Shelby County – Such a Special History

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

We covered “wrongs make it right” in this article and as we sift through numerous FBI investigation files it’s no wonder it is taking time to fix the pattern of practice in Shelby County government.

The following quotes come from this FBI document and can also be viewed below.

“Prior to SPESARD, STAR REINERT (phonetic) and JIM MOSE held the position of Shelby County Highway Engineer . Both REINERT and MOSE had their own engineering company that conducted business with Shelby County.”

The pattern is clear, past engineers for the county had their own private engineering business and according to the investigation files, those people also conducted business with the very county that employed them. However, there is more to the story for those who know history.

“Previous Committee Chairs of the county board (DAVE CURITT and BRUCE CANNON) were aware and approved of SHELBY ENGINEERING doing business with the county.”

How special is that?  Committee Chairs approving of Shelby Engineering doing business with the county points once again to clear malfeasance.  How much business did Shelby Engineering do with the county?  While we went back several years, the records that were available did not reflect business with the county but rather the operation of a private business during county time. The employee being interviewed appears to have a lot of first hand knowledge he shared with the FBI.

“The work SHELBY ENGINEERING did for the county and city did not need to be bid out.

 No bid? Approval being given by Dave Cruit as a Committee Chair?

How many projects did Shelby Engineering do for the county and how many of these projects included no-bid contracting with a well-known paving company that just happened to also employ the former County Board Chairman?  When we hear no bid it tends to raise red flags, as if there are not enough red flags in these FBI files.

One such red flag that we have no way of knowing if it was addressed is the following statement.

“In the past, Shelby County and Shelbyville didn’t have engineers, so SHELBY ENGINEERING was hired to do the county and city a service.”

Full stop!

Can’t have it both ways.  The person names the prior engineers for the county and indicates they were doing business with the county yet goes on to state in the past the County didn’t have engineers and that is why Shelby Engineering was hired.  Sounds like someone might have been nervous during the questioning.

The continuing series of investigation files will point out the employee’s anger with Alan Spesard and certain claims made on Shelby Engineering documents.