June 30, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
It may not have been illegal after all!
Following Monday night’s county commission meeting in which a member was accused of having violated the state’s Open Meetings Act (Sunshine Law), County Attorney Hilton Conger contacted the Open Records Counsel in the Tennessee Comptroller’s office for an opinion.
In response, Lee Pope, Open Records Counsel for the state wrote that based on findings in a previous case by the Tennessee Court of Appeals no law may have been broken here.
During the meeting Monday night First district commissioner Julie Young read a text message from Fourth District member Dr. Scott Little sent to Third District Commissioner Jenny Trapp prior to the meeting allegedly soliciting her vote for a proposed budget amendment to refund the former county fiscal agent/financial advisor position held by Steve Bates. Young claims that was a violation of the Sunshine law.
Commissioner Little, who did not address Young’s accusations during the meeting, later told WJLE he did nothing wrong or illegal.
Second District Commissioner Sabrina Farler Monday night moved that the funding for Bates’ position be restored with a $5,000 increase in pay to $20,000 for the year and that he be rehired. Sixth district member Jeff Barnes offered a second to the motion. The motion failed on a 7 to 4 vote. One member abstained and two commissioners were absent. (eight votes were needed for passage).
“In light of the allegation Monday night at the commission meeting that a member of the commission violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (Sunshine Law) by contacting other members by text message seeking their support for a motion to amend the budget, I contacted the Office of Open Records for an opinion,” said County Attorney Hilton Conger.
The response from Pope, Open Records Counsel for the Tennessee Comptroller is as follows:
“In Johnston v. Metropolitan Gov’t of Nashville and Davidson Cnty., 320 S.W.3d 299 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2009), the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that electronic communications, such as email or text message, between members of a governing body can violate the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (“TOMA”) if the communications constitute the discussion or deliberation of matters a quorum of the governing body would need to vote upon. In that case, the court found that email communications weighing arguments for or against a certain measure violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (TOMA). However, the court also found that emails about strategy, such as working on certain members to vote for the measure, did not constitute deliberation and such “strategic” communications did not violate TOMA. Accordingly, its possible a simple text message from one member of a governing body to another simply requesting that the member vote yes, without more, may not violate TOMA,” opined Pope.
Commissioners voting for restoring funding and rehiring Bates were Sabrina Farler, Janice Fish-Stewart, Scott Little, Anita Puckett, Jerry Adcock, Jeff Barnes, and Matt Adcock. Commissioners Julie Young, Jenny Trapp, Beth Pafford, and Bruce Malone voted no. Commissioner Susannah Cripps Daughtry abstained and Commissioners Shaee Flatt and Myron Rhody were absent.