Grand Jury: No "Prosecutable Criminal Case" in Recycling Plant Deal

A Cherokee County grand jury is recommending the county and state divert its resources from investigating any criminal wrongdoing in the Ball Ground Recycling deal to finding a new operator for the vacant site.

That was one of several recommendations handed down on Tuesday by the grand jury for its May 2014 term. Another finding reported by the grand jury was that we...“do not find a prosecutable criminal case with regards to the Ball Ground Recycling project.”

The grand jury noted the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office has spent “hundreds of hours” investigating the case and subsequent deal with the help of local, state and federal authorities.

“We recommend that no further county or state resources be expended by the district attorney’s office, the Cherokee County Sheriffs Office or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on any criminal investigation or attempted criminal prosecution of the matters relating to the Ball Ground Recycling Project,” the grand jury wrote. “Instead, this grand jury recommends that all county resources be dedicated to aggressively seeking a buyer for the Ball Ground Recycling facility and mitigating the financial losses that this project has needlessly cost the taxpayers of Cherokee County.”

The county has been courting companies to possibly take over operations at the vacant facility. In June, commissioners approved a letter of interest from Peach State Organics, which is a subsidiary of Green USA Recycling. The letter stipulates a lease-purchase agreement where the company would pay Cherokee $30,000 a month to lease the plant.

The grand jury stated it came to its recommendations following multiple days of testimony, a review of the forensic audit performed by McClendon & Associates and reviewing prior presentments issued by previous grand juries.

Cherokee District 1 Commissioner Harry Johnston said he’s known and said from the beginning that the county commission did not engage in criminal wrongdoing when it created the Resource Recovery Development Authority and backed up to 18 million in bonds to relocate Ball Ground Recycling to land along Highway 5 just south of Ball Ground.

“I’m glad the grand jury agrees,” he added. “Whether there was any prosecutable wrongdoing by anyone else is a matter for the them and District Attorney (Shannon Wallace) to decide. Apparently they’ve decided there wasn’t.”

The agreement, which was struck in 2006, 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. Cherokee County has been actively recruiting and talking with possible companies to take over operations.

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.

The forensic audit was approved in late 2012 at the request of a previous grand jury that launched an investigation into the failed venture.

The grand jury also took issue with the county’s use of Cummng-based Jarrard & Davis as its legal team. The grand jury recommends “for both fiscal and logistical reasons, that the county attorney for Cherokee County be a full-time, in-house, salaried county employee, whose office is physically located in Cherokee County; rather than a contractual, hourly employee.”

Johnston added there would be some advantages of hiring an in-house county attorney, such as that person becoming part of the county management team and possibly offer advice from both a management and legal perspective. However, it’s “doubtful” that model would provide for any significant cost savings, Johnston added.

“One attorney couldn’t handle the entire load,” he added. “We’d have to use outside attorneys for some matters. With those costs plus salary and benefit costs of the in-house attorney and a legal secretary, the total cost could be about the same as we’re incurring now.”