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Automotive repair invoice for corporations

a Southwest Virginia town is reevaluating its longtime practice of overwhelmingly taking town business to the mayor's business it's following a community watchdog investigation Nate more vidoes investigation for months in the making now also has a national government watchdog organization calling for a criminal investigation we're about to show you Chilhowie Mayor Gary hanniger first elected in 2002 he's owned Chilhowie Chevron an auto repair shop for more than 40 years this is every invoice he's build the town over the last six years this is every invoice other similar businesses in Chilhowie have billed the town during that same time period for basic auto repair services there's no comparison in a small town where everybody knows your business one business owned by Jill Howie's longtime mayor has quietly secured the majority of towns basic auto repair work has not even close town leaders say they didn't realize the inequality until we started investigating those things that didn't rise on the radar screen invoices show the town's paid Chilhowie Chevron more than $24,000 since 2012 two service government cars and trucks we've been here since 2011 that's four times as much as tim wide there's garage how much business do you get from the town very little his shops it's just two doors down from the mayor's both are within view of Town Hall I mean I can look right out their front windows and says in addition to repair work invoices show Chilhowie Chevron often complete state inspections for the town 100-plus since 2012 significantly more than Widener's business the town manager told me he didn't even know you all did inspections what do you think about that he says he started offering inspections in 2014 surely upsetting to me I mean when you drive by here that's a pretty big sign there on the front of the building maybe I should have known what they did there what their specialties were I did and I'll take responsibility for that but if they contacted me I mean I would be happy to look into it town manager John Clark says now that he knows he intends to reevaluate the town's procedures we want to make sure that we're trying to the trip the business over the entire town he says the town operates without a written policy for routine vehicle maintenance instead directing department heads to award work to Chilhowie vendors first Smith County company's next I guess is habit more than anything else they often picked Chilhowie Chevron Clark says because the garage and staff are equipped to offer a wide range of services for both big and small vehicles the mayor's never asked the town nor me to bring a vehicle his business what rankles people more than anything else is when that tax dollar is spent to insiders and the mayor is definitely an insider in a small community the founder of opened the books a national nonprofit pushing for transparency and government spending says the town's longtime practice raises several issues this triggers all kinds of ethical questions all of these things need to be investigated we feel by a third party law enforcement investigative organization you've outlined quite a troubling pattern Clark maintains the town is well within Virginia's purchasing and conflict of interest laws and is convinced taxpayers aren't losing out Clark defends the town's practice of not bidding out small purchases or getting quotes calling it inefficient impractical and unnecessary under Virginia law I think he's really really getting the town bright I think I think he's under charges some people get mobile business owners former vice mayor Lou short says he's unfazed by all of it he owns a small garage - let's agree this one here and almost never gets town business there's a little big deal really it bothers me a little bit widenar on the other hand says he could have used the business in the past while the town is promising to direct more business his way now widenar says he doesn't want it I don't really care if we work for him or not as for the mayor he declined multiple interview requests but shared his thoughts during a town council meeting bonnie has made a complaint to ing to state law the mayor does not have to formally disclose any of his personal interests or file any reports with the Commonwealth of Virginia because Chilhowie is home to less than 3500 people now in addition to his garage getting most of the non diesel non warranty work compared to similar businesses in the town limits Josh the mayor also routinely failed to date his invoices we counted more than 30 at the least that were not dated here are three of them right here the town is obviously convinced it's getting the best bargain for taxpayer dollars you found out Chilhowie does not seek out bids or quotes for small expenses and that's why we made some calls of our own because we wanted to get an idea as well so here's a breakdown of three other auto repair garages in Chilhowie today and the quotes they gave us for five different services really they're on the screen some of the mayor's past rates are lower than his in town competitor's rates today others are higher and one is in the middle you can see the breakdown for yourself on wgal.com Josh hey thank you very much the town argues the mayor's only influence comes when he votes which only occurs when there is a tiebreaker the town clerk tells us the mayor's never had to make a tie-breaking vote during the budget process