As I reported this morning, Escambia County Clerk Pam Childers sent a demand letter to County Commissioner Lumon May with an invoice for $4,253.74, claiming “fraud, waste, corruption, and abuse.” Based on county records and Commissioner May’s attorney, Eric Stevenson, someone made an anonymous complaint to Childers and directed her internal auditor to a record that had been doctored to indict the county’s lone Black commissioner. 2024 07 09 Ltr to Commissioner Lumon May.
On WCOA this morning, Stevenson shared what happened with the lot, pointing out May had no expectation that county employees would go on his property and told County Administrator Wes Moreno only about the yard debris blocking the street and in the right-of-way.”
The attorney’s narrative matches most of the Grand Jury’s set of events leading up to the incident. In late October, the commissioner hired several individuals to trim and clear the overgrowth on two lots owned by his family and hm. He also hired a professional tree company to remove several trees and do substantial tree trimming. He intended to use dumpsters to remove the heavier debris. He told the worker to move the remaining debris to the street.
The grand reviewed photographs and video taken by one of the workers and stated, “It would be impossible to move the debris to the street without the use of heavy equipment. Additionally, it does not appear there was sufficient space on the right of way for the placement of the material.”
Stevenson said that was why he intended to use the dumpster and didn’t expect all the trimmings and yard debris to be put in the right-of-way.
The report states, “On Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023, Commissioner May called County Administrator Wes Moreno…During the conversation, Commissioner May told Moreno that there was debris in front of 1624 West Young Street that may be blocking the road.”
Stevenson said the commissioner got a phone call from a resident while he was supervising SYSA football games. The person complained about a lot of debris in the street.
The attorney said, “He followed protocol, and he called Wes Moreno, the county administrator, and he said, ‘Hey, I’m getting reports. If there is debris out in the street, if there’s anybody out working today, can you have them check on it?’ And that was the last communication he had with anybody about it until he learned that there was an anonymous report that he had asked people to clear his property for him, which couldn’t have been further from the truth.”
CONFLICTING RECORDS
A field supervisor, Justin Walker, was sent to the street by Public Works Director Jamey Higdon. According to the work order, Walker and Shane Freeman stayed on the site for about three hours, and then a much larger crew, which included an inmate work crew, was brought to the site on Monday. The GPS on Walker’s truck shows he was only there 26 minutes and then went to football game at MaGee Field. See Walker GPS. Shane Freeman was their two hours. See Freeman GPS
The grand jury and Moreno’s investigative report on the incident conflict on who ordered Walker to pick up the debris on private property. The grand jury report says Walker was directed to remove the material.
Moreno’s investigative report, dated Feb. 12, says Walker shared a video that he had taken of the property. On the video, Walker provided commentary about the size of the pile, its placement on private property, and the work was initiated by a commissioner. See Moreno Report.
Walker told Moreno that Jamey Higdon had directed him to pick up and remove the debris. Walker later called the county administrator to correct his statement and said that Higdon had only told him to use his best judgment.
FALSIFIED WORK ORDERS
Childers’ invoice is based on two work orders that her internal auditor obtained. Commissioner May and Stevenson said the work orders were fraudulent, and Moreno’s investigation proved it by checking the GPS data on the county vehicles.
“The county did its own investigation and has determined that the workers who were out there completely inflated how much time they spent by as much as 50 hours,” Stevenson said. “Some of them included time that they were on the scene while they went to McDonald’s. One of them went to go buy some shoes somewhere. One of them went to, I think, Wendy’s. One of ’em went and watched a youth football game during that time.”
We have the falsified work orders (Falsified) that Childers presented as the official record, and the correct orders (Correct Orders). Here are few of the discrepancies on the Monday work order:
- Robert Shelty: Childers 5 hours; Verified 1.04 hours
- Terrance Beasley: Childers 5 hours; Verified 2 hours
- James Gourdas: Childers 5 hours; Verified 1.03 hours
- Greg Eaton: Childers 5 hours; Verified 1.03 hours
- Crew Truck: Childers 10 hours; Verified 3.25 hours
- Grapple Truck: Childers 15 hours; Verified 5.03 hours
The GPS shows Beasley only hauled one load and then visited Wendy’s and Whataburger. Eaton and Goundas only spent about an hour on-site and hauled 1.5 loads. See Beasley Eaton
Childers’ letter mentions Pam says she will not tolerate fraud, waste, corruption, and abuse. I asked Stevenson, “Is any of that in the grand jury report? Does the grand jury find that that happened?”
“The grand jury never mentions any of those words—fraud, waste, or abuse,” he replied. “I mean, I think if there is fraud, waste, and abuse, it’s people exaggerating how much time they spent on something while saying that they were at work when they were at Whataburger.”
Stevenson added, “Lumon has had a lot of problems with trying to get the road crew out there (in District 3) to pick up debris, limbs. People put furniture in the right of way or out in the streets, and he has complained a number of times that the road crew is not responsive to his district that they would rather pick up in other districts. It just seems like whatever blight is there to be cleaned up by the road crew, the road crew just ignores it and doesn’t come by as often as they do other districts.”
NO TRUE BILL
The grand jury found “No True Bill” but did recommend the commissioner reimburse the county for the cost of the work done on his property.
“Lumon is absolutely willing to do that,” Stevenson. “He respects the grand jury, although he doesn’t think he should have to do it because he didn’t ask for it to be done.”
The attorney said, “I’m going to be sending a letter to Alison Rogers, the county attorney, next week to ask her for what the actual amount is that the county was out for this time for people picking up when they picked up the debris actually off of his property when they shouldn’t have been because we know that the numbers that Lumon got from the clerk’s office are not accurate.”
Stevenson pointed out how the commissioner cooperated with the state attorney’s office.
“When the state attorney’s office did their investigation, they called Commissioner May,” he said. “He came down and spoke with them twice voluntarily. He voluntarily came and spoke before the grand jury. He didn’t have to do that.”
Stevenson continued, “And he certainly would’ve done it had the clerk’s office called him so that he could clarify what happened and make sure that everybody was really looking at all the same things and understood what was going on.”
Grand Jury Report: Grand Jury report
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
