On February 17, 2026, I performed an Open Records Request for the Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes from 2021 to 2026. On April 13, 2026, I was able to retrieve the USB drive that Heather Wright compiled for me that were responsive to this request.

As I read through all of the meeting minutes from January 2023 to 2026, I noticed that there were a lot of things that indicated either that Connie Harris, as a clerk and then county manager, and her clerks were grossly negligent, or that there was a concerted effort to fabricate documentation that they did not have because I started applying the pressure. I will say that I believe it’s the latter reason, because I’ve noticed a pattern or obstruction, delay, and documents being altered to look legitimate as de facto (after the fact).

Any government documentation, ordinance, statute, or law that is written after something was implemented is illegal. A good case in point would be to arrest all the local election supervisors who took outside money that didn’t go through the commissioners or councilors in 2020, which resulted in SB222. We know now that was wrong, but there wasn’t any legislation that made this a crime, so arresting and charging anyone for doing this before SB222 existed would be de facto and illegal.

That being said, I want to begin a series of these publications and will be handling them year by year from 2023 to current. Today’s publication is going to address 2023.

January

I was provided the minutes for January 10, 2023, labeled “Draft” which was indicated in the top right corner as being approved and signed, but was not signed by the Chairman, who at the time was Matt Gunnels. Connie Harris was the County Clerk at this time. If this was a final document, it would not say “Draft.”

Notice also, at the bottom of all the pages, the document says, “January 11, 2022 Regular Meeting of the Marion County Board of Commissioners,” but this meeting was for January 10, 2023; not January 11, 2022. Why did this not have the correct date on it? Did Connie Harris use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes?

Notice, on page 1 above, how these minutes reflect that Commissioners Neal and Royal motioned to amend the agenda to discuss making the Chair and Co-chair positions (where the terms Chairman and Vice Chair are what are used in most of the other meeting minutes; not Co-Chair), are limited to two-year terms, yet in January of 2026, after Chairman Neal had served as Chairman for two years in a row – 2024 and 2025 – Commissioner Royal made a motion to approve George Neal for a third term as Chairman. See the minutes below for January 13, 2026 for this evidence.

From the way that Connie’s minutes are reflected, both George Neal and Norman Royal were at this meeting and they knew that this change was approved and part of the county’s ordinances. So, did George Neal know this, did he forget that he said this, or did he choose to do this in spite of what he said in 2023? And if Connie took the notes, why did she not mention on January 13, 2026 that George Neal could not sit a third term as the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, since she was at both meetings?

Notice also, on page 3 above, that Commissioners Neal and Fontaine approved to amend the agenda again, and Commissioners Neal and Royal approved $4300 in parts and $1800 in labor for the Road department truck; however, Connie had budgeted $0.00 for any vehicle repairs for 2023, which was referenced in my previous article, “Marion County Manager Connie Harris Attributes Fabricated Success for “Consistent Administration” of Road Grants (LMIG) During Her Tenure While Georgia Department of Audits and Accounting and County Budget Reports Indicate There Were No Grants and No Expenses. Why were these amendments not listed together instead of separate items?

Why would the commissioners have approved this if there was no money budgeted for repairs per the budget that was adopted in 2023? Why would this be on the meeting minutes if Connie knew that there was no money budgeted for those repairs and why would she say that they approved this if she knew there was no money budgeted for these repairs?

And lastly, notice on page 4 above, how there is no signature on this document ,by Matt Gunnels, which, if Connie wrote that it was approved and signed, why was it not signed? If these are not signed, then no ordinance that was approved is legal and all ordinances that were passed are not legal either?

This is just one month’s instance of what I believe brings question to these documents being prepared after the fact and only when I asked for them.

As a side note, there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for January. This is going to be important, because this will also substantiate that the commissioners were not being briefed on the status of our finances at these meetings and I will evidence that for the entire year of 2023, they had no idea of the financial status of the county’s revenue and expenses.

And as a second side note, there is no item indicating that any budget has been approved or fiscal year reporting has been approved. This is important because we have a budget report from 2023 and 2024 that says the 2022, and 2023 numbers were adopted, but there’s no indication of those discussions, reviews, or adoptions mentioned at all.

