[0:06] Thank you, Sheriff. Our invocation and pledge is led by our district 4

[0:10] commissioners. Um, so at this time, I'd like to ask uh, Bubba Gregory, if you'd

[0:15] lead us in our invocation,

[0:19] » for the day that you blessed us with nice, beautiful day. I just pray that

[0:23] you be with us tonight. All the decisions we make will be uh, for the

[0:27] betterment of all the citizens of this county. I thank you for sending your son

[0:30] to die on the cross for us where we could have eternal life. I just pray

[0:34] that you lead, guide, direct us in everything we do and ask uh this prayer

[0:37] in your son's name. Amen.

[0:41] You join me in the pledge.

[1:12] Welcome to the August commission meeting everybody.

[1:15] Um a s a quick reminder to please silence your electronic devices um so we

[1:21] can all be respectful to each other at this time. For anyone at home or anyone

[1:25] that's that's interested, the uh in the order of transparency, all minutes, all

[1:31] uh videos, all transcripts and work packets are available online at

[1:35] Tennessee at county Tennessee.gov.

[1:40] Uh madame clerk, could you please call roll call?

[1:44] » Beverly Atwood. Tommy Belchure, Linda Bruce, Shane

[1:50] Burton, >> Alan Carman, Brian Crook,

[1:55] Will Dennis, >> Jerry Ford,

[1:58] » Chris Gregory, >> Jeff Gregory,

[2:02] Bubba Gregory, Landon Gully, Judy Kerr, David Ner,

[2:09] » Leslie Overman, Mark Presley, Amber Russell, Lonnie Taylor, David

[2:17] Thomas, Steve Whitaker, >> 16 present, four absent.

[2:24] » Thank you.

[2:28] » You all have a copy of the uh the minutes from the July uh meeting. Uh

[2:33] they were distributed in your packets. Uh if there'll be no changes, I'll

[2:36] entertain a motion to approve. >> Jerry and Chris.

[2:42] All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. Does anybody uh

[2:48] any of the commissioners have any announcements this evening? Anybody have

[2:51] anything?

[2:54] All righty. So, the budget the budget amendments uh

[2:58] that were added dur uh to the commission agenda. You received that handout last

[3:03] week uh at the work session. Um they're listed on the agendas that are available

[3:08] tonight for everybody. Uh at this at this time, I'll entertain a motion to

[3:11] accepted set the agenda if there'll be no changes.

[3:16] Leslie, do we have a second? And Jerry, all in favor?

[3:22] Any opposed? Thank you. So, at this time, I I'll let you know

[3:28] that uh the citizens respond to response to agenda items. Uh if you're wishing to

[3:33] speak on any particular topic that's on tonight's agenda, you can please sign in

[3:37] over here at the podium. You'll be called to uh speak at the the

[3:41] appropriate time. Uh, also there's a public comment uh time that we can have

[3:46] at the end of the meeting. Uh, if you'd like to have it be re recognized at the

[3:50] end of the meeting, please sign in for that as well.

[3:55] Do we have anybody, Sheriff? Okay. Thank you.

[4:04] Just at this time, I'd like to ask our mayor for his county mayor's report.

[4:08] » Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I have a limited report tonight. We are at the

[4:12] point of engaging an engineer on the property where the um jail is to be. Uh

[4:18] as soon as we get an estimate on that, we can go forward with with the engineer

[4:22] working with Teima and FEMA to to begin the process of filling that property in

[4:27] to prepare it for a building. Um, I'm working on u my plans and goals for for

[4:33] the first 100 days that I'll be presenting to the new commission uh at

[4:38] the their first work session in September.

[4:41] I'm also working with the folks at Embbridge and the Tennessee com uh state

[4:46] controller to uh expedite the process of of having that uh the Embbridge project

[4:52] uh appraised so we can uh get the property tax uh before next budget next

[4:58] year. That's one of my main goals and main concerns at this point to expedite

[5:03] that process. That's all I have. >> Thank you, sir. Does anybody have any

[5:08] questions for the mayor?

[5:12] All righty, moving on. Committee and board reports. Uh, budget and finance

[5:16] met on the 17th. Chris, could you please speak to that for us, sir?

