Former Public Works Director Pleads Not Guilty

FARMINGTON — Dan Ledbetter, former public works director for the city of Farmington, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of theft of property by deception in a Dec. 9 arraignment hearing in Washington County Circuit Court.

David Burcaw, deputy prosecuting attorney with the Washington County Prosecuting Attorney’s off ice, said a suspect charged with a felony has to plead not guilty because the magistrate is not able to accept a guilty plea from a felony count. Burcaw said Ledbetter has a Feb. 10, 2014, trial date.

The Washington County Sheriff ’s Office charged Ledbetter with the Class B felony on Nov 8. In an interview with sheriff ’s Detective Bret Hagan, Ledbetter admitted to selling city building permits to a local builder and depositing that money into his business bank account, instead of “properly distributing and reporting the funds to the city of Farmington.”

The loss to the city of Farmington is estimated at more than $ 33,000, according to the affidavit for warrant of arrest for Ledbetter.

Burcaw could not release many details because the case is still an open investigation. He could not say if there would be any other charges filed. He also said he did not know at this point if there would be a plea bargain.

In light of the theft, the city has decided to make changes to the position of public works director and split the duties into two separate positions, according to Mayor Ernie Penn.

As public works director, Ledbetter was in charge of the public works department and also responsible for code enforcement, building permits and inspections, plan reviews and enforcing the sign ordinance.

Floyd Shelley, who has been with the city of Farmington since August 2008, recently was promoted from public works supervisor to public works manager and will be in charge of budgeting for the public works department, as well as overseeing the employees and work involved in public works, said Melissa McCarville, city business manager.

“It will be different for him as far as handling the budget but as far as management of people and equipment, it will be the same. He’s already been handling that,” McCarville said.

The city has been adver- tising a new position of chief building /code enforcement official with a Dec. 16 deadline. Monday, McCarville said the city had received eight applications for the job.

According to the job announcement, duties for the official will include inspection of new construction for compliance with codes, ordinances and other requirements, all code enforcement and public nuisance issues and signage enforcement and permitting. The announcement says that the applicant must be certified as a building inspector and certified in heat and air, electrical and plumbing. The salary range for the new position will range from $45,000-$49,000.

Penn said his goal is to fill the new position before the end of the year.

Penn said the city will also make changes on issuing building permits but those are not in place yet. He said the city probably would require two signatures for a building permit and put in place other requirements to have more control over the issuance of permits.

Penn said Ledbetter, who is a state certified building inspector, was inspecting property for one builder for houses in a subdivision in the county. Payment for these services were made to Ledbetter’s personal business account, LCS Services. However, when the subdivision was annexed into the city in 2008, Ledbetter continued to bill the building as LCS Services, instead of the money going to the city, Penn said.

Ledbetter apparently deleted the information from the city’s computer so that there was not a record that the payment should have been made to the city, Penn said.

Ledbetter told city officials that only one builder was involved. The name of this builder has not been released by the sheriff ’s office.