Sources contacted SWGA Politics indicating that Don Buie has not resigned…he has been fired. I’m not sure how accurate this actually is though, so we will update this as more information becomes available.
UPDATE:
The Albany Herald is reporting that there were multiple problems for which Buie was fired. Among them was that he allegedly paid his wife $3,100 in ADICA funds (a little different than his “I can use whatever vendor I want” line, ain’t it?).
There was also apparently poor documentation, apparent by the lack of invoices for checks which it’s reported were written based solely on an email to ATI’s bookkeeper. Of course, that poor documentation might also explain why it took so long to find the lease for the Dollar Square, don’t you think?
Next Update (4:42 PM) – Again, according to the Herald’s website, Buie was asked for his resignation, and when he failed to give it he was fired. Of course, we’ve been saying that Buie needed to hit the road for some time now, even without all the other stuff.
An additional post regarding the $50,000 fascade grant to, ADICA board member Lujanna Woods will be forthcoming.
Both Herald and WALB are reporting Buie fired. Of course, now we learn that an ADICA board member got a previously undisclosed $50,000 grant.
Anyone want to wager they don’t want to release that audit?
Tom, bet me money that they scapegoat Buie as a smokescreen to divert from ADICA’s utter failure and corruption? I will give you very good odds. I called the sign ordinance task force perfect. Wanna bet I can go 2 for 2?
Another question to ask:
Who approved the $50,000 grant from ADICA to ADICA board member Woods? Is there any actual paperwork on that or did they “lose” that too?
Does no one see a problem with ADICA giving money to its own board members? How is that any different from what Buie did??
WAKE UP PEOPLE!! YOU’RE BEING ROBBED!!
Jack: Who knows what’s there and what isn’t. Apparently, a lot was done without ANY paperwork being completed. Frankly, that should lead to a complete cleaning out of all who deal with downtown. There is no way this should have happened!
Everyone should probably take a second to thank Judith Brown (Nicole’s mom) for THE phonecall. Without her, none of this would have come to light when it did. Thank you, Mrs. Brown!
“Who knows what’s there and what isn’t”.
Tom: We now know there is a $50,000 check that we didn’t know about yesterday. Who signed it? Was it Buie, and if not, who approved it and on what basis.
“Everyone should probably take a second to thank Judith Brown (Nicole’s mom) for THE phonecall. Without her, none of this would have come to light when it did. Thank you, Mrs. Brown!”
That’s the truth. Marietta, Langstaff, etc were simply hell-bent on giving ADICA a blank check. Phil Cannon sat on ADICA’s board but was mum about not seeing the books.
Mrs. Brown, I second the thanks. Without you, we’d still be being nickled and dimed by Buie. Now we’re only being raped by ADICA and our city commission for at least $6 milllion more.
the Commissioner Marietta started the audit after the ADICA Board failed to investigate what was going on. The City Commission was not consulted on the $600,000 bond required for appeal and I doubt the ADICA Board was either
From my understanding, ADICA’s board was NOT consulted on the bond issue.
This is incorrect (at least in part), because I know Jay Reynolds (ADICA board member and attorney) was in court when Coley was arguing over the appeal bond.
Guest is a City Commission plant.
I never said my understanding was 100% on the money
As for the “guest”, I won’t indentify him publicly, but I know who he is and can figure out his motivations for posting.
I would be personally grateful if someone got a copy of the audit and put it on line.
Jack: I can’t make any promises, but I will see what I can come up with.
Marietta and Cannon are simply in the damage-control mode at this point. ADICA should be dissolved, never to be heard from again. I personally hope that everyone responsible for or complicit with the funds paid to Ms. Buie and Ms. Woods are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Moe: I sincerely hope so as well. I also hope that there is some serious investigation as to why the ATI book keeper was writing checks without an invoice for the services supposedly rendered. If, and I mean if, that has never been a requirement for her, then I want to know why it wasn’t. That’s just ripe for abuse!
There is so much of this that stinks that it’s past time to start throwing people out on their butts!
The audit is online.
Check walb.com
Jay Reynolds is not an ADICA board member. He represents ADICA. It is impossible to issue the bonds without the ADICA having approved them.
“Jay Reynolds is not an ADICA board member. He represents ADICA. It is impossible to issue the bonds without the ADICA having approved them.”
First of all, I believe they were referring to Tim’s $600,000 appeal bond, not the $6 million ADICA “boondoggle bond.”
Second, the premise that the city commission and ADICA knew nothing about the appeal bond is ADICA/Commissioner propaganda, as the appeal bond was well reported here and everywhere else.
Guest is a City Commission plant. This webiste will not allow me to make a duplicant statement, thus I had to add this sentence.
Tim,
The second ‘Guest’ is different from the first, at least per email and IP.
Thanks. I didn’t even read. My territorial instincts kicked in.
Now that we see what has been going on with Buie et al, is it possible someone can look at ATI and see what they did for all those years? Is the ATI bookeeper involved in the Buie thing? I seriously doubt than anyone–including the ATI Board–ever took a hard look at ATI’s expenditures. Are ATI’s records still available–or have they met Mr. Shredder?
Here’s an interesting question:
If GBI does a thorough forensic audit of Buie and Woods’ finances, I wonder if it would show any funds coming into Buie’s hands around the time that Woods got the money? This would suggest a kickback and seems the most likely explanation for this grant.
Query:
What else would the motive be for giving someone a grant for a business that (at least according to WALB) is outside the geographic bounds of where ADICA is supposed to waste the taxpayers’ money?
Again, (in my opinion) you guys (Tom, Tim and Kevin) need to look beyond the few checks Buie wrote to ex-wife and girlfriend, IMHO.
It’s obvious there are no basic accounting checks and balances in place with ADICA. Therefore, there are still more questions than answers. For example, it appears two of the checks written to Shanon Lee-Buie were signed by Mrs. Wilson. Now, either she signed the check without properly verifying the documentation or someone forged her name (?)
There is evidence that has been removed from files. Whtat about the bookkeeper? Invoices paid at more than face value. And, what about the $50,000
GRANT to the board member??? What’s Lott’s culpability here? Dang, we should write a book.
There is a lot of questions left to be answered. We’re just now starting to get into the nitty gritty of what’s been going on. Just because Buie is gone, I have no intention of backing off on what happened. We’re only getting a piece of what happened, and I suspect that we will find more and more as time rolls on.
Yes, the bookkeeper, Shonnie King, doesn’t sound like much of a bookkeeper to me. And now we hear that Buie’s “personal assistant”, Monique Broughton, will be staying on to help James Taylor? She should be out, too! The head count just keeps growing and growing.
I don’t know that they have enough to terminate Broughton though. They have to go through the hoops, and it’s possible that she didn’t know what was what. Of course, that shouldn’t spare her an investigation into what she knew and what she did while working for Buie. If there is actual wrong doing on her part, then she needs to go as well.
There is some serious house cleaning needed it seems. More on that will be posted at 8:00 this morning.
While we’re gathering material to write a book, why don’t we put the $6m bond on hold?