[5:29] Yes. Uh, budget and finance met on August 17th. uh reviewed trustee

[5:36] statements and financial summaries which you know one month in wasn't wasn't a

[5:41] whole lot to the financial summaries. Um uh approved or recommended for approval

[5:48] four of five budget amendments. Um, one we took no action on. That was the one

[5:54] with the education funding because u the committee wanted to see about getting a

[6:00] draft policies uh put in place ahead of time before

[6:06] taking any action in that regard. Um, I did send out last Monday evening the

[6:11] proposed draft policy to every commissioner by email. Uh

[6:17] hopefully hopefully the ones who will be back had

[6:22] time had the opportunity to to review that. I'll make that of course available

[6:25] to the incoming ones once they have their emails set up as well.

[6:30] And that was pretty much it. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any

[6:33] questions for Chris? >> All righty. Codes and zoning met on uh

[6:40] the 13th. David, can you please speak to that for me, sir?

[6:45] Yes. Um, we use that, uh, since a couple of our members won't be back on that

[6:51] committee, use that as a summary meeting to put together all the information of

[6:56] what we had worked on so that the next group coming in for codes and zoning

[7:01] will have at least a starting place of where we left off. Um, the temporary use

[7:07] uh needs to be addressed in the zoning. We had started that process u spent

[7:13] about three months on it. There's some work already done there that needs to be

[7:17] finished um for whatever that that body decides to do. Um what we did get out um

[7:24] kind of our last big harrah was as promised last month, we did get the uh

[7:31] addition to the PUD for the requirement of the traffic impact studies to be

[7:36] added on any prop any developments 30 and over 30 units and then anything

[7:43] below 30 units the discretion is given to the codes enforcement officer um

[7:49] planning. I always forget what title we actually put on Rosal's office because

[7:54] she holds about three or four different hats now. Um, but that's before us

[7:59] tonight for the first vote. Thank you. Does anybody have any

[8:03] questions for David?

[8:07] » Okay. Um, also on August 3rd, uh, Amber, uh, Russell, if you could speak, law

[8:11] enforcement first responders.

[8:16] » Sure. with the first responders. We didn't have a quorum, so it was

[8:18] discussion only and we went over the EMS education policy and deemed that we

[8:22] didn't have enough information to really do any any further action on it

[8:27] with the law enforcement. Um, one big topic was that the sheriff

[8:32] never heard anything about the law enforcement committee request to move

[8:36] the phone and commissary income into a dedicated fund. I know it was spoke

[8:40] about before we went into um all of the hearings and then um it kind of faded

[8:46] away so I didn't know if we needed to bring it up again or if there had been a

[8:49] decision that I wasn't aware of. They are now soliciting bids to replace

[8:54] the roof on the jail. They've got one bid so far. They're receiving two more

[8:58] bids. Um the roof was patched 15 to 20 years ago and it's needing fixed up now.

[9:03] It will require a budget amendment when bids come in. Um the recent rains have

[9:08] caused leaking into the cells and the generator at the jail has not been

[9:12] replaced. Cumins out of Nashville has not come out to wire and install new one

[9:16] despite multiple requests from the sheriff. And that's all I have.

[9:21] » Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Amber?

[9:27] » Is there any other reports this evening? All righty. Moving on to active

[9:32] business. Uh at this point we have this for this month. We don't have any no

[9:37] resolutions, no appointments. So, we'll move on to ordinances.

[9:43] So, public hearing. I open the floor for the following two ordinances. Is there

[9:47] anyone here wishing to speak on either of the two ordinances that we're getting

[9:50] ready to discuss? Uh, yes, sir. Okay. So, it's going to be ordinance

[9:55] 351202613, which is the reasonzoning TR-2 to TR-Pud

[10:01] Sulfur College. And uh uh would you like to come up and speak on that at this

[10:05] time, sir?

[10:15] Hello everyone. I'm Steven Lancaster, the uh design engineer for this one. And

[10:20] uh like he said, this is um the second reading with this one.

[10:26] Uh so I guess let's just start off with this. the traffic impact study contracts

[10:30] have been signed. Uh that's kind of the thing that we've talked about that's

[10:34] needing been discussed. Um but I guess that's the only new information that I

[10:39] can bring to you that the traffic impact study is as soon as he can get to it,

[10:43] it's uh officially signed and in contractual agreement. So if you'all

[10:47] have any questions with this or that y'all kind of come up with, feel free to

[10:51] ask them and I can go over them with you.

