Local Carrollton Georgia News
Chappell Gives $12,000 SPLOST Funds to Mayor Garner's Partner
October 10th, 2008
On February 13, 2008 (eight months ago), Chairman William Chappell (pictured left) paid Carroll County SPLOST PROJECT/DOT
FUND 2003 check #1343 for $12,000 to Charlie Watts Governmental Affairs for "general consulting services."
Additionally, the contract with Watts described an additional $88,000 to be paid "upon completion and
approval by the Chairman and the majority of the board." Simple math tells us that the total contract
represents $100,000.
Why is this important?
The law regarding the authority of the Carroll County Board of Commissioners clearly states, "To authorize
all contracts, except for contracts of employment, involving the expenditure of county funds in excess of
$12,500.00." Given that this is a $100,000 contract, the chairman DID NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO
AUTHORIZE IT! The chairman's authority is limited to $12,500, so Chairman William
Chappell exceeded his authority by 800% when he signed this contract.
Of particular note for this article was the total lack of presentation of this contract to the other members of the
Carroll County Board of Commissioners. A quick polling of five board members during the past three weeks
confirmed that they had (emphatically) never heard of Charlie Watts or of his contract with the county.
Open Records requests for any/all information relating to Charlie Watts and this SPLOST payment turned up
little. Also, documentation does not exist showing that Lobbyist/Consultant Charlie
Watts provided any service(s) to the county. All indications are that the chairman signed the contract; he
wrote and signed the check to Watts; and then Charlie Watts never provided any service to the county.
Again, all indications are that no work was provided by Charlie Watts to the county and the Carroll
County Board of Commissioners (the ones polled for this article) had never been told of this contract.
More specifically, this contract/engagement has never been presented, discussed or approved to/by the
Carroll County Board of Commissioners even though it was signed (and the associated check was written)
8 months ago.
Who is Charlie Watts?
First and foremost, Charlie Watts is a lobbyist. We have provided a link to his lobbyist page on the state ethics
web site below. Also, when you click to view his contract with the county (linked below), you will notice that it was
faxed from the "House of Representatives" from telephone number "404-463-4122." It was not faxed from his business
office or from his home office, THE CONTRACT WAS FAXED FROM THE GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!
More specifically, the contract was faxed from Pat Harris' office at the Georgia State Capitol, who is the Administrative Assistant to State Representatives
Bob Lane and Tom McCall. When asked (today) about why Charlie Watts would use her office fax machine to send a private
business contract to Carroll County, Pat Harris replied, "well he is a lobbyist and he was in our office
and he just used our machine."
Something that cannot be overlooked is that Charlie Watts is a business partner of Carrollton, Georgia Mayor J. Wayne Garner. They
operate together under the organizational name
Southeastern Resource Group and may be found as follows:
In conclusion, the chairman gave away $12,000 of the taxpayer's SPLOST funds to Mayor J. Wayne Garner's partner on a contract
he did not have the authority to authorize; he never presented the contract to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners; and no work
was provided by Lobbyist Charlie Watts. Shouldn't the money be returned to the county?
Chairman Chappell, Charlie Watts and Mayor Wayne Garner have not responded publicly to this article as of press time,
Got an idea for a news story, just email us: Local Carrollton Georgia News.
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