On April 1, 2026, Richard Harris, fromThe Journal, published an article indicating that Connie Harris, the Marion County Manager, had announced her plans to step down from her position. It is little suspicious that this came within days of my calling for her termination, both to my commissioner and in my Facebook posts and publications.

What called out even more for my attention was that this publication touted one of Connie’s successes as ensuring the “consistent administration” of the road grants that would be received from the Georgia Department of Transportation called LMIG or the Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant and this statement wasn’t even fact checked before it was published.

In my publication, I will show you that, once more, Connie Harris has been proven to have been and is still deceiving the citizens – and our commissioners – as to what she has been doing. I will show you that we received no LMIG grants for the 3 years she has been in office, that the previous LMIG grant for 2022 disappeared, and that no money was budgeted or spent in 2023 for any road repairs, and that what Connie indicated was in the LMIG fund couldn’t have been in that fund and that what she said was in there wasn’t used for the roads at all.

I performed an Open Records Request for Fiscal Year Reports and Budget Reports from 2021 to current, since they are no longer available on the county website, which Tiffany Harris indicated that Connie Harris as the county manager is the only one who has access to. These two Open Records Requests were what caused a lot of what I had been experiencing as delay tactics, extravagant costs, and then finally an admission that Connie had not filed the 2023 Fiscal Year Reports. Eventually, Heather Wright compiled the Budget Reports on a USB drive for me at no charge and I am appreciative to her for that.

While I was in the process of having the Attorney General mediate my open records requests for the Fiscal Year reports, I was able to get in touch with the Director of our area, Jackie Neubert, from the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounting. When I spoke with her, she indicated that Connie – and our auditor at the time, Herbert Allen – submitted our 2023 Fiscal Year Report, but that it was riddled with inconsistencies and deficiencies and they had not accepted it.

(It is imperative to note that Herbert Allen charged us $81,750.00 to complete it, which, as of the April 8, 2025 meeting, the commissioners noted was up $50,000 from the previous 2 years. When the commissioners asked him why, he said he couldn’t explain it without research. It took him two months to research it and then came back to say that the fee was to do the audit reports for 2023 and 2024, but he had not even started the report as of my the response to my Open Records Request on March 9, 2026. Therefore, did we pay him for something he had yet to start?)

Notice that Connie admitted that she had not officially submitted the 2023 report, but Jackie sent it to me and she sent me the letter that was sent to Marion County’s Chief Elected Official about it, which I doubt they received. So why did Connie lie to me and say it hadn’t been officially submitted?

Note that as of April 30, 2025, when this deficiency list was sent, the fiscal year report had not been corrected or sent in for 2023. That means that the audit report for 2024 at this point was also delinquent. This is shown later in this publication.

Notice on the Corrective Action Plan Review Results below, that were sent for Marion County to address, it is noted that Expenditures “exceeded appropriations at the legal level of control.” That means whatever they submitted was illegal and needed to be fixed. But my question is what did they log as expenditures that could have exceeded those appropriations for the road department if $0 was budgeted and $0 was spent as indicated by the budget reports listed below in this thread?

On this page below, it is indicated that the TSPLOST, which is where the Transportation Funds are stored, was reported as being in the negative – which means that they had “Expenditures [that] exceeded appropriations at the legal level of control” and that would have been above what was budgeted. To us taxpayers, that means that Connie – and our uninformed or misinformed commissioners – were approving and paying for things for the road department that were not budgeted.

While we’re here, let’s talk about the budget.

In 2023, the budget for road vehicle repairs, fuel (unleaded and diesel), small equipment, and infrastructure (this means repairs of our roads) was budgeted as $0. That means that Connie indicated no money would be spent on any of this in 2023. You will find these numbers in the last column under FY23 Proposed Budget. She also indicated that $449,000 from the LMIG was transferred out in 2022. You will find this number in the last row on the third column next to “Transfers Out – LMIG Fund,” which means that there should be nothing left in the LMIG grant in 2023. That means that we should have still had $449,000 to use in 2023 or lose it.

