said county records indicate that Commissioner Emami left the meeting prior to Commissioners’ agreement on the sale. On April 19, 2021, County Manager Hedges requested an advertisement in the Reporter stating that Commissioners had declared surplus Plant Camellia and all buildings and equipment on a 94.41-acre property and authorized the sale of all land, buildings and equipment to be sold by sealed bid. County Manager Hedges said he intended for the advertisement to be run for two weeks, on April 21, 2021 and April 28, 2021. County Manager Hedges said the advertisement was only run one time on April 28, 2021 and as a result, the 15-day notification requirement was not adhered to. In addition, he said the 94.41 acres advertised in the Reporter should have also included additional easements, totaling 8.84 acres, for a total of about 103 acres.
One bid, which was opened on April 30, 2021, was received from Camilla Partners, LLC. County Manager Hedges said from now on bids will only be opened when proof of correct and timely advertising has been documented at the bid opening meeting. County Manager Hedges said in the future when a surplus of land is involved the advertisement of acreage will require a copy of the deed, which will be reviewed for correctness.
In addition, County Manager Hedges said from now on coming out of Executive (or Closed) Session, County Clerk Janet Abbott should ask Commission Chairman Greg Tapley whether there is a vote to be taken, which would then be noted in the minutes. If Chairman Tapley says there isn’t a vote, it would be documented in the minutes. If Chairman Tapley said there is a vote, then a vote would be taken, and the outcome would be documented in the minutes.
County Manager Hedges said on May 4, 2021 the bid received from Camilla Partners, LLC of $60,000 was taken back to Commissioners for discussion. He said Commissioners took no action as Commissioner Emami requested a review of the property. On May 10, 2021, County Manager Hedges accompanied Commissioner Emami and Monroe County Road Superintendent Junior Watts on a tour of the plant property at which point Commissioner Emami requested an estimate of the cost of remediation of the property. County Manager Hedges said Watts then enlisted Peed Bros, Inc. to give an estimated cost of remediation, which County Manager Hedges said turned out to be over $3.2 million.
County Manager Hedges said Peed Bros’ results were communicated to the full Board via e-mail at which point Commissioners agreed to sell the 103-acre property to Camilla Partners, LLC for $103,000, which was $1,000 per acre.
County Manager Hedges said in the future votes will only be taken via e-mail in the case of an emergency. He said all other votes will be taken in regular meetings.
At the conclusion of County Manager Hedges’ review, Commissioner Emami acknowledged there were “multiple mistakes made in the execution of what I believe was unanimously the wishes of our Board.” Commissioner Emami said given the more than $3 million mitigation estimate to clean up an environmental hazard, it made fiscal sense at the time for Commissioners to sell the property. Commissioner Emami said the property represented a significant liability to the county and was not being taxed because it was county owned.
“Whether you agree or disagree about the price of the land or about the decision we made to have sold it or not sold it, what I’m here to tell you is I believe that our hearts and minds were right about why we were trying to sell it,” Commissioner Emami said. “And I don’t think that any of us even to this day would change our mind that it was appropriate to sell it. So in my opinion, the majority of the error in this was in the execution of the wishes of the county.”
Commissioner Emami said his own research into the matter did not indicate that any county commissioners or county staffers did anything “malicious” or “devious” regarding the land deal.
Commissioner Emami said, “I think that it was just an honest litany of mistakes that happened and something that I feel very strongly that our entire team is well aware of and will never let happen again.”
District 3 Commissioner John Ambrose then weighed in, saying most of the 103 acres are in a flood zone and are unusable.
Commissioner Ambrose said, “We got rid of a big liability to the county, and we actually made money on it. . . We did the right thing.”
District 2 Commissioner Eddie Rowland said he was present when Commissioners decided in Executive Session to surplus the Plant Camellia property, and he apologized that Commissioners did not follow proper procedure and surplus it during the open portion of the meeting. Rowland said it was also wrong that the ad was not run properly, and that county business was conducted via e-mail.
“I apologize to my county for that,” Commissioner Rowland said. “Some things I just take for granted that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be, and I made a mistake there.”
However, Commissioner Rowland, like Commissioners Ambrose and Emami, said he doesn’t regret selling the property. Commissioner Rowland noted the property was purchased in the mid-2000s by the Development Authority of Monroe County for $1.7 million. He said a private company purchased in 2008 the usable, front portion of the property, which included a warehouse for just over $1 million. He said that left the remaining portion of the tract, the 94.4 acres referred to earlier by County Manager Hedges, which included a flood plain and sediment ponds. Commissioner Rowland said the Development Authority appears to have given that property to the county in 2009 at no charge, as county leaders intended at the time to rehab the dormant water treatment plant. He said he has heard the county bought the land from the Development Authority for about $750,000, but thus far no evidence has come to light to indicate that. Commissioner Rowland said the withdrawal permit from the Ocmulgee River, which was to be used if Plant Camellia had been rehabbed, was actually revoked prior to the Development Authority’s purchase of the property. He said Monroe County later requested for the permit to be renewed, but the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) was non-committal on restoring the withdrawal permit. Commissioner Rowland said the estimated cost in 2020 for Monroe County to build out a new plant on the site was between $7 million and $10 million and didn’t even have any existing pipes connected to it.
District 1 Commissioner Lamarcus Davis, who was attending the meeting over the phone, echoed the other Commissioners’ apologies and said proper procedural protocols would be taken going forward.
Commission Chairman Greg Tapley said the Reporter, which has written about the matter in each of the past two editions, didn’t include all information in its stories, including the $3.2 million estimated cost of remediation of the plant property.
Chairman Tapley said, “They’re (Reporter) another culprit in the erosion of county confidence, but that happens regularly with this paper, whether it’s any local government. With that being said, we definitely did make mistakes and are glad to correct those and move forward.”
County Manager Hedges then asked for his turn to address the Board and Monroe County citizens.
“I personally made mistakes on this, and I have learned from them,” County Manager Hedges said. “I want to apologize to the citizens of Monroe County. I get very busy today and every day on a number of different issues, and that’s no excuse. Sometimes I got, I’ll say lax, and it won’t happen again.”
At the conclusion of a 15-minute Executive Session to discuss real estate and personnel, Commissioners approved by a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Davis was not present at this point) to set a new policy in which either County Attorney Vaughn or County Manager Hedges provides a summary to the public of what was discussed in Executive Session so long as it is not legally exempt from being discussed publicly.
