Former Douglas Co. director says he didn’t follow policy before asking for contract approval

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A former county purchasing director admitted he didn’t follow department policy when he asked county commissioners to approve a contract that had already been signed.

That testimony came during the Douglas County bid-rigging trial of three elected officials, a business owner and former Purchasing Director Bill Peacock.

Peacock has been on the witness stand for two days so far.

“It will be legal if you vote on it.”

That’s what Peacock testified he told skeptical County Commissioners who questioned why he was presenting for the board’s approval a cleaning contract that had already been signed by the board’s chairperson, Ramona Jackson Jones back in 2018.

Peacock told the jury he acknowledged it wasn’t the way the process usually works.

“I did agree that we put the cart before the horse. That we did do it out of sequence. That it had been signed and executed.”

That contract is at the heart of bid-rigging charges filed against Peacock, Jackson Jones, County Commissioner Henry Mitchell, Tax Commissioner Greg Baker, and business owner Anthony Knight.

Knight owned S and A Express and bid on the contract to clean the new annex building back in 2018. Prosecutors say his quote for the job was higher and it came in past the deadline. So Knight wasn’t chosen.

Peacock said that’s when he heard from Chairwoman Jackson Jones that Knight had complained to her. Peacock says he thought it was fair.

He then led a second bid process.

Prosecutors say Knight went from the second-highest bid in the first go round, to tied with the lowest bidder in the second bid process.

“Had you ever seen a tie before,” Assistant Attorney General John Fowler asked Peacock on the witness stand.

“No sir,” Peacock replied, saying a tie was unusual.

Peacock testified he got the second bid from Knight past that deadline too. But he said he wasn’t sure if Tax Commissioner Baker had it and just delivered it to him late.

Prosecutors say the contract wasn’t chosen in the best interest of the community. Peacock said they needed someone to clean the new annex as it was about to open. And that’s why he was rushed to get it signed.

“It just seemed to be the proper thing to do to have the contract signed and executed,” Peacock testified.

Peacock testified on cross-examination that even though some commissioners wanted the contract signed, he approved it because it was a local cost-effective minority vendor and that’s what the county preferred.

He could get immunity from prosecution if he testifies truthfully.