[10:55] » Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for him?

[10:59] Okay, thank you sir. Uh Rosie, did you have anything on this?

[11:05] Okay, thank you.

[11:10] Then next is ordinance 351 202613. Sorry.

[11:16] Yes, sir. David, >> I do have a question for Rosalie just

[11:20] for clarification purposes. >> Sure. Rosie, if you could step up,

[11:23] please.

[11:27] If this were to to advance on back to planning for the final approval, would

[11:33] that be held until uh planning has the information on the traffic study or

[11:38] would that be on the next month's meeting?

[11:43] » So, the final uh master plan that they would have to bring back would have to

[11:48] have everything in fact um even all the engineered drawings for

[11:54] all of that. So the impact study would have to be completed before they could

[11:59] ever bring back the final plan to planning.

[12:07] » David, >> I just wanted everyone to hear that. Um,

[12:12] but that does will have to have all the components in place before it goes to

[12:17] and approved by planning or not approved by planning on its last reading. So,

[12:22] whatever this body does, there is still one more check on that traffic

[12:26] situation. And for the new commissioners who are

[12:30] sitting in the audience, this is going to be something that they're going to

[12:33] need to to know about and to learn um as far as the PUDS and how that all

[12:37] functions being different than a traditional resoning.

[12:43] » Right. And if I may, Mr. chair. So the time limit on submitting and bringing

[12:49] back the final master plan is one year. After that then it resets.

[12:56] » Thank you for clarifying guys.

[13:00] So at this time I'll take a motion to close the public hearing uh the first

[13:03] hearing on this one. Got a motion from Chris and second from Amber.

[13:08] All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. That carries.

[13:14] All right. Next, we're going to move on to ordinance 351202613,

[13:18] which is the reasonzoning of TR2 uh to TR PUD uh which is the Sulfur

[13:24] College and I believe that's the uh annexation.

[13:30] That's what

[13:34] » both of those

[13:37] right. >> Yes.

[13:47] So, it's the we're moving on the second, >> correct?

[13:53] I had to get my notes straight, guys. Sorry. Um,

[14:00] we are going to move at this point, we're going to move to the second uh the

[14:04] second reading on this. Yes, Chris. Motion to approve 2613 with the same

[14:12] conditional approval that that we gave last month that being a uh with the

[14:17] impact study being completed first. >> Copy. We have a second second from uh

[14:24] » Mark electronic vote. >> Okay, this will be an electronic vote

[14:29] guys. So the please register on your devices.

[15:11] Thank you everybody. The official results are 15 yes, one one abstain and

[15:16] three absent. So this carries. Thank you.

[15:20] And one no.

[15:29] Next we move on to ordinance 352 2022614 which is the annexation of urban

[15:35] services two urban services for the same parcel. Um

[15:41] Miss Mayan do you have anything for that?

[15:48] » Thank you Mr. Chair. Just wanted to remind everybody that we did have will

[15:52] serve letters for all the utilities and we have consulted public works that they

[15:57] will have trash pickup available for that area.

[16:02] Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Rosie?

[16:08] All righty.

[16:17] Let's see here. done a motion to close.

[16:24] All right. So, at this point right now, we'll take

[16:28] a motion to uh Yeah, we got a motion for Chris. We have a second from Bubba.

[16:32] Sorry. Okay. Huh? Oh, I thought you raised your hand. It was you. Sorry.

[16:43] And Amber and Bevel, we got it. Thank you all.

[16:51] Yep. Please register on your devices.

[17:18] Official results are 16 yes, one abstain, and three absent. Thank you.

[17:23] Yes, David.

[17:28] » Just a polar parliamentary question. Did we have um public hearings on both of

[17:34] those since they're second readings

[17:38] » for both? Thank you for the clarification.

[17:54] Next, we're moving into the first reading for ordinance 353 202615, which

[17:59] is the reasonzoning HC2 to HR3 to HCMU PUD on Highway 25. This is the second

[18:07] PUD request. This property is across from Blankenship. Uh, Commissioner

[18:10] Thomas, do you have anything for this one?

[18:15] » It did come through planning with a favorable. Um, the way the property is

[18:19] set up, uh, it's actually a less dense proposal than the previous that was on

[18:24] this property when it was reszoned back several years ago. So, it being less

[18:28] dense but still developed, planning thought it was a good place for it and

[18:32] that it fit well. >> So, it came favorable. Correct. Thank

[18:37] you. Miss Mayan, do you have anything?

