A former Fentress County Commissioner made more than $13,000 by overseeing a court-ordered sale of property, and he did so while serving in office, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week.
Doing so violated state law, specifically the County Financial Management System of 1981 conflict of interest statute, auditors wrote. The law says county officials may not have a financial or personal interest in the purchase of supplies, materials, equipment, or contractual services for the county.
County officials contracted former commissioner Jeff Green to do the work, according to the audit.
Green’s proceeds included an 8 percent commission ($8,960) on the sale of the real property, a 10 percent commission ($197) on the sale of the personal property, and a reimbursement for auction expenses ($3,887).
An unnamed county official concurred with the finding in a written response to Comptrollers.
“Mr. Jeff Green of Green Acres Real Estate and Auction Company had previously been court-ordered to assist me in selling property. Due to this fact, and in trying to be fair to the local auction companies which I am ordered to select auction companies to assist me, I chose Green Acres Real Estate and Auction Company,” the county official wrote
“I am a relatively new Clerk and Master and was not aware of this statute. I will see that this does not happen again.”
In a written response of his own, Green said the following:
Due to multiple years of working together, the Andersons as Petitioners requested Green Acres Real Estate and Auction to work on their behalf and conduct an auction of settle the estate in question.
The work for this family began long before I became a Fentress County Commissioner and was simply finalized in the fall of 2017.
Elsewhere in the audit, Comptrollers said they are currently investigating the county’s finance department in response to a fraud report county officials filed.
“Findings, if any, resulting from this review will be included in a subsequent report,” Comptrollers wrote.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fentress County Courthouse” by Brian Stansberry. CC BY 4.0.
