GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
INVESTIGATIVE CASE SUMMARY

On Tuesday, November 25, 2008, at approximately 10:30 a.m., SPECIAL AGENT LARRY DUREN met with TYRONE POLICE CHIEF BRANDON PERKINS at his office at 925 Senoia Road, Tyrone, Georgia, pursuant to a preliminary review. CHIEF PERKINS advised AGENT DUREN essentially the following:

According to CHIEF PERKINS, in June of 2008 it was learned at an open city budget meeting that FORMER CITY MANAGER BARRY AMOS and ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER VALERIE CALDWELL had been paid for vacation time and comp time over a period of three paychecks, one in November and two in December, in excess of the 240 hours of vacation and 80 hours of comp time that they were allotted per city policy. CHIEF PERKINS went on to say that after the election in November, the city elected a new mayor along with several new council members and it was decided that the city was going in a different direction and current CITY MANAGER BARRY AMOS would not have a job in January 2009. CHIEF PERKINS stated that VALERIE CALDWELL had contacted the City of Tyrone’s pay system and turned these hours in without authorization. CHIEF PERKINS indicated that the City of Tyrone’s government pay system is held through a company called Pay Check and that every two weeks someone from City Hall, normally the finance director, will call in the hours for city employees and Pay check will cut the checks. After this was discovered in June of 2008, all city employees were required to use their leave down to 240 hours and to use the comp time down to 80 hours.

CHIEF PERKINS went on to say that under the previous administration city employees were allowed to accrue in excess of 240 hours vacation time and in excess of 80 hours comp time, even though it was in the employee handbook that city employees could only have 240 hours of vacation on the books and 80 hours of comp time. CHIEF PERKINS further indicated that he had several members of his department that had to take several weeks of vacation and comp time in order for them not to lose it. According to CHIEF PERKINS, MARY STRUM, who is the financial manager for the City of Tyrone, and City Bookkeeper DOTTIE BUTLER would have more information pertaining to the occurrences that occurred with Former City Manager BARRY AMOS and Assistant City manager VALERIE CALDWELL. CHIEF PERKINS stated that STRUM and BUTLER were out on leave this week and would not return to work until Monday, December 1, 2008.

CHIEF PERKINS also said that the last three police chiefs, upon leaving the City of Tyrone, all received in their final check their entire amount of vacation time and their entire amount of comp time. CHIEF PERKINS indicated that he would contact MARY STRUM AND DOTTIE BUTLER and set up an appointment for Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at 10:30 a.m.

CHIEF PERKINS did not supply the agent with any additional information, therefore the interview was concluded.

GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
INVESTIGATIVE CASE SUMMARY

On Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at approximately 10:30 a.m., SPECIAL AGENT LARRY DUREN met with MARY STRUM, Financial Manager for the City of Tyrone, along with DOTTIE BUTLER, City of Tyrone’s bookkeeper, at Tyrone City Hall, 881 Senoia Road, Tyrone, Georgia. STRUM and BUTLER advised AGENT DUREN essentially the following:

According to STRUM and BUTLER, BARRY AMOS, the former City Manager for the Tyrone City government, was hired by Tyrone on December 11, 1996. VALERIE CALDWELL, Assistant City Manager, was hired on July 8, 1988. Prior to leaving the Tyrone Police Department, BARRY AMOS was making $93,403.96 and VALERIE CALDWELL was making $64,498.98. AMOS’ hourly salary was $44.91 and CALDWELL’S hourly salary was $31.81. These hourly salaries were base on 2080 hours per year. According to STRUM and BUTLER all employees received 1 ½ hours comp time for anything over 40 hours per week. By city policy, employees were not to accrue more than 240 hours of annual leave per year and 80 hours comp time per year. AMOS received 80 hours of annual leave per year, which was a total of ten days. CALDWELL received 120 hours of leave per year, which was a total of 15 days leave. CALDWELL received five extra days of leave due to the fact that she had been employed for approximately 19 years with the City of Tyrone.

BUTLER and STRUM indicated that the City of Tyrone uses a company known as Pay Check to print out by-weekly paychecks. The way the City of Tyrone pays employees is each employee will submit a time sheet to their supervisor, their supervisor will review the time sheet, approve the time sheet, and send the time sheets to City Hall. Once this is done, normally DOTTIE BUTLER would contact the Pay Check company and supply this company with the amount of hours that the employee worked and Pay Check would then in turn cut the check for this employee. BUTLER indicated that she normally calls in employees’ hours, but occasionally VALERIE CALDWELL would call the hours in.