February

Notice first, that Connie Harris has now moved from County Clerk to County Clerk/Interim County Administrator. Was this discussed in the executive session in January? Did Connie give herself a promotion or did the commissioners approve this? We don’t know this as of yet, because if it was discussed in that executive session, it was held in secret. We also don’t see that it was listed as an item on the meeting minutes as being approved. Therefore, there’s no indication that the commissioners approved this and any appointment is illegal if it’s not on the minutes and approved.

Notice also, at the bottom of all the pages, the document says, “September 13, 2022 Regular Meeting of the Marion County Board of Commissioners,” but this meeting was for February 14, 2023; not September 13, 2022. Why did this not have the correct date on it? Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes?

Notice also that the first page says “Page 1 of 4,” the second page says, “Page 2 of 4,: and the third page says, “Page 3 of 4.” Once again, I have to ask, why did this not have the correct date on it? Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes? And why does this say there should be 4 pages? Is there a page missing?

As stated in January, there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for February. This is now the second month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

March

Notice that now Connie’s title has changed to “Interim County Administrator/County Clerk.” Wording is important. For her to put the Interim County Administrator title first, shows that she was setting herself up to move into a higher position than just a County Clerk. Notice also how she indicated in the “Road Department – Amend 2023 Budget” item, that she was the “Interim County Administrator” as well. She didn’t call herself by name or reference that she was both the Interim County Administrator and County Clerk as she had before. This indicates that she had her eyes set on a higher position and wanted to walk in that self-ordained power and title.

Notice also that Commissioner Royal was not listed as being present at the meeting for March 14, 2023, but he is listed as making many approvals at this meeting. I have highlighted three places where Normal Royal made motions, while he wasn’t there. So, is Mr. Royal aware that he was making approvals while he was absent?

Notice further how there are only 2 pages to these meeting minutes, but the first page says, “Page 1 of 4” and the second page says, “Page 2 of 4.” Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes? And why does this say there should be 4 pages? Where are the other two pages?

And as in January and February, there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for March. This is now the third month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

April

Notice that, at the bottom of all the pages, the document says, “March 14, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Marion County Board of Commissioners,” but this meeting was for April 11, 2023; not March 14, 2023. Why did this not have the correct date on it? Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes too?

Notice also how there are only 2 pages to these meeting minutes, but the first page says, “Page 1 of 4” and the second page says, “Page 2 of 4.” Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes? And why does this say there should be 4 pages? Where are the other two pages?

Let me at least say here, that if these minutes for April are correct, we owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Royal for causing the budget to be amended to reflect road expenses as they apply to the road department. I do see that these things have been broken out accurately, which is how I have been able to tell that Connie may be misusing the funds from the TSPLOST and LMIG, as I evidenced in the publication, Marion County Manager Connie Harris Attributes Fabricated Success for “Consistent Administration” of Road Grants (LMIG) During Her Tenure While Georgia Department of Audits and Accounting and County Budget Reports Indicate There Were No Grants and No Expenses. Had these gentlemen not done so, we wouldn’t be able to know specifically where these expenses were coming from or should be coming from.

I do want to add here, though, that it was referenced in March 2023, that Connie was supposed to propose an amended budget, and since we saw that the adopted budget for the roads was set at $0.00, then I do wonder, if these meeting minutes are accurate. I don’t believe that these commissioners would have asked for an amended budget and received an amended budget that indicated there was no money budgeted for anything as it related to the roads, and then continue to approve money being spent that wasn’t approved to use.

As in January through March, there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for April. This is now the fourth month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

May

Notice that, at the bottom of all the pages, the document says, “March 14, 2023 Regular Meeting of the Marion County Board of Commissioners,” but this meeting was for May 9, 2023; not March 14, 2023. Why did this not have the correct date on it? Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes?

Notice also how both Larry Whitley and Cody Slocumb reported on Schedule and Hours of the Roads. Why would there need to be two men reporting on the same topic?

Notice further how there are only 2 pages to these meeting minutes, but the first page says, “Page 1 of 4” and the second page says, “Page 2 of 4.” Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes? And why does this say there should be 4 pages? Where are the other two pages?

