Chairman questions plane purchase

That a reserve deputy is authorized to spend nearly one half million dollars of the Dale County Sheriff’s Department’s money is what Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship is questioning.

That the “authorization to close escrow” document shows that the reserve deputy was given $3,000 during the transaction is what Blankenship is also questioning.

“I know you all don’t want me to talk about this but I am to a point that as chairman of this commission I feel like I have to talk about it and y’all are just going to have to bear with me,” Blankenship told those attending the commission work session May 22.

At issue is the Feb. 20 purchase of a 1981 Cessna 421C twin engine eight-seater airplane purchased by Timothy S. McDonald, “individual and as chief pilot of Dale County Sheriff’s office.”

McDonald retired in January 2016 after serving with the Dale County Sheriff’s department for 28 years. He had served as chief deputy and was key to the development of the department’s aviation assets. He has remained with the department in a reserve deputy status.

On the “Authorization to Close Escrow” document addressed to Becky Brock of International Aircraft Title and Escrow and signed by McDonald, $3,000 of the $477,400 wire transferred was wired to McDonald.

Blankenship said he was not made aware of the purchase until a citizen came in to his office with the information. “I found out about this trade on April 9 when somebody from the general public walked into my office and told me,” Blankenship said. “That may not sound like a big deal to a lot of you, but we insure that aircraft, we pay the fuel on that aircraft.

“I am getting tremendous pressure from the news media, from the general public and employees in this county over this aircraft situation,” Blankenship said. "I know we said we were going to bring The Association of County Commissions of Alabama down here to address this issue but to me this has gotten much, much larger than what I first thought or anticipated it being.

Blankenship said that he learned that McDonald recently signed a contract to rent a T-hangar with the city of Ozark for the sheriff’s department. “Tim McDonald is not authorized to do that. It takes the commission to sign. That is just the bottom line,” Blankenship said. “I want it to be known that I told each of you and everybody in this room that it’s a problem that needs fixing.

“I’ve asked for the information on the new plane. We did receive that and it is disturbing to me that all the paperwork is signed by Tim McDonald who is a reserve deputy and it appears that Tim McDonald received $3,000 in this transaction,” Blankenship said. “Folks, that’s taxpayers money any way you look at it.

“Tim McDonald was an employee and he was a great employee for the county but he is now in a position where he doesn’t even file ethics forms,” Blankenship said. “How can a person handle a checking account with hundreds of thousands of dollars in it when he is not even required to file ethics forms? I can’t imagine Alabama law allows that.

“We all took an oath to operate things within the laws of the state of Alabama and we’re not doing it with this aircraft, it never has been done,” Blankenship said. “For five and a half years now, I’ve tried in closed door meetings to reel this thing in and get (the sheriff’s aviation assets) operating with policies, procedures and with transparency and the only thing that has come out of these meetings is that I was cut from being able to track the aircraft or the 911 paging system. I was removed from those.

“I want to get my position on this clear and I want it to be public record that I brought it to you all,” Blankenship said. “We paid $477,000 for a twin engine and nobody has been able to tell me why we need that twin engine plane flying all over five or six states.

“I am not in any way saying that we don’t need the helicopters and that we don’t need search and rescue. I support those 100 percent,” Blankenship said. “But in February of this year, we traded a 2008 single engine plane for a 1981 twin engine eight-seater plane.

“We asked for the records on the sale of the original plane,” Blankenship said. “We’ve not been able to get those to this point.

“This whole thing—and this is not my opinion, it is the opinion of some of the deputies and the employees of this county and the general public—is that we’re out here looking for flight opportunities to allow Tim McDonald to log more hours and ratings in aircraft and it's just simply not right to the taxpayer,” Blankenship said. “There is no transparency there whatsoever in this aircraft.”

Blankenship said that the auditors had recently asked for a copy of the $100,000 check that the sheriff’s department gave to the county commission in January 2017 in connection with an aircraft sale that occurred in late 2016. “When (Dale County Administrator Cheryl Ganey) was digging it up she saw that Tim McDonald signed that $100,000 check over to the commission,” he said. “Now it’s raised the question among us and others, when that transaction was made did McDonald receive cash off of that transaction as well?” Blankenship said.

“It goes on and on and on and Henry you know as well as I do what I am saying is right,” Blankenship said directing his comment to Dale County Attorney Henry Steagall, who did not answer. "It has been two years since the Dale County Commission signed a contract with Motorola in October 2015 to buy the emergency communication system to upgrade emergency communications for first responders in Dale County.

"It has been nearly three years since the Dale County Commission signed a contract in October 2015 to buy the emergency communication system to upgrade emergency communications for first responders in Dale County. The system is still not operational.

“We’d be signed on this radio system for a half million dollars less if Tim McDonald hadn’t been driving the train and trying to put radios in aircraft,” Blankenship said. “That’s a fact and y’all know it.

“One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to address this today is that we have Enterprise, Ozark, Dothan and Houston County signed on board with this (joint municipality law enforcement air support mission),” Blankenship said. “There is not a single city councilman or commissioner that has any idea of how we are using this aircraft. They don’t know that we have twin engine planes because I’ve asked them.

“I want to get my position on this clear and I want it to be public record that I brought it to you all,” Blankenship reiterated.

“I respect your opinion and I respect you for classifying that as your job but I would still like to carry through with getting ACCA down here and get their advice and get on the right footing and see where we need to go,” said Dale County Commissioner Steve McKinnon, who is also serving a term as ACCA President.

“Okay,” Blankenship replied. No other commissioner had any comment and the work session adjourned.

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is June 12. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.