March 28, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The county commission will soon be asked to start adopting rules regulating the procedures for conducting business at meetings.
The policies and procedures committee, made up of commissioners Janice Fish-Stewart, Dr. Scott Little, Myron Rhody, and Sabrina Farler, has been working on a proposed document containing the rules and a portion of it may be considered for approval next month.
The commission currently has no formal guidelines on how meetings are to be conducted. The proposed document spells it out in detail to help ensure that business is transacted in a more orderly fashion.
“We have been working hard and have had several meetings. The plan is not to bring the entire document at one time. We are going to approve it in sections and when we are finished we will approve the entire document. We believe it will bring a lot better working order to the commission. We are trying to be very careful to stay within the rules and regulations of CTAS (County Technical Advisory Service) and the Tennessee Code,” said Stewart.
Some commissioners are concerned about language in the document that would allow fellow members to vote on issues in which they may have a conflict of interest.
Under the proposal, “a commissioner who is an employee of the county whose employment began before his initial election or appointment to the commission may vote on matters in which there is a conflict of interest (matters involving a specific motion involving an increase in pay or benefits) provided the member informs the governing body immediately prior to the vote and signs a conflict of interest statement. A commissioner who is also a county employee and whose employment began on or after the date he was initially elected or appointed to serve on the commission shall not vote on matters in which he has a conflict of interest”.
Five of the fourteen commissioners currently are employed in some way by the county (four by the school system and one by EMS)
“We have gone back and done some research (conflict of interest) and we’re going to use strictly the CTAS rule on that and the TCA code,” said Stewart.
The committee hopes to have the entire plan ready to enact by fall.
“We will get the approval of the county attorney on each section as we get it put together. We would like to have the whole thing completed by fall. We want a good set of policies and procedures for the commission. One that we can be proud of and use for the rest of our terms and for other commissioners to come. We think its really important that we have it,” added Stewart.