Notice furthermore, that there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for May. This is now the fifth month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

June

Notice first, that Matt Gunnels, as the Chairman, was absent, as was Norman Royal for this meeting. This is important, because you will notice that Commissioner Royal motioned and approved four different items and Matt Gunnels signed these meeting minutes. How could Norman Royal approve anything if he was absent? Did he know that his name is attributed to making approvals for things he wasn’t present for? And how did Matt sign and approve that he was there for those meeting minutes, if the Vice Chair, which was George Neal, should have signed, since he was there?

Notice also that we had a New Deputy Clerk, Amanda Bloodworth. Did Connie make this decision without the commissioners as well? If it was decided in the previous month’s executive session to discuss personnel, we wouldn’t be able to know whether the commissioners approved this or not, because there is no meeting item that mentions her being hired. Therefore, there’s no indication that the commissioners approved this, and if it’s not reflected in the meeting minutes, it’s not legal.

Notice further, that a public hearing was held at 5:17 PM, only 2 minutes after the meeting was called to order. Why would this be reflected as so, if there were all the other updates, adoption of meetings, and prayer? How could all of that be done in just 2 minutes?

And as in previous months, there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for June. This is now the sixth month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

I would also like to call your attention to item “j” for LMIG 2023, on page 2, which indicates that Robinson Paving was the only company to place a bid for Flem Smith Road and Harts Mill Road. But my question here is where did they get the money to approve these repairs for LMIG 2023, if no money was budgeted, and no money was actually spent in 2023, as was indicated in the publication, Marion County Manager Connie Harris Attributes Fabricated Success for “Consistent Administration” of Road Grants (LMIG) During Her Tenure While Georgia Department of Audits and Accounting and County Budget Reports Indicate There Were No Grants and No Expenses? Was this bid approved? Were the repairs done? And how did they use any money at all if the $449,000 was transferred out of LMIG in 2022?

July

Commissioner Neal made a motion to approve the minutes from June 13, 2023, but what caused me pause on this item was that it was hard for me to believe that George Neal would have approved meeting minutes for June that indicated there were commissioners absent but that they made approvals. Did he look at those minutes? Did he know that they were wrong?

As with many of the previous months, notice also how there are only 2 pages to these meeting minutes, but the first page says, “Page 1 of 4” and the second page says, “Page 2 of 4.” Did she use another meeting’s minutes to fabricate these minutes? And why does this say there should be 4 pages? Where are the other two pages?

And, notice more, that there is no item that indicates that Connie made any Monthly Funds Activity Report for July. This is now the seventh month that she has not briefed the commissioners about the financial status of Marion County.

I also noticed that there are several items under “New Business” on page 2, that usually commissioners will have motioned for approvals, to table, or deny. There was nothing for all 5 of these items, which is very unusual for these meeting minutes to reflect, which additionally caused me to question if these minutes had been whipped together at the last minute to fulfill a request for open records.

August

Notice, now, that Connie Harris is listed as the County Manager, and is no longer listed as Interim County Administrator/County Clerk. There are few interesting details about this that we need to unpack.

I performed an Open Records Request into the hiring/appointing of Connie Harris, on April 13, 2026. Heather Wright responded and indicated that Connie was appointed by the Commissioners on November 2022 as the Interim County Administrator, but as we have seen in the meeting minutes above, Connie only started placing that title on February 2023’s meeting minutes.

She was still using County Clerk on January of 2023. And just for grins and giggles, I went back to look at the November 2022 minutes, and guess what I found? In fact, she was still using the title of County Clerk.

Notice also that even as far back as November 2022, these minutes are still not reflecting the appropriate date for the meeting, and indicating that there are more pages than there are provided. You will see on page 3 of the minutes for November 2022, that former Commissioner for District 3, Jody Grimsley, made a motion to pay Connie Harris a $400.00 per month stipend due to there being no county manager, but nothing in these minutes indication that she was given the title of Interim County Manager.

