Ray Jeter

Here's what happened last night in Maury County. YOU DESERVE BETTER! I have been fighting this issue for two years. I have tried to play nice but last night they crossed a line with me. I am done playing nice. I have the receipts!

Here's the issue in a nutshell.

By law, the county government is required to bid out any project over $50k in an open competitive bid process. However, there is a loophole. If you hire an owners advocate through a public building authority then the County can forego the bid process and the owners advocate can hire whomever they like to build our buildings. There is NO oversight on our owners advocate. NONE. There is NO accountability and our projects have continued to be shortchanged time and time again. I, along with a few other commissioners, have fought against this process only to lose the fight time and time again.

We have firehall on Lasea Rd. that we paid this company to build that we cannot use today even years later because they collected their money and left it as is but we continue to send them money to build more buildings. We have a part 2 court in Mt. Pleasant without a parking lot but we continue to send them money to build more buildings. Now we are trying to open the Ag. Ext. Building only to be notified a few weeks ago that they will NOT be paving the parking lot and I am still trying to find out what else was removed from this building but we continue to send them money to build more buildings!

Why are these commissioners not holding this company accountable? When I question this company about sending gifts to the commissioner's home.....I was laughed at. I was told that commissioners can't be bought with a Christmas block of cheese mailed to them.

We tried to create our own Public Building Authority to bring that here. The process was blocked by long time commissioners.

We tried to create more accountability in our owners advocate process but was denied again.

There is NO transparency in the financials of the projects. I've asked for contracts documents and other information and was told they don't exist.

We hired a company to build our buildings. They gave us a turn key price to build this building only to inform us that they will not be paving the parking lot. We cannot open the building without a paved parking lot. They claim it was removed from their scope but there is NO evidence anywhere of that. I am demanding they pave the parking lot and tonight I was silenced from speaking on the matter. Why are certain commissioners protecting this company and continuing to make excuses from them and silencing debate on the issue. Call your commissioner today and demand to know why they are okay with this. Maury County Deserves better.

UPDATE: First, this item was placed on the consent agenda which cannot be debated. I was successful at removing this item from the consent agenda so it can be debated. The very second this item came up on the agenda. Chairman Markham called on Commissioner Previti. Commissioner Previti immediately called for the question. This means if passed this item cannot be debated. This is unprecedented and frankly very questionable. All I am asking is that the company in question do what they have been hired to do but apparently others don’t see it that way. What a shame.

Video will be posted soon.

Tonight, the Maury County Commission is set to vote on an agreement with a construction company for upcoming projects as our owners advocate. This company initially provided a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) for a project, but only recently did we discover that paving the parking lot is not included. I’ve reviewed meeting minutes from the park board and the county commission, pulled resolutions, and spoken to department heads and our county attorney. Yet, no one can tell me who removed the parking lot from the project scope.

Frankly, I’m tired of our projects being shortchanged, and I’m frustrated by the continued excuses from other commissioners regarding these issues.

Maury County deserves better. This is NOT the only building built by this company in Maury County that was left UNFINISHED.