Money for waste-to-fuel project went to landfill chief and people connected to him

BARNESVILLE, Ga. - A taxpayer group in Lamar County wants to know why some money for a controversial recycling center went into the pockets of the top landfill official who championed the project.

The FOX 5 I-Team confirmed that Johnny Poore, the landfill authority director, made $136,600 from 2015 to 2016 as compensation for overseeing construction. Records show he’s due to be paid that same amount again once the project is complete.

"We’ve got invoices from open records requests showing three or four invoices he turned in for consulting fees, while he’s also on the payroll," Mike Perry of the Concerned Citizens Group of Lamar County said. "It’s issues like that that has brought us to where we are now, questioning even the legitimacy of what’s going on out there and where our money has gone."

Nine years ago, Poore, the longtime executive director of the Lamar County Regional Solid Waste Management Authority, convinced the county to back a $27.5 million loan from the state. The sum is nearly double the size of the county’s operating budget.

The plan was to turn a profit by converting garbage into fuel and a char byproduct that could be used in the plastics and cement industries.

"The reason I’m still here is to finish the job that we started," Poore told the FOX 5 I-Team last month. "It’s not only good for this county, it’s not good just for the authority – it’s good for folks that I’ll leave behind. Our children and grandchildren."

The county has yet to make a dime, though, because Poore has yet to crank up the machines. He said the project turned out to be far more complicated than anticipated, requiring redesigns, re-engineering, re-permitting and relocation of machinery. Delays were compounded by the COVID pandemic, he said.

Poore told the I-Team that leachate evaporators – which process rainwater runoff to free up landfill space – will start operating before New Year’s, once a state permit is granted. The pyrolysis portion – the process of cooking waste at high temperatures to produce fuels and char – will start by summer, he said.

But despite those promises, Poore and the solid waste authority face a major backlash from upset residents and two county commissioners, who say they don’t believe Poore when he says that startup is just around the corner. Monthly payments on the loan begin in April, being funded through contracts with landfill operator Amwaste.

Members of the informal concerned citizens group, which is calling for a full investigation of the waste-to-fuel project, said they fear taxpayers could be on the hook for the huge loan if the landfill were to run out of useful life before the loan is paid off.

"I think the community was asleep," Perry said. "They have been lulled into this."

Documents the group obtained through Georgia Open Records Act requests have added to their concerns, showing links between Poore and companies paid with loan money.

A South Carolina company, JMA Logistics & Services, installed steel structures for the pyrolysis machines and made $137,700. Poore confirmed the company’s president is his nephew.

Poore said JMA was hired out of desperation and convenience, because during the pandemic, other contractors demanded the landfill authority provide COVID safeguards, such as guarantees infected workers would continue receiving daily pay along with hotel rooms for quarantining.

The solid waste authority’s purchasing rules require a bidding process for contracts topping $100,000. Asked how JMA was hired without bidding, the solid waste authority’s attorney told FOX 5 the company was a subcontractor of another company.

"We were very fortunate to get him," Poore said of his nephew, "They handle heavy steel structures. They install bleachers for colleges, high schools."

In another case, a company paid $20,300 for moving dirt, HD Eason Trucking LLC, was owned by the late husband of Poore’s office manager, Poore said.

"I needed a truck driver, somebody that was experienced," he said. "And he came off the road to drive that truck."

Another contractor, Ted Hartley Construction, was paid $28,700 for roof repairs, construction of a metal building at the landfill and other work. Poore said the company is owned by his wife’s nephew. In that case, the company was the lowest of the three bidders.

FOX 5 found no internal controls in Lamar County that bar any of those contracts. The authority has no procurement or ethics policy forbidding its executive director from working with nephews or the husband of an employee. Asked if hiring family members might have been a mistake, Poore said no.

"It saved us money. It saved us time," he said. "We’ve been pushing deadlines here since 2017."

Poore said his own extra compensation was for the added responsibly of overseeing the waste-to-fuel project. That work had been put out for bid, but only one company responded, Crowder Construction Company, which would have cost as much as $2.5 million, according to solid waste authority records.

Meeting minutes from 2014 show the solid waste board voted unanimously to hire Poore instead for a lesser sum on top of his regular salary. Poore currently makes $170,000 per year as a contract employee, according to the authority's attorney. His extra compensation for the waste-to-fuels project will total more than $273,000.

"It’s like a county manager – he runs the county. Well, you don’t ask him to take on a $27 million project," Poore told the FOX 5 I-Team. "I said, ‘I’ll do that but, you know, there’s only so much I can do. If you want me to do that, then let’s do some compensation for that.’"

Jessica Cino, an Atlanta attorney specializing in governments, authorities and internal investigations, said the board’s arrangement with the executive director doesn't pass the smell test.

"Any government watchdog would go to town on this thing," Cino, of Krevolin & Horst, said. "The ethics behind this seem questionable, unless he is working 90-hour weeks and doing two jobs at the same time."

Elaine Hallada, a member of the concerned citizens group, included Poore’s extra pay in a complaint she filed with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, which is funding the $27.5 million loan. GEFA responded, in a letter from a senior compliance auditor, that the money "gives the appearance of impropriety."

But there’s been no further action, and GEFA told the I-Team in a written statement that the Lamar County landfill authority "is currently in compliance with its loan agreement for the waste-to-fuels project at the Cedar Grove landfill."

The concerned citizens have called for an outside audit of the waste-to-fuel project. The county commission is expected to vote on that proposal Tuesday.