The Lowndes County Economic Development Commission is the body recruiting Cloverleaf Infrastructure on behalf of Lowndes County. Three publicly accessible sources name its leadership: the LCEDC President's verbal enumeration at an April 28, 2026 Commission meeting, the LCEDC page hosted on the county-government domain at lowndes-al.gov, and the LCEDC's own brand-new website at growlowndescounty.org, which appeared in April 2026. None of the three agree. One of the two official websites lists personnel and institutions that no longer exist. The other — the LCEDC's own new site — confirms the structural conflict in writing.
FIG. C·1 — Where the recruitment is happening. A boardroom of the kind small-town economic-development commissions meet in across the South. Three publicly accessible sources name the LCEDC's leadership; none agree. The LCEDC's older county-government page still lists a Secretary who has since been elected to the circuit bench and a Treasurer's bank that ceased to exist in 2021. Source: documentary photography, illustrative reference
The disclosure question
A body recruiting a $1B+ project on behalf of Lowndes County should be able to keep its own website current. The LCEDC maintains two separate official pages with conflicting rosters, one of which lists personnel and institutions that no longer exist. We are not asking for anything that a public body shouldn't already have published.
The three official rosters.
Each panel below is one publicly accessible source. Read across — and notice that the rosters do not match, the officer titles do not align, and the older county-government page lists personnel and a bank that have not existed for years while still sitting publicly on the county's own domain.
List A · April 28, 2026
Thomas Ellis, LCEDC President — verbal at the April 28, 2026 Lowndes County Commission meeting
Jim Byard
Angela Till
Tyson Howard
Alabama Power
Pioneer Electric Cooperative
Dixie Electric Cooperative
Central Alabama Electric Cooperative
Pintlala Water Works
Thomas Ellis (himself)
South East Alabama Gas
Both banks (unspecified)
William Scott
Mayor Ozier
All five Lowndes County Commissioners
Mrs. Jeter, Superintendent of Lowndes County Public Schools (sits in)
Stated verbally at a public meeting; no written roster provided. Source: video of the April 28, 2026 Commission meeting on The Lowndes Signal Facebook page.
Secretary: Cleve Poole, Pioneer Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Treasurer: John Lyon, BancorpSouth
Lists only four officers; no full board roster. Lists Cleve Poole as Secretary — Poole has since been elected to the circuit bench. Lists John Lyon's bank as BancorpSouth — BancorpSouth merged into Cadence Bank in October 2021. The page is, by these two facts alone, demonstrably out of date.
Chairman: Charlie King, Jr., Lowndes County Commission
Secretary: Aubrey Carter, Alabama Power
Treasurer: John Lyon, Cadence Bank
Economic Developer: Jim Byard, Jr.
Lists six officers, including a different Secretary (Aubrey Carter, Alabama Power) than the older lowndes-al.gov page (Cleve Poole, Pioneer Electric). Confirms in writing that the sitting Chairman of the County Commission also serves as Vice-President of the LCEDC — the structural conflict that grounds the recusal demand, on the LCEDC's own brand-new official site.
Three things the official sites already tell us.
01
The county-government LCEDC page is years out of date — and is still up.
The lowndes-al.gov LCEDC page lists Cleve Poole as Secretary; Poole has since been elected to the circuit bench. It lists John Lyon's bank as BancorpSouth, which merged into Cadence Bank in October 2021. The page is still publicly hosted on the county's own domain and has not been corrected.
02
The two official rosters do not agree on the Secretary.
The lowndes-al.gov page names Cleve Poole, Pioneer Electric Cooperative. The newer growlowndescounty.org page names Aubrey Carter, Alabama Power. Two of the three largest electric utilities serving the area sit in the same role on different official pages.
03
The LCEDC's own brand-new site names the County Commission Chairman as its Vice-President.
On growlowndescounty.org — the LCEDC's own website, which appeared in April 2026 — Charlie King Jr. is listed as both 'Chairman, Lowndes County Commission' and 'Vice-President' of the LCEDC on the same page. The dual role is published by the LCEDC itself, on its newest official site.
What we are asking for.
Recusal of the Chairman. Chairman King to publicly commit to recusing himself from any Project Red Clay-related vote on the basis of his LCEDC Vice-President role.
Publication of a reconciled current roster. The LCEDC to publish a single, accurate, current officer and full-board roster on a single official page; the bylaws; and any meeting minutes related to Project Red Clay.
Recusal of conflicted board members. Any LCEDC board member with material utility, banking, or supplier interest in the project to formally recuse from any LCEDC vote on Project Red Clay.
What we are still verifying.
Reconcile the three official sources — the same body, three different rosters in three publicly accessible places.
Obtain the formal written LCEDC bylaws.
Confirm whether the rule that the County Commission Chairman serves as LCEDC Vice-President is bylaw-required or convention.
Confirm John Lyon's current institutional role and any banking relationship between his employer and the LCEDC or any project-related accounts.
Identify the full current board membership — both official rosters list officers only.
