Letter to the Editor – Tucker Williams

Dear Editor,

First of all, congratulations on that great article about the City of Warner Robins gas department.  The contents of that article show how people in charge put the public’s lives in danger. One of the biggest problems in utility department (I’m sure this is a big issue everywhere in city) is favoritism. Almost every promotion in the city utility department is unfair. People in charge promote employees that are not qualified to do the job that is required. This is also the case for promotions; it shows how and why the gas department is now dealing with all the violations. In 2019, when the former supervisor, William Meeks retired, the director of utility department promoted Leonard Ammons to supervisor of the gas department. Unfortunately, one council member questioned if he was qualified to be a supervisor.  And they just voted and passed. There were better applicants during that time for the position. But again, favoritism was in play. After he became supervisor, the gas department started falling down quickly. During his management, he always complained about not having any help from management, which is the department director, Montie Walters and the assistant director, Rondall Smith. But it was not the only problem. Leonard Ammons ignored problems reported to him. According to Montie Walters and Rondall Smith, he was the most experienced applicant for the job. During the train derailment in October 2019, he went on vacation to Tennessee for his birthday.  The reason was, he had paid for the trip he booked and could not cancel.  The director Montie Walters was perfectly fine with him going while the City of Warner Robins gas department was under chaos because of the train derailment. Nobody had a game plan. Who was in charge of the gas department while supervisor went to vacation? That person would be Mark Polk. When we talk about favoritism, he will be the most famous employee.  After serving as a locator for the City of Warner Robins utility department, he became the Gas Compliance Training Officer without knowing anything about natural gas. That position also covered Assistant Gas Supervisor. After he was not selected for the locater crew leader position, Mark Polk went and talked with council members Daron Lee and Tim Thomas. Mark Polk as a side job works on plumbing.  He also works on rental properties owned by Tim Thomas.  He told city employees he was promised the next available promotion in the utility department by both Councilman Daron Lee and Councilman Tim Thomas.  They kept the promise and he got the next available promotion at the department without being qualified for the position. Again, there were more qualified applicants for the position, but favoritism was in play.

Favoritism was the first reason because of gas department is dealing with violations. As Compliance Training Officer Mark Polk is supposed to train and qualify gas employees for different tasks. How can he qualify the employees and train them without knowing the tasks and without performing those tasks in the field?

When we look at the press release made by mayor Randy Toms and Utility Director Montie Walters, there was a lot of false information. There was nobody terminated at the City of Warner Robins gas department because of the leak at Jeffersonville. That leak was reported and it was on the system. Leonard Ammons, after reading the work orders that staff turned it in; he put his initials on work order but he chose to ignore the leak and put public safety in danger.

There were not only a couple of leaks, like mayor Randy Toms stated. The gas department has so many leaks dated back as early as 2016, and unfortunately some of them still exist. Having leaks on natural gas systems is normal but ignoring them and not fixing them is not normal. In the past, before Public Service Commission inspections, employees were forced by their supervisors to clear the leaks without fixing them.

The gas department has never had 40 employees like Montie Walters stated. It was always been understaffed.  During this time, instead of fixing gas leaks around the city, nearly half of the gas employees were forced helping the water department to fix water leaks. This took close to a month time frame, because the water department was under staffed too.

In the article Tyler Meister shared on Houston home journal, Randy Toms stated that raising the utilities in June 2020 has nothing to do with hiring ESG operations for managing the gas department. But this deal the city signed with ESG operations at the end of the 2020 began back in February 2020. Also, some supervisors from ESG operations promised some of their employee’s jobs at the City of Warner Robins gas department in early august 2020.  

The City of Warner Robins and ESG operations doing the full leak survey of their entire system is not because of a capital improvement plan. It is because the last surveys done by the city of Warner Robins  were not accepted by public service commission on their last inspection. The staff that was doing the survey was doing it wrong and was not qualified to do the survey.  

Montie Walters and Rondall Smith are close friend to one of the ESG operations owners. Is that the reason why city of Warner Robins didn’t open gas department management for bids? Who filled their pockets out of the deal with ESG operations? Mayor Randy Toms? Montie Walters? Rondall Smith? Or all three of them? City officials need to be honest and transparent with their citizens and explain this deal. Is the City of Warner Robins going to give the water department to ESG operations in the future too? What will be raised next to pay contractors? City taxes?

As some employees stated, the City of Warner Robins human resources was very unhelpful to their employees during the switch to ESG operations. Also ESG operations gave only one day to city gas employees to make a life changing decision. Some stayed as city employees, some switched to ESG and some chose to leave their jobs.

Every day we are reading different press release from Randy Toms. The last one that was published on 41nbc, he stated when Public Service Commission paperwork came in Mr. Walters immediately got on it and they were quickly repaired. Mr. Toms must be talking about just those two leaks discovered by Public Service Commission Inspectors. Why is Mr. Walters waited to perform his duties this long? Why did he and his management put public lives in danger for many months? What about the rest of the leaks in the ground since dated back to 2016? Will ESG wait to fix those leaks until discovered by Public Service Commission inspectors?

Randy Toms and Montie Walters put the blame on staff for these violations. But the real people who are responsible for these violations are the mayor, council members, utility director, utility assistant director and gas department supervisor. Gas department employees simply followed their daily orders from the supervisor. From the start until today the only people who suffered from this are the employees. But nobody seems to care about them. Unfortunately those employees works under City of Warner Robins and ESG operations can’t speak up and tell the truth to the public. Because they were threatened with their jobs. I believe every citizen in Houston County deserves to be safe and know the truth.

Tucker Williams,

Warner Robins

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