MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WPMI) — A Mobile County Public Schools board member tells NBC 15 News he reported massive overbilling to the FBI and believes the agency is now investigating a Baldwin County flooring business. The FBI won’t confirm or deny that. Mobile County Public Schools accused Delta Flooring of overcharging more $104,000 for a series of jobs and reported it to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office last year. Investigators found the company “grossly” overestimated room sizes in order to charge more.
“I want our money back, but I also want people to pay the price for what they do,” said board member Johnny Hatcher.
Investigators found multiple examples of overestimating including charging for 7,121 sq ft of flooring at Alma Bryant High School’s library when the space was 5,030 sq ft. Investigators found the company overcharged Semmes Elementary School Library 1,782.05 sq ft.
“In my opinion, they knew exactly what they were doing,” said Hatcher.
The sheriff’s office reviewed invoices and areas where Delta Flooring did work were remeasured to find the discrepancies.
“We found that the measurements were between 10% and 150% overestimated in terms of square footage,” said Sgt. Lonnie Parsons.
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office found the owner of Delta Flooring committed “theft of public funds” and recommended two criminal charges of aggravated theft by deception and deceptive business practices.
“We presented it to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office, and upon their review, they felt that it would be best to file civil litigation. And then once the civil litigation played out, we would look over what came out and present it back to the district attorney’s office,” said Parsons.
Hatcher says that’s not good enough. Last week, he says he met with the FBI to report what happened because federal tax funds were used to pay for the flooring.
“I wasn’t getting any relief from the state, so I decided to up the ante and go to the feds,” said Hatcher.
We reached out to the owner of Delta Flooring for comment but did not receive a response.
Mobile Public Schools Director of Communication Rena Philips offered this statement:
We were alarmed by the amount of money that we were being charged, so we launched an investigation in 2023. We conducted that investigation and forwarded what we found to local law enforcement.
As far as what our options are now – we are not sure. We are seeking legal advice. We have also put measures in place to make sure that we are not overcharged again.
The last contracted job with Delta Flooring that we had was back in 2023. We follow the state bid law on contracts, including flooring contracts.
