Hearn fights back against charges

Former Fayette County Public Works Director Lee Hearn wishes the last days of his campaign for County Commissioner wouldn’t have turned out like this.

This week, Commissioner Peter Pfeifer turned over documents to The Citizen showing that Hearn was suspended for three days during his tenure at Fayette County and also how he used the county’s purchasing card for road striping projects.

Hearn, who said he’s tried to project a positive and professional tone during the campaign, is fighting back.

“I am disappointed that Mr. Pfeifer and Mr. (Harold) Bost would use their positions to obtain personal information to attempt discredit my character and integrity. Why would they bring these items up now?” he wrote in a written response to The Citizen Thursday night.

When asked about the number of reprimands and suspension that he received while working for the county, Hearn wants to set the record straight.

“Concerning the disciplinary action taken against me in March of 2007, I offer the following. I disciplined a county employee that violated county policy. The discipline consisted of a written reprimand. In the nine years of employment of this employee, this was the first disciplinary action taken. I felt, as a department head, that this was the appropriate action for this offense. (Former county administrator)Chris Venice disagreed with my handling of this. She gave me an ultimatum: Terminate the employee and I would face no disciplinary action, or suspend the employee for 10 working days and I would face a 3 day suspension. The employee had made an error but it was not a grievous error, therefore, I chose option two,” he said.

Hearn admits that “Venice and I were not a good match,” but said his overall history of service to the county should be evaluated.

“I have worked with several county managers and have had much success over the past 16 years working for county governments,” he added.

Hearn said he had no issues working with former administrators Billy Beckett and Chris Cofty, and emphasized that his transportation background would be an asset to the voters of Fayette County if he was elected.

He also defends his use of the purchasing card, known as the P-card.

“The first seven months of 2005 my P-Card had 136 transactions (swipes) and we spent $26,712. We purchased parts for fleet repairs, parts for tractor repair from Wade Tractor, hardware from Miles Ace Hardware, parts from Atlanta Freightliner, Fayette Mower, Peach State Ambulance and Yancey Brothers to name a few. All of these are expected and normal expenses for fleet and road department operations. Mr. Cofty, the County Administrator, had instructed me to use the P-Card to order parts and materials to assist with the efficiency of our operation and limit the out of service (down time) on our equipment.

The limit on my P-Card was $5,000. as many parts for the off-road equipment are more than $2,000., the original limit.

The payment for striping county roads in 2003 over a 9 month period using the P-Card had Mr. Cofty’s approval. We routinely obtained quotes to ensure we were spending the tax dollars wisely,” he said.

But Commissioner Peter Pfeifer sees it differently.

“Two incidents, two occasions for Mr. Hearn to act responsibly and in support of taxpayers policy and money. Two times that Mr. Hearn chose to violate county policy, once by the direction of the Administrator and once against the direction of another Administrator.

What is common to both incidents is that Mr. Hearn chose to violate county policy and the trust that was placed in him by the citizens of Fayette County,” Pfeifer said.

With the election less than a week away, Hearn wonders why these issues suddenly surfaced.

“We’ve had four forums and none of this was mentioned. Why now?” he said.