The white vans, trucks and buses in a lot near the jail downtown have Bibb County government license plates and are parked in a county-owned lot.

But the vehicles don’t belong to Macon-Bibb County. They are owned by the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council Inc., an agency that receives millions of dollars in federal grants each year to run assistance programs for children and low-income families.

Though largely funded by taxpayer dollars, lawyers representing the EOC contend it is a private, non-government entity not required to share details about its operations and finances.

Founded as a public entity in 1965, the EOC registered as a private nonprofit in 1986 on the heels of allegations it had reported work that was never done, claimed reimbursement for materials that were never used or for which it had previously been reimbursed and claimed completion of projects that were incomplete.

Despite the EOC’s change in status to a private nonprofit, the language in the Bibb County Code describing their responsibilities to local government is still on the books some 36 years later.

A PUBLIC AGENCY BECOMES PRIVATE 

President Lyndon B. Johnson began waging his War on Poverty with the creation of the  Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which prompted the creation of hundreds of local entities called “community action networks” across the country to address poverty with federal dollars at the local level.

In January 1965, the Macon City Council and Bibb County Board of Commissioners both passed resolutions creating the Macon-Bibb EOC.

In its infancy, EOC operated community centers in neighborhoods, distributed mass quantities of government cheese and butter to families in need, patched up houses for elderly residents, offered free meal programs and helped unemployed people find jobs. It also regularly advertised its public meetings in The Telegraph.

In its 15th year of operating, the EOC opened the Carver Head Start center on Hazel Street downtown. About 250 kids were enrolled in the county’s first Head Start program in 1980.

The EOC has fed, sheltered and helped educate Bibb County residents for the past 57 years. It helped families pay heating bills, provided cool spots for homeless people during summer months and helped those in need with minor home repairs.

But these measures of growth and progress were eventually soured in 1985 by allegations of fraud and abuse. A state audit found irregularities in the EOC’s weatherization program, a service it once offered to help low income and elderly people insulate their homes from the elements.

The EOC’s executive director at the time, Earl D. Carter, came under criminal investigation in 1985 and resigned, according to Telegraph archives.

After an eight-month investigation by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and the district attorney’s office, Carter and seven others who worked at the EOC office were indicted on multiple counts of theft.

In a three-day trial in February 1986, District Attorney Willis B. Sparks III accused Carter of bilking more than $11,000 from EOC by setting up bogus truck lease arrangements using his relatives’ names.

Carter, then 49, told The Telegraph he was confident he would be acquitted of all 19 counts of theft. The jury deliberated for an hour and a half before doing just that. The other seven charged with theft were not prosecuted.

“I’m somewhere between total amazement and total stupefaction,” Sparks told The Telegraph after Carter was acquitted.

In the wake of the criminal trial, the Bibb County Board of Commissioners moved to end  their relationship with the EOC. The EOC beat them to it. On March 27, 1986, the EOC filed incorporation papers with the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office establishing itself as a domestic, private nonprofit.

The EOC’s privatization in the ‘80s came as a surprise to some on Macon City Council. Councilman Henry Ficklin was among the most outspoken critics of the change.

“There’s no checks and balances on that organization,” Ficklin said at the time. “We’ve gotten into a situation where the city and county have been derelict in their responsibilities.”

Ficklin, now Bibb County’s Director of Community Affairs, said his chief concern then was whether the city and county would continue to have representatives on the EOC’s Board of Directors.

Ficklin told The Macon Newsroom recently he doesn’t recall specifics about the issue from back in his days on city council, but “I do recall that my whole stance has been and is that the public needs to have information,” he said. “If they were moving in a way that would close off what information the public could receive about what was going on with EOC, then certainly I was opposed to that.”

The agency’s lack of transparency is “still concerning now,” Ficklin said. “An entity that receives public money should be open to public scrutiny.”

CHECKING THE BOOKS

The EOC has an annual budget larger than many small cities in Georgia. Most of the $17.6 million the organization brought in during 2020 came in the form of federal grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a publicly available audit on an online database for nonprofits made by ProPublica.

The EOC’s 2020 audit states EOC is “subject to routine audits by taxing jurisdiction” and EOC “Management believes that the Council is no longer subject to tax examinations by taxing authorities for years prior to 2017.”

EOC is also not subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act, but the different arms of state and federal government that provide funding to it are. The EOC conducts single-audits annually and any findings are supposed to be reviewed by the regional office of the U.S. Administration for Children and Families.

Even though EOC isn’t subject to Georgia open government laws, vestiges of public oversight remained on the books when Bibb County and the City of Macon consolidated.

The code section, entitled “Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council,” specifies that “minutes of meetings of the Equal Opportunity Council shall be recorded by the secretary, and shall be public record.”

Despite the EOC’s change in status to a private nonprofit, the language in the Bibb County Code describing their responsibilities to local government is still on the books some 36 years later.

Bibb County spokesman Chris Floore said that’s because “no one cleaned up the code to remove the reference to a now defunct board.” Floore said the EOC described in the county code refers to the agency created by the city and county in 1965 but the EOC that registered with the state as a nonprofit in 1986 is a different entity using the same name.

Macon-Bibb County Tax Assessor Wade McCord said the decision to issue county government license plates to EOC was “based upon the powers given to the organization by county code.”

Asked how EOC obtained county government tags for its vehicles, McCord said he was looking into the situation and had reached out to EOC to schedule a meeting to discuss the matter with its board of directors.

It is unclear when the county issued the tags to EOC or how long the nonprofit has been using them. McCord said tag records are confidential.

Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller said the county does not receive operational reports from EOC.

Records The Macon Newsroom obtained from the county under state sunshine laws show EOC exchanged more than a thousand emails with county leaders in 2021. The subject lines of those emails contain mentions of monthly reports, board meeting minutes, end-of-year reports, financial packages and more.

To contact writer Laura Corley, email [email protected] or call 478-301-5777.

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