[18:42] Okay,

[18:51] thank you. Please, she's going to prepare the ballot so you can register

[18:55] on your devices, please.

[19:11] Results

[19:20] are 17 yes 0 no three absent. This carries. Thank you very much.

[19:29] Next we move into ordinance 354 202616

[19:34] which is a zoning ordinance amendment uh which is um

[19:40] 7.03. 030A PUD. The codes and zoning committee has discussed amending the PUD

[19:46] directives in uh the recent recently adopted code concerning traffic studies.

[19:52] And again, Commissioner Thomas, would you please speak to this for us?

[19:58] » Yes, this is the ordinance that I spoke of um of what we went through on our

[20:02] last codes and zoning meeting. Um, if you'll notice, it does require the

[20:07] anything 30 or above dwelling units has to get the impact study, which is the

[20:12] more strict, the more involved of the two types of studies. Um, below that,

[20:18] anything below that can still have a study done at the discretion of Miss

[20:24] Rosal's office. Um, any study that has to be done will be at

[20:30] the expense of the applicant according to this ordinance.

[20:36] Thank you. Does anybody have any questions?

[20:40] We'll look for a motion. A motion from we have a second from

[20:45] David. All righty. You're going to prepare the

[20:49] ballots and register on your devices.

[21:26] So the results are 17 yes zero no three absence. So this carries. Thank you very

[21:30] much.

[21:36] Moving on to budget amendments. Uh these were added to the agenda. The budget

[21:41] amendments were uh presented that are grants and carryovers. These were

[21:44] reviewed by budget and finance committee on June 15th and during work session um

[21:50] one amendment uh which is 11802F for EMS funding uh has not been

[21:56] recommended by the committee due to more information that's needed to get the

[22:00] policy to adopted and for funding. Are there any amendments that need to be

[22:04] reviewed tonight that we're aware of? Anybody have

[22:09] anything else? Uh, are there any questions from the the

[22:13] commission for Chris or anybody on budget and finance regarding

[22:19] » All righty. So, with electronic vote, I'm sorry, Chris, go ahead, sir.

[22:25] Uh, I was going to go ahead and review these just for anyone who may be

[22:28] watching and and for the audience here, just go these real quickly if that's

[22:31] okay. Uh first budget amendment uh 11801G

[22:36] is a uh grant received from by EMS the amount of $30,33

[22:42] and that's for purchase of a stair chair.

[22:48] Uh second one 11803G rural EMS grant and this is a federal

[22:54] grant received by the EMS $35,461 for the purchase of a new ambulance and

[23:02] lift. That's both those grants don't have any local match.

[23:09] 14101. It's a special education grant. $1,362.90

[23:15] that's received by the school system for special education preschool. And last

[23:21] one 14102 $24,5625.

[23:27] That's carryover funds from the previous year's budget.

[23:35] Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Chris?

[23:40] » Yes. >> We have a motion.

[23:43] » Motion to approve them all, but I want to make it clear that 11802F

[23:47] is not on the agenda. So, we're not voting on that one.

[23:50] » So, you're with >> So,

[23:52] » take them all striking uh 11802. >> Correct.

[23:56] » All right. Thank you. I have a second, Beverly.

[24:02] All righty. We're going to get ready. is going to prepare the balance and we will

[24:05] uh register on our devices. Please

[24:26] Results

[24:32] are 17 yes, zero no, three absent. So this carries. Thank you very much.

[24:52] for consideration this month. Public notary uh applications.

[24:57] The list is Rita Crowder, County Clerk. Christina Ray, Farm Bureau, Emily

[25:03] Walker, Trartsville, Trousell County Water and Sewer. Susan McDonald, TCAT.

[25:08] Um, Rashelle Devo, Jones Brothers, and Marshall White, Oldtime Express.

[25:19] » Motion and second. All right. All in favor?

[25:22] Any opposed? Thank you. Motion carries.

[25:28] Other business, um, our, uh, district attorney, uh, Lawson

[25:33] has an opinion letter, the County Hatch Act. This time, I'd like to turn this

[25:37] over to our legal for this. >> Okay. So,

[25:42] » question somebody. >> All right. Does anybody have any

[25:44] questions for Brandon regarding the email you got from the DA? Yes, Beverly.

