County Dumping Fill Material On Private Properties Under Review

For more than 30 years, Highlands County has had a policy of excess or unneeded fill material collected by the Road and Bridge Department being hauled to and dumped on private property with the written consent of the owners, according to two former top county officials.

That policy and instances of dumping fill materials on private properties will be reviewed thoroughly later this year in the scheduled audit of the Road and Bridge Department, said L.E. "Luke" Brooker, Highlands County Clerk of Courts.

Questions about the practice were raised in a report by the clerk's Compliance and Internal Audit Division about an estimated 977 dump truck loads of sand, sand and shell, concrete, asphalt and other debris dumped at the property of Charles Howerton on Farm Road between Sept. 24 and Oct. 8, 2007.

The 13-page report is dated Oct. 26, 2007, and was given to Brooker on that date or shortly after.

Bob Jamison, senior director of business services for the clerk's office, said the report documented fill materials being taken to the Howerton property, but the reasons for that were not determined, and won't be until there is an official audit.

"If this was turned into an official audit, then we attempt to determine why issues are occurring, because there could be perfectly legitimate reasons," Jamison said. "And if there are not legitimate reasons for these issues to occur, we would document those as audit findings."

Bruce Van Jaarsveld retired April 1 after 32 years with Road and Bridge, the last 10 as superintendent.

"The county has a longstanding policy of 30 years or more, and still does, that anytime we are digging excess material and we have no place to put it, we give it away free to property owners," he said.

Property owners have to sign a written form, agreeing to accept the material, he said.

Over the years, he said, hundreds of property owners have received fill material from Road and Bridge.

Van Jaarsveld said Road and Bridge never gave away clean fill, but only materials that had to be disposed of.

"They didn't haul clean fill material," he said. "They hauled stuff that they needed to get rid of."

Van Jaarsveld said the county's policy is to dump unneeded fill materials at the closest property that wants to accept it, then go to the next closest property if material is still available. He said that saves the county considerable money by not having to transport it to the county landfill.

"This is not given to one person, this is given to every and any person who says, 'Boy I would like to have some if you ever have some,'" he said.

Howerton said he understood that Road and Bridge dumping fill material on private land was standard county policy.

"I just told them the place is available to them," he said. Howerton said he knew of Road and Bridge dumping fill materials at other properties. "That's why I asked to have the opportunity," he said.

Carl Cool, who retired June 1 after 17 years as county administrator, said Road and Bridge has been dumping unneeded fill on private property, with the owner's permission, under a policy in place when he began working for the county 33 years ago.

"Each road supervisor, in the Avon Park, Sebring and Lake Placid areas, when they had ditch-cleaning material or material they had to get rid of, they had a form giving the county permission to dump onto their property, because it was saving the county money," he said.

Without dumping excess or unneeded fill material on private lands accepting it, he said, "you probably have to put this material into the landfill. Over the years it saved the county hundreds of thousands of dollars, I'm sure of that," he said.

Acting on an anonymous tip about possible misuse of county property and equipment, the clerk's internal audit staff began tracking Road and Bridge dump trucks loading fill materials at the Sebring yard and transporting them to Howerton's property.

Over a two-week period, the report states, six trucks appeared to be working exclusively on taking material from Road and Bridge's Sebring yard to the Howerton property.

"The fill material observed was composed of a sand or sand/shell mixture and a sand, concrete and asphalt mixture, defined as construction and demolition debris (C&D) by the Florida Statutes and the Highlands County Municipal Code," the report states.

The report also states, "The disposal of this C&D material, in a place other than a permitted solid waste management facility, is a violation of the Florida Statues, the Florida Administrative Code and the Highlands County Municipal Code."

Van Jaarsveld and Cool said materials dumped on private properties by Road and Bridge were not construction and demolition debris.

"In the Florida Administrative Code," Cool said, "there is a definition of C&D material. Broken concrete, broken brick, asphalt, is listed as an inert material ... things that don't rot and decompose and cause a problem. Those are inert materials and can be put anywhere, they were exempted out of C&D material."

Both Cool and Van Jaarsveld said they are not sure if the policy on dumping fill material on private properties was written.

"I don't know if it (policy) was ever written down," Cool said. "I know that the form the county uses is a form that we've had for a very long period of time."

"I know it was a verbal policy," Van Jaarsveld said. "It's a policy that we've talked about in board (of county commissioners) meetings many times."

Brooker said the internal compliance and audit division has been working on an audit of cell phone use and time sheets, a final follow-up report on the library audit, and is finishing an audit of fuel use, including allegations of employee thefts.

"When that (fuel use) audit is over, my anticipation is to go to the Road and Bridge audit, of which this (dumping fill material on private property) is going to be a part of," Brooker said.

Brooker said a full audit is needed to answer questions raised about fill material being dumped on private properties.

"I am quite confident that everything will be brought out that needs to be brought out," he said.