Did Sullivan highway commissioner break law with ditch-digging project?

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – After learning more about the incident, a group of Sullivan County commissioners is asking the county prosecutor to investigate the chief highway official’s recent actions regarding a one-third mile, dead-end road near Bluff City.

The county commission’s Executive Committee voted unanimously Thursday to ask District Attorney General Greeley Wells to determine if Highway Commissioner Allan Pope broke the law when he dug a ditch along Graybeal Road, to the site of a proposed subdivision.

The committee’s vote comes after members learned more about the incident and saw pictures taken of the work.

“I do not vote on something when I do not know what the evidence is,” said County Commissioner Elliot Kilgore of Kingsport, who sits on the executive committee.

The photos showing the construction work were presented Thursday by County Attorney Dan Street and some residents of Graybeal Road. The photos showed a ravine on private property that had been filled in, and showed highway equipment and vehicles working a few hundred feet away from the road’s shoulder, which the neighbors said was well outside the road-widening project’s boundaries.

“The pictures made the difference,” Commissioner John McKamey said after the committee’s meeting. “The unanimous vote today is simply because of the pictures.”

On March 3, Pope ordered his highway crews to dig a 36-inch-deep ditch along Graybeal Road as they were widening the street for the developers of a proposed subdivision that would contain 15 residential lots.

Pope said he was going to dig the ditch to a depth of 18 inches, but he offered to go deeper so Bluff City could install a water line connecting the proposed subdivision with a water main that runs along state Route 44.

“This is a standard practice,” Pope told the county commission Monday. “We do everything we can to try and help the developer.”

Pope said he did not know the Bluff City Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted against installing the water line. Instead, the board told the property’s owners, Reed and Rosalyn Booher, to hire a private contractor to do the work.

Pope said he would not have dug the ditch if he knew the Boohers hired a private contractor, and he ordered his highway crews to fill the ditch back in once he heard the complaints.

The county Executive Committee, a week after they learned of the incident, held a special meeting March 10 to discuss the situation with the county attorney. Pope did not attend that meeting nor did he attend Thursday evening’s meeting.

During that first meeting, Street said Pope might have broken a state law that makes it illegal for a county highway commissioner to use his department’s equipment or supplies for private purposes or any other non-county business.

Street also said that Pope’s actions clearly benefited the Boohers, who are private individuals, and the highway commissioner’s claim that he was trying to help Bluff City is not a defense.

Violating that law is a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $50 fine.

But on March 10, the Executive Committee stopped short of sending the matter to Wells’ office, after a motion to do so failed for lack of a second. Members of the committee said they wanted to hear Pope’s side of the story and wanted to see more evidence about the case. Instead, they send the issue to the county Ethics Committee, which is scheduled to hear the case at 7:30 a.m. March 23. The hearing will be the first time the Ethics Committee has reviewed the actions of an elected county official since the county adopted its ethics policy in December 2007.

On Thursday, Street told the county Executive Committee that he has been unable to validate any of Pope’s claims that the highway department had access to the right-of-way it needed for the road-widening and ditch-digging project. The attorney also said the highway department used the excess dirt from its road-widening project, most of which took place over the summer, to fill in a steep ravine on a private piece of property.

“Obviously this property owner benefitted from that,” Street said. He also said the brunt of his case against Pope still rests with his actions building the water line.

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