Newton County dissolves dive team supplied by a firefighter’s scuba store

COVINGTON, Ga. - The Newton County Fire Services rescue dive team had a brief but expensive life.

According to county records, the fire department spent more than $137,000 over the past four years on training and equipment for the team, culminating in controversy after the FOX 5 I-Team revealed the money went to a local scuba store owned by a fire inspector who served on the dive team. 

This week, the I-Team obtained records of the county’s internal investigation that prompted the county manager to fire both the inspector and his boss, Fire Chief Mike Conner, earlier this month.

The investigation confirmed the I-Team’s findings that buying equipment through an employee’s side business violated Newton County’s ethics rules.

In the report, County Manager Harold Cooper raised questions about why Conner formed a fire department dive team at all, since the county already had a dive team for decades. Cooper wasn’t in charge when the decision was made, having just started the job in May.

The report reveals Cooper has now decided to dissolve the fire department’s dive team, "effective immediately." He said in his report that money spent on the team could have gone toward other fire department needs or toward the existing county dive team.

"The formation of this group should never have occurred," the county manager said in the report, "as Chief Conner had no authorization to create the team. His actions have compromised public trust and has damaged the overall morale (of the department)."

Cooper laid blame on both the chief and Into the Blue Scuba owner, Glenn Mikos, a fire inspector.

"Mr. Mikos’ personal business is receiving a benefit from the purchase orders requested by (Newton County Fire Services)," the report says. "As a result, the conflict-of-interest policy has been violated."

Cooper added, "It appears that Fire Chief Conner was aware of the potential conflict and responsibility rest with him as well. The majority of the violations and problematic practices could have been avoided had (the dive team) not been created by Chief Conner."

Cooper told the I-Team he can’t comment on his investigation yet because both men have appealed their firings. Reached by the I-Team, both former Chief Conner and Mikos declined to comment for this story.

The county manager spoke with 18 people, including Conner and Mikos, before reaching his decision. He apparently asked questions in his investigation about how and why Conner launched a dive team, considering the county already had a dive team for locating drowning victims in lakes and rivers – a partnership between the Emergency Management Agency and the City of Covington. Cooper.

The former chief said in the report that he wanted the fire department to take over rescue dive operations because most of Newton County’s bodies of water are in the unincorporated area. He also said in the report that he had become frustrated with the county’s EMA dive team during a search for two bodies in the Alcovy River in summer 2020. Conner said he didn’t like that the team found one body, but called off the search for the second body at nightfall, resolving to resume the search the next morning. 

"Chief Conner shared that he felt awful telling the family that they were done for the night," the report says.

The report portrays Conner as determined to launch his own team, no matter what other people thought.

Covington’s Emergency 911 director said in the report that the chief once called the 911 center and "cursed and fussed" because the other dive team had been dispatched to a drowning instead of his. 

Two people reported that in a subsequent meeting with 911 personnel, Chief Conner referred to EMA dive team members as "stupid." The chief was even recommended for a reprimand or discipline last year over alleged "bullying behavior" toward one of the members of the EMA dive team.

Meanwhile, the fire department lieutenant who normally handled purchases reported to Cooper that he had been cut out of the process when it came to the dive team and Into the Blue Scuba. Some firefighters reported quitting or refusing to join the fire department’s dive team over safety concerns, one saying, "It seemed as if (the team) was not ran properly." Another alleged that during a search for a body, Mikos was running the boat and "had not deployed an anchor but left the motor running."

"This could have injured the diver," the firefighter said in the investigation.

Fire department members described morale plummeting as the department diverted tens of thousands of dollars toward the dive team. One lieutenant said "the dive team was a sore subject for the rank-and-file firefighters due to funding being allocated towards the dive team rather than other needed equipment areas."

In his final analysis, County Manager Cooper said money spent on the chief’s dive team could have gone toward the first dive team or "for better use to address other needs" of the fire department. The report included a tally of funds in question, from 2021 to 2024, totaling $137,540.

According to the report, Conner apparently inferred to his boss that former Interim County Manager Jarvis Sims had given him approval to start a dive team. But current County Manager Cooper said he found no record of that. Sims told the FOX 5 I-Team in an email, "I did not give any authorization."

Cooper’s report does not explain how the conflict of interest with Into the Blue Scuba was allowed to go on openly for so long. The FOX 5 I-Team’s investigation found that, beyond the fire department, some top county officials had received information about the potential violation of the county’s Code of Ethics.

The I-Team obtained emails from a year ago where the county’s Purchasing Coordinator, in the finance department, had flagged a nearly $30,000 invoice and told a fire department administrator, "You just really have to do your diligence since there is an obvious conflict of interest …"

In another email sent in December, a private attorney who handled the investigation into Chief Conner’s alleged "bullying behavior" wrote an email to Human Resources Director Amanda Shoemaker, pointing out that witnesses in his investigation had brought up the arrangement between the department and Into the Blue Scuba, which "may be in violation of the County’s Code of Ethics."

That email was later forwarded to Finance Director Brittany White, as well as the interim county manager at the time. But nothing happened to stop the situation until the FOX 5 I-Team exposed the arrangement this year.

Neither Shoemaker nor White responded to emails for phone messages from FOX 5.

Archie Shepherd, founder of the watchdog group Concerned Citizens of Newton County, said it’s no mystery how such a conflict could happen in plain sight.

"It’s the leadership here," Shepherd said. "No one was paying attention to what other people were doing."