Millennium Square Grant (Morristown, Tennessee): Summary, History, and Specific Documentation of Bid Shopping, Conflicts of Interest, Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in the Spending of $1.2 Million Taxpayer Dollars Primarily for Private Benefit

This internet blog is about a $1.2 Million dollar Transportation Enhancement Grant in Morristown, Tennessee. It is being created to provide ready access to information about this grant to a number of individuals: TDOT (Tennessee Department of Transportation) officials, FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) officials, other State of Tennessee Departments, local City of Morristown officials, Morristown, TN citizens and taxpayers, and also citizens across the State of Tennessee and the United States who are concerned about waste of tax dollars in the award and administration of grants. [UPDATE: For a short summary of bid shopping by the City of Morristown on behalf of the Millennium Square Partners, click here.]

The individuals who have requested documents and researched the information that is provided here are all City of Morristown taxpayers and include former Morristown City Councilman Gene Brooks, Mr. Carl Murphy (who is Mr. Brooks' father-in-law), and Linda Noe, an attorney. Noe is the administrator of this site.

This site will anger some--those who believe grant dollars are a "gift" from one government agency to another government agency and that taxpayers shouldn't concern themselves with the handling of grant money.  Just take whatever you can get, however you can get it. This site will anger those who tried to game the system in the Millennium grant with conflicts of interest that were concealed from state officials but whose prohibited conflicts of interest were exposed and whose additional conflicts and questionable actions will be revealed.

The waste and deceptions and conflicts of interest in the Millennium grant will incense others. While people may be incensed, it is hoped that this site will inspire citizens and taxpayers everywhere to take action to stop fraud, waste, and abuse in taxpayer-funded projects. It is time to see that there is real oversight in the expenditure of TAX DOLLARS where, in the Millennium Grant, a federal agency (FHWA) hands money to a state agency (TDOT) and then the state agency hands the money over to a local government (City of Morristown) and the only checks and balances on how the City handles the money are that the City has to sign and submit forms to TDOT so TDOT can show a stack of forms to the FHWA and keep the FHWA money rolling in.

One of the most unfortunate statements that we heard repeated over and over during our attempts to meet and present information on the Millennium project directly to TDOT is the statement that Millennium is a "locally-managed" project.  That statement is clearly meant to discourage citizen-activists. If we had accepted that statement and simply walked away from the Millennium mess in 2010, the bidding conflicts of interest, the favoritism shown in delaying the billing of certain individuals (the Millennium Square Partners) for tens of thousands of dollars owed the City or Morristown, and the fraud, waste, and abuse exhibited throughout the Millennium project would have been hidden away forever and, no doubt, repeated with other grants.

Scroll down to the next post for a brief review of how $1.2 Million in grant funds ended up in a public-private partnership with a group (Millennium Square Partners) whose membership includes members of the city's auditing firm and owners of a contracting firm (Wild Building Contractors).