As to where the LMIG grant was transferred to, if it was transferred, we do not know, but what we do know is as of 2023, $0 for all of these road expenses was adopted as of 2024’s budget report and it also says that $0 was actually spent as of November 30, 2023. It also indicates that $0 was proposed for 2024. So, Connie has indicated that she spent no money on anything in 2023 and had no intentions of spending any money on anything in 2024 pertaining to our roads. That means she either spent that $449,000 somewhere else other than on the roads, or we will be held accountable to pay it back and not be eligible to apply for other loans in the future.

I looked at the TSPLOST and the LMIG fund for the Budget for 2023 and 2024 and noticed some things that I thought were even more peculiar.

Let’s start with the TSPLOST which is designated for transportation expenses as mentioned above. The 2024 Budget Report indicates that there was $0 actually spent from the TSPLOST as of November 30, 2023, and there was $0 budgeted to be spent from the TSPLOST for 2024.

The 2023 Adopted budget, which is shown below, as of the 2024 Budget Reports indicates that $0 was allocated for road and street repairs, that $0 was actually spent as of November 30, 2023, and $0 was budgeted for 2024 for road and street repairs. So this is more evidence that Connie indicated that she had no intentions of making any road and street repairs for 2023 and 2024.

And now to the LMIG grant. The Budget Report for 2024 above, indicates that the LMIG grant was adopted in 2023 as having $0 allocated to spend and it states that there was $438,631.07 actually spent as of November 30, 2023 and $469,202.05 budgeted for 2024. This would be within the amount of $449,000 that we received from the LMIG grant that we were given in 2022; however, if there was $0 budgeted for 2023 for road repairs, fuel, infrastructure, small equipment purchases, etc., and $0 was actually spent, where did the $449,000 that was budged for 2023 to have been transferred out of LMIG go? What did she actually spend it on?

And now to address the lie that Connie has attributed to herself as having successfully consistently administrating those LMIG grants.

As of April 1, 2026, Jackie Neubert from the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, indicated that they had not accepted the 2023 report that was filed by Marion County, which is displayed below and was also displayed above.

And the 2024 report on their website is marked as delinquent. You will see that it does look like as of today, that the 2023 report has been submitted and accepted, but is marked as late. This means that we have been and are currently ineligible to apply for grants.

Notice below that the Department of Audits and Accounting indicates that no state agency shall transmit grant funds if an agency is non-compliant. That means Connie could not have successfully and consistently administered those LMIG grants. If they don’t exist, they can’t be administered.

So, how did Connie apply for the LMIG grant in 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026 when we have been late, deficient, and delinquent and because of this status we are ineligible to apply for and receive grants? And bigger than her lying about receiving those grants, again I ask, where did the money go that we had previously received to make those repairs in 2022, that by law per the application of those grants, are required to be be made within a year of getting them? They obviously didn’t go to anything seemingly related to the roads, so where did they go?

I would like to add here that I have the commissioners’ meeting minutes that indicate that none of them knew that we weren’t getting these grants or that Connie had not filed our audit reports, and I will cover that in another publication.

In sum, why did the Department of Audits and accounting indicate that there was a negative balance, that the expenditures “exceeded appropriations at the legal level of control,” and why did it take them 3 years to finally correct and submit the report? Why did the auditor charge us for an audit report that he had yet to start as of April 2026? And why did Connie feel like she had to lie to all of us – including our commissioners – about successfully and consistently administrating LMIG grants for our roads that she obviously wasn’t receiving?

I have to say, Connie’s track record of deception is steadily proving that she cannot be trusted with our money as it relates to the road department, and I believe this presents probable cause that she has breached her fiduciary duty as a trustee of our money and might possibly be stealing or misappropriating our money. I also believes this adds support to the question as to why our roads have not been getting fixed. There’s no money. And then the question, again, must be asked, where did she spend it?

If you have a story, feedback, or questions, please contact me at Plumblyne Productions by email at plumblyneproductions@gmail.com or by phone at 229.329.2179.

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