And then in the response from Heather Wright, pertaining to my Open Records Request, which is above, Heather indicated that the commissioners appointed Connie as the County Manager as of August 2023, but there was nothing indicated on July’s meeting minutes nor was there any discussion that ensued that indicated that Connie was hired as the County Manager. If it was done in an executive session, we would never have known, but if in fact the commissioners appointed her, it should have reflected that on the minutes, and if it is not, then it is illegal. As far as no other applications for this position, and no clerks being available to assist during this time, it is clear from these meeting minutes, that Amanda Bloodworth was a Deputy Clerk. I also performed an Open Records Request for dates of hire of the clerks that have worked from 2023 to current and found that Lauren Cook was hired in May of 2023.

So was Heather just repeating what she was being told? And why, if Connie was included on the email that Heather sent addressing how Connie came to be County Manager, did Connie not contest these details? Also pay attention to how Heather has included the County Attorney, Wayne Jernigan on her response to me. Why does she need to add him on regular open records requests now? People shouldn’t need to bring an attorney in unless there is some criminal implication, guilt, or defense needed.

Getting back to the meeting minutes for August, George Neal was not present at this meeting. Connie once again had the wrong month indicated at the bottom of the page, was either missing 2 more pages or didn’t update the document to reflect the correct amount of pages, and this is the eighth month that Connie has given no update for the Monthly Funds Activity Report.

At this point, not only does it appear that things have been put together quickly, but it also just appears that Connie is grossly negligent, if these minutes are deemed as correct. This is not just a one off accident on many of these cases; this is habitual and gross. And these minutes reflect that the commissioners are doing things that are illegally and compromise themselves as well, which again, I have a hard time believing. Do they care that Connie is implicating them in conspiracy to defraud the public, misuse taxpayer money, make illegal legislation, and commit crimes?

September

And here is where I suspected with more certainty that these minutes were being altered, tampered with, created, and fabricated.

Notice how these minutes reflect that they were “CORRECTED.” This statement is quite laughable at this point because if they were corrected, then all the errors would have been resolved, but I will outline all the errors that exist in these minutes.

First, George Neal was absent from this meeting, which is now his second consecutive monthly meeting missed, according to these minutes, but there are six places where George Neal made motions for a meeting he did not attend.

Second, notice on page 2, that under item “f” for New Business, it indicates that there was an item to appoint board members for the elections board, but there was no approval from any commissioner on this, and it is also listed as the exact same item on October’s meeting that I will evidence later. I referenced much of this in my publication, The Harris Heist of Marion County, Georgia Elections, which adds support to my suspicion that these meeting minutes were fabricated.

Third, notice how the signatures on page 2 are NOT Matt Gunnels or Connie Harris’ signatures. You can look with your own eyes at all the other meeting minutes and see how both sign their names.

Also, notice that Deputy Clerk Amanda Bloodworth is not listed on this meeting’s minutes, and had these been created during the actual meeting, Amanda’s name would have been on this document, which indicates to me, that whoever helped to fabricate these documents, didn’t think about Amanda being the Deputy Clerk at that time and didn’t do their research to make sure that this was also corrected. And if for some reason Amanda was not available, why was the Assistant Deputy Clerk, Lauren Cook not present in her stead?

What I want to know is what did the original meeting minutes say before the were “CORRECTED?” And who do we hold accountable for the forgery that took place on these documents? Was it Heather Wright, who compiled all of these minutes for me? There are many ordinances and approvals that were made illegally by a commissioner that was absent and all of these minutes are illegal because they are forged. Forgery is a first-degree felonious crime in Georgia, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 16-9-1, and filing false documents is also a felonious crime pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20.1.

And as usual, there is no update for the Monthly Funds Activity Report by Connie Harris, which makes this the 9th month the commissioners have had no update.

But hey, at least the page count and the title at the bottom of the document are correct this time, so that’s an improvement!

October

Once more, these minutes reflect that George Neal was absent from the meeting, which is now his third consecutive month missing the county meeting, but it shows that he made 8 motions that ranged from approving the previous month’s meeting minutes (which he was also not at), to appointing a Hospital authority board member, to approving a millage rate, appointing Nikki Franklin as an elections board member, and then adjourning the meeting. Why do these meeting minutes reference appointing Election Board members this month as well as last month but there was no indication it would be tabled until October’s meeting? It appears that this may have been fabricated after the fact to make it appear as though Tiffany Harris was appropriately sitting in her positions as referenced in my publication, The Harris Heist of Marion County, Georgia Elections.