[25:49] » Yeah.

[25:52] resolution or I mean I'm just kind of confused with what we need to do moving

[26:00] forward. Not moving backward, moving forward.

[26:06] I'm sorry

[26:10] in order to implement it. We don't have any authority.

[26:16] » So just something that we necessarily need to

[26:21] work on. >> It's whatever the will of the commission

[26:24] is. They want to prevent that with a any type of similar hatch act violations.

[26:31] They can do that for the next uh election. So it's just whatever this

[26:35] body wants to do. >> I would like I mean I know this is the

[26:38] out moving out and moving in. So, I would

[26:43] like for us as a new body with the new commissioners to evaluate the situation

[26:50] and look at what we want to do moving forward.

[26:57] » Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions regarding

[27:01] » Chris? Not a question. Just want to say I agree

[27:06] 100% with Miss with Commissioner Atwood. This is something that the new new

[27:10] commission should take up and probably as as as soon as we can.

[27:16] » Thank you. Anybody else?

[27:21] » Okay. Is there any other business that's uh

[27:25] coming forward tonight? Yes, David.

[27:30] » Yes. At last month's meeting, it was asked u by several members to have Mr.

[27:35] Scrugs from the highway department come before this body at this meeting and

[27:39] address some of the issues. Um I didn't see a special spot on the agenda for

[27:44] that. I thought maybe it would fall under under business. Um

[27:48] I do not see him here tonight. Um he was asked u I have done a little digging

[27:54] myself to find out some of the issues there. Um, one complaint that we were

[28:00] told why he couldn't do the walking track was because he couldn't pave over

[28:04] gravel. He was a his machine was a repaver. Well, Griffin Hollow Road was a

[28:09] gravel road that the county paved. So, I I'd like to understand a little better

[28:14] of the difference there between a gravel road that he paved and a walking track.

[28:20] also was told that he couldn't go 10 foot wide, which I happen to know now

[28:25] that the machine they have will actually with the arms folded out will do 13 foot

[28:29] wide. So, there seems to be some gross misinformation from his department and I

[28:36] was hoping to get some answers tonight. Uh, I did notice that after last month's

[28:41] meeting, all of a sudden construction on the widening of Thompson Lane that was

[28:46] been put off for the last two almost three years now started and the

[28:50] equipment to cut those big trees was automatically appeared and those trees

[28:54] are now been cut down and they are moving forward on that project. I find

[28:58] that very interesting that it took that long and something being said at this

[29:02] committee to finally get him to do his job.

[29:09] Thank you, >> Mr. Chairman.

[29:11] » Yes, ma'am. >> If I might address that, Mr. Scrugs

[29:14] called me this afternoon and and wanted me to offer his apologies to the court

[29:19] because he had an engagement in Nashville tonight that he had to go to.

[29:23] He did explain that that because in in having conversations with with Mr. CI

[29:31] who had offered to do the milling and I don't fully understand milling but if if

[29:35] that were the case then he was certainly willing to to try in his words the to do

[29:42] the 10 foot foot. So he's he is um uh cooperating with us to to try to get

[29:48] that done but I think this is an issue now that should go to parks and wreck

[29:52] for them to decide how to go forward. >> Thank you very much. Yes, David.

[30:00] » I still think it's an absolute shame that an elected official meant who is

[30:05] elected to run the road department of Trrowdale County

[30:11] seems to be in a position where he's going back and forth and oh, he can do

[30:14] it. Oh, he can't do it. While the county is looking at spending twice, almost

[30:19] three times as much to have a private entity come in and do the same project.

[30:23] In a time where we're looking at having to raise property taxes, we already have

[30:28] a wheel tax up for referendum. It would, you would think it would

[30:33] behoove an elected official to try to save the county as much money as he can

[30:37] by doing a good job at a lower price than a private organization. It just

[30:43] seems like it's more of an aggravation dealing with our own county department

[30:47] than having to deal with a private organization.

[30:50] And I would encourage this committee, this

[30:54] commission going forward with the new commissioners that you hold these

[30:59] elected officials responsible beyond just the mayor as they were done

[31:04] in this last election round. He is an elected official. He does have a

[31:09] responsibility to the taxpayers of Trrowdale County for the job that he

[31:13] does or doesn't do and he should be held accountable for it.

