Hart BOC Brings Back Former Airport Authority Board Member Addison

The Hart County Board of Commissioners has filled two positions on the Franklin-Hart County Airport Authority Board.

At their regular meeting Tuesday night, Commissioner Joey Dorsey nominated Eddie Addison and Mark Brown to fill the vacancies for Hart County.

That was seconded by County Commission Chair Marshal Sayer and it passed unanimously.

Mark Brown was re-appointed and currently serves as the Airport Manager. Addison was appointed to fill an unexpired term through June and for next year.

Addison had been on the Airport Authority for Franklin County for about a year and served as the president until last June when his term was not renewed. His term was up in June, 2020.

In July, 2020 Addison and former authority board member Bill Flowers were both replaced by Franklin County Commissioners with Jon Rowland and Martha Long after the County received a letter from District Attorney Parks White telling them Addison had to be removed or voluntarily step down because he was in violation of the Airport Authority’s charter by having a lease-hold at the airport.

The Board had earlier received a similar recommendation from the County attorney but had decided to wait for the outcome of a GBI investigation into the matter before making a decision. After receiving White’s letter, however, the Board voted to replace both Addison and Flowers.

Flowers’ term also expired at the end of June 2020 and citing the need for a fresh start a motion was made at the July 2020 BOC meeting to remove Bill Flowers and replace him with Martha Long. Commissioners voted 4-1 to remove Flowers with former Commission Chair Thomas Bridges voting against.

The investigation concluded in the fall of 2020 but White never brought the case before a Grand Jury and the results of the investigation were never released.

Following the appointment of two new airport authority members, Commissioner Eddie Wester in August, 2020 called for a forensic audit of the Airport Authority which the Hart County BOC agreed to help pay for.

And at a joint session in March of this year’, both boards voted unanimously to hire the Florida CPA firm of Carr, Riggs, and Ingram out of Miramar Beach, FL to do a seven-year audit from 2012 to 2018 and split the $40,000 cost 50-50.

County Commission Chair Jason Macomson said Wednesday the auditors have begun their preliminary inquiries but he said he is not sure how far along they are.

Macomson said he expects that audit to take six to nine months to complete.