The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Tuesday postponed action on a request to rezone property made by a former high-ranking Sheriff's Department employee facing a criminal investigation.
Former Sheriff's Maj. Nick Neal wants the commission to rezone a 1-acre tract on Arcadia Industrial Circle near Lilburn. County records show Neal plans to use the property for a towing business he owns.
Commissioners voted unanimously and without comment to postpone action on the zoning request until July 24.
The zoning request comes as the GBI investigates Neal's actions involving another company, Fleetwood Towing.
The agency is investigating the circumstances of a County Commission vote on a towing contract as well as allegations that Neal illegally took vehicles from Fleetwood.
Owner Ricky Fleetwood claims Neal offered to help him win some of the county's towing business last year.
In a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fleetwood said Neal introduced him to investors who leased Fleetwood Towing four tow trucks. Fleetwood said Neal also introduced him to then-Commissioner Shirley Lasseter, who visited his business several times.
Last July, at Lasseter's urging, the commission voted to rebid a county towing contract to give more companies a chance to compete for the work.
The move to reopen the towing contract was unusual. In 2010 commissioners granted the county's towing business to three other companies. The companies won one-year contracts, with options to renew for four additional one-year periods.
After commissioners voted to reopen the contracts, an attorney for one of the towing companies wrote a letter to commissioners objecting to the "unilateral modification" of the existing contract. Commissioners later reversed course and renewed the contract with those companies.
Lasseter recently pleaded guilty to bribery as part of an ongoing federal corruption investigation. She admitted she accepted $36,500 from an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman seeking her vote for a real estate development. The towing vote was not a part of her plea.
Fleetwood said Lasseter never asked him for money in exchange for her work on his behalf. But his relationship with Neal later soured.
Fleetwood claims that in March Neal illegally repossessed the four tow trucks he was leasing, even though Fleetwood was current on his payments. Neal recently told a local television station he was entitled to repossess the vehicles.
Sheriff Butch Conway asked the GBI to investigate Fleetwood's allegations. The probe also includes a look at events surrounding the commission vote.
Conway fired Neal earlier this month for violating a direct order not to speak with the media while he is the subject of a criminal investigation.
The sheriff said Tuesday he expects the GBI to finish its investigation soon.
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