[31:18] » Thank you, sir. Chris,

[31:23] » to speak to the point of of having it go back to parks and rec. I believe this

[31:27] this commission voted last month to go ahead and proceed with with the with the

[31:33] bid in hand. So, don't know that we really need to go back to to the

[31:36] committee, but um with regard to um like I said, Mr. Shrugs was asked to be here

[31:43] and and was not uh should something like this come up again. I guess I'll ask

[31:49] question Mr. Baylor. Do we have the ability to compel

[31:54] we we've addressed this issue before. You can

[32:00] sain of them, but they don't have to honor it.

[32:05] And from everything research I've seen, there's no penalty for

[32:11] defying that. I believe there's an attorney general's opinion on it. Now,

[32:16] um I mean, this body can do what they want to do in the way of censure or

[32:20] something of that nature, but he's elected official.

[32:26] Thank you. Anybody else?

[32:34] Yeah. Um, Beverly, please. >> So,

[32:38] I have a question and I guess it's the big elephant on the back. I don't know,

[32:43] but they're saying that will taxes go to referendum.

[32:54] Is that a yes or a no? Or is it still in our hands? or is

[33:02] this up for a vote?

[33:12] Um, Mr. Paxton, understood. Mr. Paxton, would you please come and address that

[33:16] if you would, sir?

[33:22] » And thank you. >> Sure.

[33:25] » All right. So, the referendum is a yes or no on the wheel tax. That's what they

[33:31] they're they're opposing the wheel tax. So, that's what it will be. I have

[33:37] almost finished checking signatures and it looks like they're going to have

[33:40] enough. So, I would expect it to be on the November ballot.

[33:45] And then once once I have enough signatures, I'll work with the state and

[33:51] we'll come up with exactly how it will be on the ballot. and then I will give

[33:56] that to the commission so you can see see what it's going to say.

[34:01] » Thank you very much for your clarification, sir.

[34:05] Any other business?

[34:10] » Uh public comment. Um Melissa, you've signed in to speak,

[34:15] please.

[34:22] » Good afternoon. My name is Melissa Shala from district 2

[34:27] and

[34:30] I live less than a mile from Core Civic from the prison.

[34:38] I would like to know how the negotiations

[34:42] with course civic are going and have they taken any of the recommendations

[34:48] from the pres prison advisory committee

[34:59] commissioners. I'll address that uh response to you. the current condition

[35:05] of our negotiations with core civot. We have engaged a firm Lewis Thompson

[35:11] uh Mr. Tom Russell who has assisted us before and other lawsuits. They are

[35:18] working on the contract proposals that we will be presenting to Core Civic.

[35:24] I believe last week uh they made some requests for some other information and

[35:28] we've been providing them certain information that they need with regard

[35:33] to our ongoing discussions with the Department of Corrections in response to

[35:39] a correspondence that I mailed to Commissioner Strada. I believe it was in

[35:46] June. Uh, Miss Elizabeth Foy with her chief of

[35:50] staff of the the comm of of the TDOC has reached back out to me to try to

[35:58] schedule a meeting in order to discuss the ongoing environment and other issues

[36:04] that we've raised. So, we those meetings are not set yet. Uh obviously it's at

[36:11] the end of the fiscal year for a lot of us that there'll be more opportunities

[36:16] for us to have those ongoing discussions. This is not something

[36:21] that's going to happen overnight. It's not going to be something that's

[36:25] quick. I'm sure there's going to be um more

[36:29] dialogue than probably what we'll wish we would had, but

[36:34] nonetheless, it'll it'll at least continue on, I would imagine, up to the

[36:38] point to where we're bringing ourselves before the state of Tennessee next year

[36:44] or the next fiscal year. So, uh again, core civic didn't happen overnight. Uh

[36:52] it's not going to be resolved overnight. These issues with TDOC

[36:58] uh have been ongoing. Right now, there's a shortage

[37:02] with prisons in the state of Tennessee and uh it's a it's a

[37:10] statewide problem, not just Tra County problem.

[37:15] » Thank you, counselor. Does anybody have any questions? David.

[37:20] » Mr. Was the sheriff ever able to provide you any numbers of expense of core civic

[37:26] on >> all departments in Hartzel Trouser

[37:29] County have been very cooperative with what we've asked them to do and they

[37:32] provided the information we needed in order to assist in these negotiations.

