CAIRO, Ga. — A Grady County commissioner’s involvement in a family farming business that also did business with the county was called into question recently. 

Charles Renaud raised at Tuesday’s commission meeting the county purchasing over $5,000 in hay bales from C&R Farms, Chairman Ray Prince’s family farming business. 

Prince told the Times-Enterprise Friday his son Cole Prince currently oversees the business. 

“I retired about five or six years ago,” he added. 

Renaud, also a former commissioner, asked if the policy had changed.  

The county policy states: “No county employee will be involved with expenditures directly or indirectly. This includes any transaction with, sale to, work for, or contract of the county or any department of government or service involving the expenditure of public funds.” 

The purchases from C&R Farms, Renaud said, is “directly outside” the county’s financial policy. 

“It is what it is, ladies and gentlemen,” Renaud said at the Tuesday meeting. 

Prince said the hay purchases were done over a one-to-two-year period. 

The hay, around 40-50 bales at a time, was used for erosion control on county roads, Prince said. 

The purchases, Prince said, were under the spending limit of the county administrator, which at the time was Carlos Tobar. 

“Anything over $2,500, it has to go before the board,” Prince said. “Apparently, (Tobar) didn’t see a problem with it. I didn’t know anything about it.”

Reporter Jordan Barela can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1826.