Republic tried to donate to camp

Loudon County Commission will be examining an attempt by Republic Services, Inc., the company that operates Matlock Bend Landfill, to donate to the campaign of a commissioner who also leads the Solid Waste Disposal Commission that oversees the landfill.

County Mayor Roland “Buddy” Bradshaw said he will discuss with commission and the county attorney a check for $500 that was issued by Republic to Kelly Littleton-Brewster’s campaign.

Littleton-Brewster, who represents District 1 in Loudon but did not run for reelection, sits on the SWDC and serves as chairwoman.

Bradshaw said he is confident Littleton-Brewster never asked for nor received a donation from Republic. He said he doesn’t know why they would issue a check without her knowledge.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” he said.

Documents confirming the donation were distributed to members of the commission’s budget committee last week. Littleton-Brewster also distributed copies of emails between herself and SWDC attorney Kevin Stevens, including Stevens’ communication with Republic about the matter.

A notification dated April 12 and mailed to Administrator of Elections Susan Harrison from Public Affairs Support Services, Inc., an organization based in Reston, Va., that tracks and reports contributions from political action committees, itemizes donations made by Republic.

The document indicates Republic issued a check Jan. 16, 2022, to Kelly Littleton-Brewster Campaign, 1101 Main St. Unit 24, Loudon.

Littleton-Brewster denied any knowledge of the donation until she was recently informed about the PASS report. She said because she did not intend to run for commission she had no campaign fund. When her term ends Sept. 1, she will no longer be a member of the SWDC.

“I have not taken and never would take a contribution from Republic,” Littleton-Brewster said. “I did not even know Republic was trying to give me a donation.”

A letter from Republic Manager of Municipal Sales David L. Hollinshead to Stevens said, “when Republic found out Mrs. Littleton-Brewster was not running for reelection, a campaign check that was going to be delivered to her never was sent. To be clear, Mrs. Brewster never requested a contribution from Republic and she informed Republic when she learned of it that she would have never accepted it. The check got to my office at Middle Point Landfill and was destroyed by the GM, Mr. Mike Classen.”

The letter goes on to say the status of the check was listed as issued and it has not been cashed.

“The mistake that was made was we should not have destroyed the check,” continues the letter. “We should have gone through the accounting system and gotten it properly voided.”

An email inquiry last week to Hollinshead asking for the timeline in which the check had been requested, mailed and destroyed was answered with an email from Republic’s corporate communications office.

“The contribution in question was never made,” according to the email response. “It was stopped by an internal compliance review before a check was ever presented to the campaign. This correction will be reflected in our next campaign finance report due to the state in July. While we cannot speak for the previous site operator, who we recently acquired, Republic places a high priority on ethics and compliance in everything that we do, to include participation in the political process.”

An email thread dated April 25 and April 26 that included Littleton-Brewster, Harrison, Stevens, Hollinshead and Classen showed that Stevens requested information from Hollinshead regarding the attempt to donate to the Littleton-Brewster campaign. Stevens said Littleton-Brewster did not nor would she request a donation from Republic. He said “she wanted to get the record cleared up so that it did not reflect that she took any contribution from Republic.”

Littleton-Brewster provided the News-Herald an email from Allen Norfleet, compliance manager for PASS.

“The corporation reported a contribution to the Kelly Littleton-Brewster Campaign in our Tennessee First Quarter Report through our registered corporation with the state of Tennessee and overnighted a copy of the report to the Loudon County Election Commission,” Norfleet wrote. “The check was never delivered to the Kelly Littleton-Brewster Campaign and we will disclose the voided check on our Second Quarter Report. We will overnight this report to Loudon County Election Commission after we file the report with Tennessee.”

Republic, which purchased Santek Waste Services in 2021, has been in negotiations with SWDC for the extension of the contract to operate the landfill. A draft of the contract is expected to be reviewed in the coming weeks by stakeholders, which include the county, Loudon and Lenoir City.