Gary Jones, who was ranked as a Major in the Waynesboro Police Department while also serving as the Mayor of Grovetown has been fired from the department.
According to Gary Jones, he was called while on vacation and told that Police Chief Willie Burley and Vice Mayor James Jones wanted to meet with him. At the meeting, he was given a letter that stated he was being terminated on the grounds of abusing his authority, making false accusations and creating a morale problem.
Several months ago, Gary Jones had reported to Burley that he had discovered financial irregularities within Municipal Court. According to Gary Jones, it appeared that people were paying online for tickets they received and some of that money was unaccounted for. Jones says that he didn’t specifically accuse anyone of a crime since the issue could simply be a computer glitch.
Gary Jones said that some of the money was accounted for, but at least $23,000 remained missing and that caused him to dig deeper.
“It was just the tip of the iceberg,” Gary Jones said.
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At the time, Gary Jones said, city leaders declined to contact the GBI and instead conducted their own internal investigation.
To assist with an internal investigation, Gary Jones recommended the city ask Laura McManus, the clerk of court in Grovetown, to review the records. McManus volunteered to provide the service for free even though she said that Burley offered to pay her $100. She said she agreed to let him buy her lunch.
McManus said that she did find some discrepancies between computer records and a handwritten log and wrote a letter to the City Council indicating her findings. However, when she attempted to follow up later, McManus said administrative assistant Timi Tucker told her that she and Naise Gordon were under a “gag order.”
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According to McManus, it was Tucker and Gordon who originally found the discrepancies.
Gary Jones said that McManus’ conclusions led him to believe that the GBI needed to become involved.
“I used figures generated from internal reports. Additionally, because of serious negligence within the court, over 400 cases had to be dismissed with a loss of potential revenue of over $110,000,” Gary Jones said.
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However, Gary Jones said the city leadership still refused to call in the GBI and instead retaliated against him.
“They told me that I was being fired for exceeding my authority in bringing (McManus) in, but I did that with their blessing and as Mayor of Grovetown, I consulted the city manager as well. No money changed hands even though the Chief personally offered her money,” Gary Jones said, adding that jurisdictions offering each other pro bono services is nothing new.
“As a matter of fact, as the mayor, I solicited the services of the Waynesboro former City Manager Jerry Colson to come to Grovetown to consult on our water billing process, cities do that all the time,” Gary Jones said.
Burley was out of the office and unavailable for comment, but McManus confirmed that she did not accept any money from Burley, but did allow him to buy her lunch, so he was very much aware of her providing the research services.
This is not Gary Jones’ first brush with the law, so to speak. In 2015, as Chief of Police in Grovetown, Gary Jones attempted to alert the Grovetown City Council of possible financial crimes being committed by the then city clerk Vicky Capetillo and the council fired him for daring to point a finger at the politically connected Capetillo.
Gary Jones’ response was to run for mayor of Grovetown and once he was in office, he requested an investigation from the FBI to look into the financial misdeeds and was eventually proved correct.
Capetillo pled guilty in federal court for stealing almost $900,000 and using the ill-gotten gains on funding a lavish lifestyle that included treating her friends and family to cruises and trips to Disney World. She was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and ordered to make restitution.
According to Gary Jones, his firing feels like a case of deja vu and, like before, he said he is not going to simply walk away. This time, rather than run for public office, he is going to take the matter to court. Gary Jones said he is protected by the federal Whistleblower’s Protections Act and hopes that the citizens of Waynesboro will pay attention to what is going on with the leadership of the city.
“I truly hate that the taxpayers are going to lose in the long run,” Gary Jones said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