How could George Neal have made all these motions and approvals, if he wasn’t at the meeting, and why would he have approved the previous month’s minutes if he wasn’t at that previous meeting either? Wouldn’t he have been able to indicate that the minutes were not correct if he reviewed them before approving them? Does he know that all of these changes that he approved are invalid and now even bring light to whether Nikki is legally sitting as an Elections Board member?

And for the tenth month in 2023, Connie has provided no report of the monthly funds to the commissioners.

November

Notice that Chairman Matt Gunnels was absent from this meeting; however, he signed the minutes. How could he sign them as accurate or even approved them if he wasn’t at this meeting?

Also, notice how there is old business listed as Shaun Raulston requesting that SPLOST funds be used to purchase a washer and dryer for their turnout gear, but there was no discussion of this the previous month, and there are no motions or approvals here. So, was this just randomly added?

December

We now have a new Assistant Deputy Clerk showing up on the minutes and yet there has been no indication that she was hired on any of the meeting minutes. Per the Open Records Request response listed above, Lauren Cook was supposedly hired on May 15, 2023, but again there is nothing in the meeting minutes that reflects her hire, so is Connie hiring all of these people outside of the commissioners’ knowledge? Do the commissioners know that if these things are not on the minutes as being approved, these hires are illegal?

Additionally, this is now a pattern of twelve months straight – an entire year – that Connie has given no report to the commissioners as to the financial health of Marion County, but they have steadily approved items that take money, spend money, raise taxes, increase the millage rate, and fix roads using money that isn’t there.

And as a side note, there is no item indicating that any budget has been approved or that fiscal year reporting has been approved. This is important because we have a budget report from 2024 that says the 2023 numbers were adopted, but there’s no indication of that at all. We also don’t see anything about 2024 fiscal year or budget reports being reviewed. So how were they adopted for the 2024 Budget as referenced in my publication, Marion County Manager Connie Harris Attributes Fabricated Success for “Consistent Administration” of Road Grants (LMIG) During Her Tenure While Georgia Department of Audits and Accounting and County Budget Reports Indicate There Were No Grants and No Expenses.

In Sum

It is apparent that there are many things that don’t appear as though they are correct. I have a hard time believing that our commissioners would be making the kind of approvals they were making as Connie and her clerks have reflected, and I don’t believe they would be okay if they knew she and her clerks were implicating them in criminal behavior, illegal ordinances and legislation, expenditures, and approval of forged documents. If these documents were correct, they would show a commissioner who has been absent for four out of 12 of the meetings for the year, commissioners who have approved documents as being correct, which proves they have violated the law and conspired to defraud the public, spend money that wasn’t there, show they do not read what they are approving, and are making illegal legislation.

That being said, it is more logical based on the items I have outlined that these documents have been fabricated by Connie Harris and her clerks. It is my hope and prayer that our commissioners will respond accordingly to correct these mistakes and remove Connie and any of her clerks who have assisted her (if they haven’t already been removed). Why should we wait until Connie leaves us in July and pay her a pension and/or any severance or retirement for leaving us and our elected commissioners to answer for her crimes?

I am asking each of you to contact your commissioners and let them know that you are not okay with what Connie and her clerks have been doing and that you do not approve of paying her any more money and we want her gone NOW. I am also asking that you request that they bring in the GBI to investigate what Connie and her clerks have been doing. We need answers as to why all of this is happening without our Commissioners and us knowing!

Disclaimer

If your name is on any of the meeting minutes above and you can either confirm or deny any of the items discussed, please contact me so that I may correct anything I have stated.

If you have a story, feedback, or questions, please feel free to contact me at Plumblyne Productions at 229-329-2179 or plumblyneproductions@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for the 2024 breakdown of “Has Connie Harris, the Marion County Manager, Fabricated and Falsified Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes and Have Her Clerks Been Helping Her? Part 2”