DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – When Deerfield Beach activist Sandra Jackson saw a city garbage truck at a resident's home on a Saturday -- a day the city doesn't pick up garbage -- she thought something was wrong.
But she didn't find out until later that the man getting his asphalt driveway and other refuse taken away by a group of city employees -- including Sanitation Director George Sullivan -- was a relative of a city supervisor who she said was clearly getting special treatment.
"It's wrong," she said. "And the city isn't telling the truth about it."
Indeed, Sullivan, the sanitation director, wrote an email to city officials claiming he was called by a "customer" on that Saturday to come pick up garbage.
But the actual customer, Lorenzo Fulmore, told Local 10 News he had no idea who Sullivan was and admitted that it was his brother, city supervisor Hayward Fulmore, who set up the entire "special pickup."
Sullivan also wrote that the "customer" asked that the pickup be made Monday, but that he decided himself to do it that Saturday. Yet Lorenzo Fulmore said he always needed it done on that Saturday only and never had another day in mind.
"I don't go through all that red tape with the city where you have to get transferred and all that crap," said Lorenzo Fulmore. "[My brother] took care of it."
When it was noted that not everyone has a brother working for the city, he responded, "Yes they do. Everybody knows somebody at the city. They make phone calls. That's a bunch of crap ... Everybody knows everybody that works at the city. You can call anybody and get something done, not saying that's going to be illegal, but you can call and get anything done."
Fulmore said he paid $150 cash on the spot for the job, though a call to the city found that normally residents -- in addition to not having Saturday service as an option -- either have to pay in advance or have the charge tacked on to their water bills.
City activist Kron Givens said his concern was that the entire job was essentially off the books prior to Jackson catching them in the act, and he wondered if more serious corruption wasn't afoot, saying such practices need to be stopped before the city is met with "disaster."
City spokeswoman Rebecca Medina Stewart, however, claimed it was all above board, offering up Sullivan's bogus email explanation as evidence.
Other city officials, including City Manager Burgess Hanson, failed to return phone calls and messages about it and none would appear on camera.
When Local 10's Bob Norman caught up with Chad Grecsek, the city's director of recycling and waste management, he sped off in his car.
The city did issue an email Wednesday, in which it claimed it didn't pick up any asphalt from Fulmore's driveway. The problem with that is Fulmore himself admitted on camera that the city did in fact remove the asphalt from the driveway that Saturday.
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