The mayor of Martin, his daughter and the northwest Tennessee city’s economic and community development head were all indicted by a grand jury this week following an investigation by the state comptroller’s office that uncovered the misappropriation of over $450,000 in city funds.
Mayor Randy Brundige, who’s led the Weakley County city since he was elected in 2002, is accused of approving the use of a grant consulting firm that investigators say is owned by the city’s Director of Economic and Community Development Brad Thompson. Grant writing and administrative services were already part of Thompson’s official job duties.
Separately, the mayor’s daughter, Natalie Brundige, allegedly received close to $175,000 in unearned wages and benefits over a six-year span from her position as a custodian for the city’s police department.
The comptroller’s investigation found that Natalie Brundige did not complete official timesheets. Instead, officials say the mayor would inform the city’s human resources department whether missed any of her shifts. Investigators say he failed to inform the HR director of any times his daughter worked less than eight hours, the expected shift for a full-time job.
Randy Brundige was indicted Monday on four counts of official misconduct and five counts of theft – four of those charges involving between $60,000 and $250,000. He’s also charged with one count of accessory after the fact. Thompson is facing four charges of official misconduct along with two separate counts of theft. Natalie Brundige was charged with one count of official misconduct and one count of theft.
Grant agency used for services allegedly owned by economic development head
According to the Tennessee Comptroller’s office, Thompson owns a grant writing firm called One Consulting. That business submitted more than 50 invoices to the city over a nine-year span totalling upwards of $236,000. Mayor Brundige verbally approved payments for those contracts, according to the comptroller’s investigation.
In his role as director of economic and community development, Thompson was tasked with overseeing the city’s grant process – which includes assisting department heads with grant applications and preparing the information necessary to apply for grants. The city is allowed to hire outside agencies for grant writing – but Thompson was still responsible for providing information necessary for those agencies to apply for grants.
Normally, when the city uses an outside business for grant assistance, it creates contracts for those services. However, state officials say the city did not have a grant administration contract with One Consulting.
After the investigation began, Brundige presented an ordinance for approval from Martin’s City Council in November 2024 to retroactively approve work from One Consulting. One board member told investigators that the mayor said the resolution was supposed to “clean up something that needed to be changed and put it in the books.”
Investigators also found that One Consulting had been paid 16 invoices for grant services that the city had already contracted with a separate outside agency to perform.
Mayor’s daughter reportedly paid full time for part time hours
The Martin mayor’s daughter, Natalie Brundige, was initially hired as a part-time employee for the city in 2007 as a custodian for the police department, but became a full-time employee in late 2018. She held that role until June of this year.
While Brundige was supposed to work five eight-hour shifts per week, multiple police department employees told investigators that they only saw her working for around two hours each day. The comptroller’s office then reviewed security footage from the police department to verify some of her actual work times from a sample of shifts from her last few months in the role. They found she worked an average of just 10 hours per week.
Based on that analysis, the comptroller’s office found Natalie Brundige only worked around a quarter of the hours she got paid for while she was a full-time employee. Overall, investigators say Brundige made nearly $140,000 for work she did not perform. Additionally, she earned over $27,000 worth of employer-paid benefits for Social Security, Medicare, vision insurance and retirement contributions – along with more than $7,200 in leave compensation investigators say she should not have earned.
Randy Brundige, Natalie’s father, would only tell the city’s HR director if his daughter did not work – and only reported 13 days that Natalie was on official leave during her six-year full time employment stint. The HR director told investigators “it was done that way because Natalie was [the mayor’s] daughter.”
Mayor Brundige, Thompson accused of improper charges on city credit cards
Martin’s mayor and director of economic and community development were also charged in relation to allegations of using city-issued credit cards for unauthorized meal and travel expenses.
Thompson is accused of illegally charging over $35,000 to city-issued credit cards. Under the city’s travel policy, employees are supposed to file travel reimbursement forms and submit receipts for their expenses like food and lodging. Expenses beyond the state-approved rates are supposed to be covered by the traveler.
Investigators cited an example where Thompson traveled to Florida in 2023 for a Tennessee Economic Development Council conference – and was the only City of Martin employee to attend. Under the state-approved rates, Thompson should have been reimbursed $825 for lodging. Instead, the comptroller’s office found he charged over $4,000 to a city-issued credit card to rent a three-bedroom condo.
Thompson, according to investigators, also spent over $5,600 on the city’s credit card for first class airfare to Italy for a University of Tennessee at Martin alumni trip. He also submitted an invoice to the city for nearly $4,000 for a travel package for that trip.
According to the report, Thompson also used his city-issued card to purchase season tickets for UTM football and basketball, as well as for clothes, toiletries, household items and personalized AirPods.
Mayor Randy Brundige is also accused of improperly charging nearly $11,000 in travel expenses to his city-issued credit card.
According to the comptroller’s report, Brundige and Thompson would often travel together to Public Entity Partners quarterly board meetings held in Franklin, Tennessee. Investigators found that the two would dine at high-end restaurants on some of their travels and charged the city credit card beyond the state-approved meal amount – and identified at least 27 times where Brundige used the city credit card to “purchase lavish meals at high-end steakhouses.” The report includes a receipt from a 2021 trip to Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse where the two spent over $650 on meals and alcoholic beverages.
The report also outlines over $10,000 in “questionable credit card transactions” Thompson made – and a little under $300 for Brundige – that investigators could not determine whether or not those purchases were for the “exclusive benefit of the city.”
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