Mason, Tennessee seems to be ready for good fortune. Ford Motor Company is expected to build a new electric vehicle plant nearby, and with the arrival of the automaker, Mason will benefit greatly from tax revenue and new jobs.
But Tennessee driver Jason Mumpower took over Mason’s finances after years of alleged mismanagement and corruption.
“It’s for the good of taxpayers who don’t get anything for the taxes they pay,” Mumpower told The Tennessee Holler.
In Tennessee, the auditor approves or rejects city budgets and audits, and can dictate how a city spends money.
“We can’t even pay any bills over $ 100 without contacting them and they give us permission,” Mason’s deputy mayor, Virginia Rivers, told CBS News.
Rivers and Mayor Emmitt Gooden have been part of the city council since 2016. Rivers said when they arrived they had a lot to fix after she said they stole nearly $ 1 million from the city.
Mumpower said his intention is to help the city repair its finances, but city attorney Terry Clayton frames the fight with the state in biblical terms.
“We believe that God puts you no more than you can bear. And He provided David against Goliath. So we will continue to defend the justice of this city,” Clayton said.
Mumpower turned down a CBS News interview request. It provided a timeline showing embezzlement in 1995 and again in 2012; 20 years of late audits at Mason; and nearly $ 900,000 illegally transferred from water and sewer funds to the general fund.
Although more than $ 600,000 has already been returned to the funds, the intervention calls for the city to pay $ 9,500 in advance before paying any bills. Mason has $ 248,656 left to return.
The municipality has only four businesses from which it receives tax revenue. Tennessee gave Ford a $ 1 million grant to build an electric car plant not far from Mason.
According to local reports, the plant will create 33,000 construction jobs with a payroll of nearly $ 2 billion. Once completed, there could be 27,000 jobs and Mason could benefit dramatically.
Last year’s announcement that Ford was coming coincided with increased auditor pressure on Mason to put his financial affairs in order.
“Why couldn’t he have come earlier, before Ford came in,” Rivers said. “Suddenly you want to introduce yourself and make these demands.”
In court, city attorney Clayton, along with the NAACP, sought a restraining order against the comptroller, accusing him of discriminating against the predominantly black-led city. The intervention lawyer rejected it.
“It was the whites who were there when all the money was stolen from them. No one showed up. That’s weird,” Rivers said.
Clayton said state aid is being shown as a “hard way.”
“It’s too heavy, you go down here, you have a civil conversation and you don’t go down here and you threaten a town and tell people that if you don’t give up your letter, we’ll go around you. Okay. That’s a threat,” he said. to say.
The state auditor spoke to the city about whether they would be willing to give up their charter and stop being a city, but the city said no.
The state cannot force them to give up the letter. Now, a judge will then decide whether to tell the state to withdraw or not.
This comes as allegations of corruption continue after Vatisha Evans Barken, Mason’s former police chief, was charged with allegedly falsifying her timetables. CBS News could not comment.
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