In June of 2008, at a budget meeting STRUM and BUTLER noticed that the city was over its budget on employees’ salaries. BUTLER was not sure of the exact amount, but believes that the budget was over in excess of $36,000.00. During this meeting VALERIE CALDWELL indicated that she had paid herself and BARRY AMOS for all their accrued comp time and vacation time over three paychecks, one in November and two in December. In June of 2008 STRUM and BUTLER learned that AMOS was paid for 334 hours of vacation time and 160 hours of comp time, totaling $22,206.64 over these three separate paychecks in November and December. They also learned that CALDWELL was paid for 782 hours of vacation time for a total of $24,258.39 over this same pay period. STRUM indicated that employees were only allowed to take 240 hours of vacation and 80 hours of comp on the books. By city policy employees were only supposed to receive this amount upon leaving the City of Tyrone. STRUM and BUTLER went on to say that even after AMOS and CALDWELL had received the three checks for November and December they still were paid 240 hours plus 80 hours comp time upon their termination from the City of Tyrone. STRUM and BUTLER supplied AGENT DUREN with a copy of BARRY AMOS’ time sheets indicating that he had accrued 826 hours of vacation time and 229 hours of comp time, and VALERIE CALDWELL had accrued 972 hours of vacation time and 111 hours of comp time. This was the amount of time that the employees had accrued on November 3, 2007 pay period. This was the amount of leave and comp time that AMOS and CALDWELL had on their books prior to receiving compensation for this time. BUTLER indicated that AMOS and CALDWELL always worked and never took much leave time from the City of Tyrone.

STRUM indicated that in June of 2008, after learning of what CALDWELL and AMOS had done, they allowed all employees who had accrued excessive comp time to receive a check and for all employees to take vacation to bring down their time to 240 hours. STRUM stated that this current city policy is being enforced that no employee can have more than 240 hours vacation time nor can an employee have more than 80 hours of comp time. Once an employee gets to this amount of time, they do not earn any additional comp time or vacation time without time off to burn the hours up. BUTLER further indicated that under the old administration this policy was not enforced. BUTLER went on to say that she was aware that when former CHIEF WILLIAM MULLIS left the City of Tyrone he was paid for his entire vacation hours along with all of his comp time hours in his final check, which was in excess of 240 hours of vacation.

STRUM and BUTLER stated that after the previous mayor and several council members were beat in the November election the new incoming mayor DON REHWALDE told AMOS that he probably would not have a job after January 1, 2008. BUTLER stated that after learning that CALDWELL and AMOS had received these checks, CALDWELL told BUTLER and STRUM that she had received authorization from the Mayor, SHERYL LEE, who was the former mayor, that she could cut checks for the excessive vacation time and comp time. BUTLER and STRUM supplied AGENT DUREN with copies of AMOS’ and CALDWELL’S time sheets along with City of Tyrone policy reference annual leave and comp time. These items will be attached and made a part of this case file. BUTLER and STRUM basically said that AMOS and CALDWELL ran the City of Tyrone under the previous administration without any oversight from the city council or mayor.

BUTLER and STRUM could not supply the agent with any additional information, therefore the interview was concluded.

After the horses got out. Tyrone financial Consultant Mary Sturm told GBI “that in June of 2008, after learning of what Amos and Caldwell had done, they allowed all employees who had accrued excessive comp time to receive a check and for all employees to take vacation to bring down their time to 240 hours. That this current city policy is being enforced that no employee can have more than 240 hours vacation time nor can an employee have more than 80 hours of comp time. Once an employee gets to this amount of time, they do not earn any additional comp time or vacation time without time off to burn the hours up.”

“Butler & Sturm said that Amos & Caldwell ran the City of Tyrone under the previous administration without any oversight from the city council or mayor.”

You mean to tell us that no one was checking out how taxpayer money was being spent? What was Mayor Lee and Council Smola, Letourneau, Caldwell, & Furr doing? I guess the Fox was over-seeing the hen house.

GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
INVESTIGATIVE CASE SUMMARY

On Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at approximately 1:45 p.m., SPECIAL AGENT LARRY DUREN interviewed SHERYL LEE at her residence 156 Palmetto Road, Tyrone, Georgia pursuant to preliminary review. LEE advised AGENT DUREN essentially the following:

According to LEE, she was the previous mayor of Tyrone, Georgia and had served in this position for approximately eight years. In November of 2007, DON REHWALDE was elected Tyrone City Mayor, also several new members were elected to the Tyrone City Council. LEE indicated that the old council was going out and a new city council was coming in. Sometime in mid November of 2007 VALERIE CALDWELL contacted LEE and asked LEE about all the vacation time that AMOS and CALDWELL had earned over the years that they had worked for the City of Tyrone and if they could be compensated for their vacation time and comp time prior to the new administration taking office in January of 2008. LEE authorized CALDWELL to write CALDWELL and AMOS checks paying them for all their vacation and comp time that they had earned over the past years due to the fact that they felt the new administration would not pay them for their vacation time and comp time.

LEE indicated that she felt that the new mayor and city council would relieve AMOS and CALDWELL of their duties with the City of Tyrone. LEE indicated that the City of Tyrone has historically paid employees for their vacation time in excess of the 240 hours of vacation and 80 hours of comp time that is the City of Tyrone’s policy. LEE stated she was not aware of this policy, but felt it the only right thing to do due to the fact that AMOS had worked for the City of Tyrone for approximately 11 years and CALDWELL had worked for the City of Tyrone for approximately 18 years.

LEE went on to say that CALDWELL and AMOS very rarely took vacation time, CALDWELL and AMOS always worked and were rarely on vacation or leave. LEE felt that it was only right to compensate CALDWELL and AMOS for all the vacation time and comp time that they had accrued and not taken during their employment with the City of Tyrone. LEE concluded by stating that the City of Tyrone had historically paid employees for all comp time and vacation time that they had accrued during their employment with the City of Tyrone upon leaving city government. LEE also felt that if AMOS and CALDWELL had not received their compensation prior to January of 2008, the new city government would not have paid CALDWELL and AMOS for their accrued vacation and comp time.

LEE could not supply the agent with any additional information, therefore the interview was concluded.

What a bunch of repetitious pablum! No wonder she lost. Citizens should probably be thankful they didn't lose a half mil, what with all the gratuitious decisions being made. And it's hard to believe that those two long time employees didn't know the rules! But when there's no one to say "NO", all they had to do was drive on.

As the following GBI evidence shows:

To: Mayor and Council for the Town of Tyrone
From: Mary Sturm
Subject: Payment to Barry Amos and Valerie Fowler/Caldwell on November 21, 2007, December 5, 2007, and December 19, 2007

I have reviewed the time sheets of the above-named individuals beginning with the week of December 14, 1996. I have found the following:

In general, there are significant gaps in the records. It is difficult to know what has transpired over time due to the state of the records. The Town has a policy of capping the accrual of Vacation Time at 240 hours. Multiple instances exist with a number of employee where this policy has not been followed. The Town has a policy of capping Compensatory Time at 80 hours. With respect to Mr. Amos and Ms. Fowler Caldwell, their Compensatory Time banks appeared to not exceed 80 hours up through June 2002 even when they worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

However, subsequent to July 2002, they began accruing Compensatory Time above the 80-hour cap. In reviewing the time sheets, there is nothing which can be verified or disputed as each individual signed his/her own time sheet and there is no way to know the actual working hours. It appears from the records that Mr. Amos and Ms. Fowler/Caldwell were aware of the limit of both Vacation Time and Compensatory Time, e.g., their actions during the months of November and December 2007 resulted in reducing their respective banks to within acceptable limits. Although, beginning in January 2008, Ms. Fowler/Caldwell continued to accrue additional time in excess of the maximums allowed.

While the Town policies were not adhered to, based upon the state of the records, I cannot find any wrongdoing on the part of these individuals.

When running for public office Tyrone candidates should at least be able to perform simple mathematical computations. This is required in order for elected officials to oversee their $3 million dollar budget of taxpayer’s money.

The math formula required is A-B=C, when A is the amount of money paid out, and B is the amount allowed by law, then C would equal either a balanced budget or overspending.

This is not a difficult concept. But, as in the case of Tyrone’s employee payment law, the GBI investigation showed that neither the 2007 mayor and council, nor the current elected body even cared to do the math.

As a result over $54,000 in taxpayers’ money was flushed down the toilet in 2007-2008. If the formula had been applied the result would have tipped off the elected officials.
Even if officials were incapable of doing simple math, they should have known that if they only budgeted $2000 for comp time and zero for annual leave, that employee checks in 2007 totaling $46,464 was a bit over budget for these items.

Of course if Mayor Sheryl Lee was unaware of the payment plan and forgot about her budget and the council was in the lala land of no oversight, and the GBI investigation was never done; then the voters would never have known this reason for the 2008-09 budget deficit.