Town of Oakland
Goodman
The city business of Oakland, Tenn. has been in the crosshairs of investigators with the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office and their findings go all the way up to the mayor’s office.
Comptroller Justin P. Wilson issued the findings Tuesday and said he has reviewed them with Mike Dunavant, the District Attorney General for the 25th District, which includes Fayette County.
The investigation found that Chris Goodman, the mayor of Oakland, used city property and his city hall office for his private-sector job. Goodman was also “frequently out of town and unavailable to town employees during the day,” according to investigators.
Investigators also found that government officials there gave a contract to upgrade the city’s information system to a company without a competitive bid. Oakland city policies require any purchase over $10,000 go through a bidding process. The computer system upgrade cost $52,172.29, according to the comptroller’s office.
Also, the former town recorder got a check for compensatory time at the end of her employment with the town that totaled $45,006.01. The payment was against city law and investigators could not prove the validity of the 1,532.01 hours she had allegedly accrued.
“In addition to the issues noted above, our investigators also found numerous accounting and administrative problems within the town’s operations,” Wilson said in a statement. “I encourage the board of mayor and aldermen to address each of these issues to improve accountability.”
Here is the Comptroller’s full report:
[pdf-1]
