Nashville Metro Paid Millions for Trash Trucks in Deal Tied to Federal Investigation
A city official and developers involved in the purchase are under federal scrutiny.
Source: Nashville Banner ↗
Nashville, Tenn., Metro Government paid more than $16 million to a real estate developer’s LLC for a 14-truck refuse fleet lease arranged by a city official who is now the subject of a federal investigation, records obtained through public records requests show.
The emergency contract, structured at $26,000 per truck per month, bypassed Metro Council approval. Metro initially budgeted $3 million for the first year of what was framed as a two-year bridging arrangement; actual payments to Cumberland Capital Nashville LLC exceeded that figure more than five times over.
Cumberland Capital Nashville LLC is an entity formed by Nashville real estate developer Mack McClung. The on-paper relationship between Metro and McClung’s company began Dec. 9, 2021, when John Honeysucker, then assistant director of Metro Water Services overseeing waste operations, emailed McClung directly. “Mack, I will need to rent the following for minimal one and half to two years,” Honeysucker wrote, copying local engineer and land planner Roy Dale. “We can get together at Roy’s office to discuss details.” A separate Cumberland Capital LLC was not registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State until a week after that email; Metro ultimately contracted with the Nashville LLC McClung formed shortly before the arrangement was finalized.
The procurement came after Nashville’s primary residential trash contractor filed for bankruptcy in 2021, triggering missed pickups across Davidson County and a suspended curbside recycling program. Supply chain backlogs were stretching new-equipment delivery windows to as much as 24 months, according to the emergency purchase justification form Honeysucker signed. “Due to supply chain issues and delays caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, Metro has experienced longer than normal delays (as much as 24 months) in receiving new equipment to provide residential trash collection services,” Honeysucker wrote on the form. “Leasing equipment for two years will bridge the gap and provide the needed equipment to avoid service delays.”
Finance officials within Metro Water raised documentation concerns as the deal took shape. “Emergency Procurements at this level must have steadfast documentation,” Amanda Deaton-Moyer, then a finance official at Metro Water, wrote to Honeysucker and other senior staff in May 2022. “Using government funds without proper procurement causes significant risk.” Records show officials asked Honeysucker to document how Cumberland Capital was selected, including whether he had solicited competing vendors; the emails contain no evidence that outreach occurred.
Kristin Wilson, chief of operations in then-Mayor John Cooper’s office, acknowledged the arrangement was outside normal practice in a February 2022 email to McClung, Honeysucker and others. “I am grateful for your willingness to step in and help Metro navigate the many challenges we are facing with trash services delivery,” Wilson wrote. “I appreciated your patience in sharing more about your business model and approach as well. As noted, it’s not our usual approach to fleet, but we recognize that our usual approach isn’t meeting the need.”
The lease executed June 27, 2022. That same day, Honeysucker forwarded Deaton-Moyer’s confirmation email to Dale with the note, “FYI Done deal.” In the week that followed, Honeysucker forwarded Dale three more exchanges, one concerning adding trucks to the contract and others about McClung’s payment processing. Dale subsequently shared invoices with Honeysucker showing Dale had billed McClung directly, with one past-due line item described as the “balance of mothly [sic] fee for 6 truck contract for first year.”
Honeysucker, McClung and Dale are subjects of an ongoing federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, which has not confirmed the nature of the probe. Honeysucker retired late last month ahead of a Metro disciplinary hearing on charges that he maintained unethical relationships with Nashville developers. When records related to Cumberland Capital LLC were first requested, Metro attorneys initially withheld them, citing rules applicable to ongoing criminal cases, before releasing the documents after reassessing the applicable legal standard.
