Forensic Audit Costs Cherokee Taxpayers Nearly $500,000

The final price tag for a forensic audit to get to the bottom of the failed recycling venture will wind up costing Cherokee County taxpayers just under a half-million dollars.

The Cherokee County Commission on Tuesday approved paying an overage amount that totaled $95,673.71 for Rhonda D. McClendon & Associates to finish the forensic audit on the failed Ball Ground Recycling venture. 

That brings the total price tag to $495,673. 

The Newnan-based public accounting firm, whom the county selected last year to perform the audit, turned over their findings to the Cherokee County District Attorney's office. 

Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney Shannon Wallace will now review the final product to determine if any wrongdoing occurred. 

The total audit, County Commission Chair Buzz Ahrens said, is roughly 2,300 pages long. 

The county's original contract with the law firm capped the cost at $75,000, and authorized County Manager Jerry Cooper to approve an additional $25,000 if needed. 

The commission in 2006 created the Resource Recovery Development Authority and backed up to $18 million in bonds, which were used to relocate the former Cherokee Recycling to land along Highway 5 just south of Ball Ground.

The agreement stipulated Ball Ground Recycling operator Jimmy Bobo was to make payments of the bond into an escrow account, but the county learned in late 2011 Bobo hadn't been making the payments.

That forced the county to pick up the tab, which it will still be responsible for if it does not find a new operator for the site.

Ball Ground Recycling in late May filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the company was subsequently forced to remove itself from the property.

The company was eventually dismissed from bankruptcy court, giving the county the green light to go after the company and Bobo to recover money from the failed deal. 

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