At a recent budget workshop (April 13, 2007) the County Commission developed a consensus to not renew the contract with the Department of Environmental Protection, Storage Tank Compliance Program. The contract ended June 29, 2007
There are several interesting issues related to this action. First the Commissioner who brought up the subject is none other than Charlie Stone of Stone Petroleum. This immediately throws up some red flags. Should a County Commissioner involve himself in the discussion and straw ballot on a contract for an agency that regulates his personal business?
In the discussion that ensued several ascertains were made. Commissioner Stone stated that the Storage Tank program was to be a revenue-generating program. This program was never intended to be a revenue-generating program. The intent of securing the program was to provide local enforcement of the program and reduce the number of inspectors that visited our local business community.
In further discussion he relates that he see the program going away. If the State wants to renew the contract for an additional 10 years where is he getting his information?
Commissioner Stone also states it creates some problems on the other side. What problems? Could he be talking about the fact that his private business was cited for some severe violations? Could it be that his company was installing tanks at locations without the proper protection features? If you look at the records they speak for themselves.
Commissioner Stone also made the statement to Fire Chief McElhaney, “it’s not a program that you would swallow a sword to keep so why would you want to execute another contract with the state”. Is Commissioner Stone referring to the recent audit by DEP? He referred to the “problems we were having in it”. Is he talking about the inappropriate purchases and ensuing media attention or the citations from the inspector?
Commissioner Stone also brings up an issue concerning DEP nitpicking on how the contract money is spent. Is it nitpicking to expect that the County follow the agreement they signed? What part of dog food or vet bills should the program pay for? How hard is it to understand that the funds need to be used to pay for costs associated with the Storage Tank Program?
The requirements in the contract were well explained to Chief McElhaney when Fire Rescue first took over the program. This was further explained when it was found that purchases were made from program funds including dog food and vet bills. An attempt was made to correct the mistakes by doing journal entries. Apparently these never were executed.
A interesting comment that was made by Chief McElhaney was that “he never called, nor was he aware whether any of his staff members had called, the DEP to find out if the items now in question were permitted purchases under the contract”.

Well that is not exactly accurate, in fact it is an outright lie. Chief McElhaney was well informed about the rules and regulations concerning the administration of the program. I can clearly remember 14 different conversations related to the program and the purchases.

The first discussion dealt with the purchase of dog food and the vet bills. The parties involved in the discussion were Barbara Pica, Christy Biggs, Stuart McElhaney and Me.

The second discussion involved a discussion between Stuart McElhaney, Barbara Pica, and myself concerning journal entries.

The third conversation involved Stuart McElhaney, the late Karen Tillery, and Myself, where Stuart advised me that Karen was concerned about the purchases and asked me to request her assistance in correcting the mistakes.

The forth conversation was with the late Karen Tillery about the purchases and I asked for her assistance. I sent a memo to Karen Tillery with copies Stuart.

The fifth conversation was when, I met with Karen in her office to try to correct the fund expenditures.

The sixth conversation was with Deputy Chief David Cooper concerning the purchase of hazardous materials response equipment. David Cooper was told that I would have to check with Patrick Higgins, DEP. Chief McElhaney was present during the conversation.

The seventh conversation was with Patrick Higgins, DEP concerning what Marion County was allowed to purchase from storage tank funds. Patrick Higgins, DEP stated that the equipment that David Cooper wanted to buy was not an acceptable purchase. (the equipment was purchased out of storage tank funds anyway)

The eighth conversation was with Stuart McElhaney concerning the conversation with Patrick Higgins, DEP. This was also documented in the divisional staff notes.

The ninth conversation was at the direction of Stuart McElhaney, where he instructed me to contact Tom McNamara, Marion County Attorney’s office. I sent a legal request notice to Tom McNamara per his request.

The tenth conversation was with Stuart McElhaney, where I related my conversation with Tom McNamara and his opinion that purchases from storage tank funds needed to be strictly related to the program. This was documented in the divisional staff notes.

The eleventh conversation was with Stuart McElhaney on how to correct the problem with the purchases. Angela Sweeney was assigned to monitor the purchases. This was documented in the divisional staff notes.

The twelfth conversation was during budget preparation. The topic was travel to National Fire Protection Association meetings and conferences. In the original budget preparation documents these expenditures were listed in the Fire Budget. Chief McElhaney stated that the line items needed to be moved to the storage tank accounts. He related that the fire budget received considerable scrutiny and if we left them in the MSBU budget they probably wouldn’t be approved. He stated if we put the travel in storage tank it wouldn’t be questioned. We were directed to budget these items in the storage tank account.

The thirteenth conversation related to the purchase of vehicles. When the first vehicles were purchased they were (2) two Chevorlet Tahoes. These were to be used in the program for persons doing inspections. In an effort to assist other divisions these vehicles were transferred to operations and new vehicles were purchased for inspection personnel. The problem came in when the (2) new vehicles were transferred to operations. I told Chief McElhaney, that we can’t justify the purchases and if we were audited we would have to reimburse the program.

The fourteenth conversation was related to the information we received from DEP concerning the expenditures of program funds. Chief McElhaney was told that any budgeted funds in excess of 5% would have to be returned to the state. His direction was to expend the funds.

So did we get rid of the Storage Tank Contract because it wasn’t beneficial to our community or was it because Commissioner Stone didn’t like the citations against his company or was it because the Fire Chief got his fingers caught in the cookie jar?

JLCFPS