[37:39] » Anybody else have any questions? Melissa,

[37:45] » my second question is I was informed by my um commissioner, Mr. Burton, that the

[37:54] TDOC contract can be provided to the public, but they were not able to upload

[38:00] it to our website. So, but that if anybody from the public

[38:06] wanted to see the TDOC contract that they can request it from from the city

[38:12] and they will be given a copy of it. But my question is would this notice if

[38:19] somebody doesn't listen to this meeting today would that notice be posted on the

[38:24] website that they can come and get the TDOC

[38:29] contract if they wish?

[38:36] counselor. >> As far as I'm concerned, it's a public

[38:40] record and anybody that makes a public records request should be able to

[38:45] acquire a copy of it.

[38:49] » Okay. I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that that's public

[38:53] record and they can look at it. My third point here is that I sent an email to

[38:59] you to you all on July 26 and it has almost been a month and only

[39:08] Mr. Gregory replied to me in regards to it

[39:13] but nobody has answered any of the questions that I had there.

[39:18] So my question today is would I get will I get my any answers via email phone?

[39:26] I'm coming here in person to try to get some answers because I just hear

[39:32] silence.

[39:39] um >> answers

[39:44] once we oursself have those and due to the circumstance that we are still in

[39:50] negotiation and we ourself do not know the physical answers to give you the

[39:56] proper documentation. We cannot verbally or email or any of

[40:03] that sort give you the answers that I feel that you are wanting or needing if

[40:11] that makes sense. >> Yes, it does make sense. And I do I do

[40:15] » just because we are in the process of negotiations and when you are dealing

[40:20] with and I'm speaking this from being on the inside

[40:26] um not just from county government but from the prison side I will put that out

[40:30] there that it is a procedure and there's a lot of

[40:39] documentation and a lot of back and forth that has to go through before it

[40:44] can be set in stone. So, I don't feel that even me as a commissioner myself, I

[40:52] got your email and yes, I will be 100% honest that I didn't reply to you

[40:58] because I don't have the answers that I feel that you need at the at this given

[41:03] moment. So, once I get those, I don't mind

[41:07] sharing those with you. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um,

[41:12] but there were some questions that were not

[41:16] that were related to the TDOC contract which you guys already gave thumbs up.

[41:22] So those I mean that's a done deal. So those questions could have been answered

[41:29] because that's in the past. You guys signed the contract with TDLC. So those

[41:34] questions are not pending. That is so that's why I'm here again and again

[41:42] understand and from the TDOC contract the TDOC contract and I know a lot of

[41:48] people don't want to hear this but the TDOC contract is set forth pretty much

[41:58] I don't mean to say it's a cookie cutter but it is somewhat a cookie cutter and

[42:03] it is set the same way with a lot of counties,

[42:09] not just Trdale, other counties across the state.

[42:15] So, your more negotiations are going to be with horse civic,

[42:20] quote, not with TDOC. And I know it's it's hard for a lot of

[42:27] people to understand this, but

[42:32] I can speak this from being on the inside and maybe I am overstepping my

[42:37] terms as a commissioner, but I'm just going to be flatout honest with you

[42:41] because I've worked for Core Civic. I've worked within TDOC. So I know

[42:48] being a quality assurance manager and knowing the policies and the procedures

[42:52] of how things have to be worked, you have more leeway and more negotiation

[43:01] with core civic than you do with the state of Tennessee.

[43:07] I understand and my questions and and my questions on that email were not you

[43:13] know to try to negotiate with TDOC that was not able to be done that wasn't done

[43:19] so my questions were in regards to that meeting that happened with when you guys

[43:24] approved TDOC you guys said said that it was the law that we needed to sign that

[43:29] contract so my questions were not really oh let's go back to TDOC my questions

[43:35] were questions of what happened, how you guys decided on that and what law is it

[43:42] that made you uh sign that there was my questions are there. I just would like

[43:48] to get some answers and um so hopefully I hear from you guys. Uh

[44:02] » uh just to uh to speak to a couple of the qu of the

[44:06] questions in in your email. >> First one, you know, the the county

[44:11] attorney is doing our negotiating and of course you mentioned that we had had

[44:14] engaged another firm as well. So that that that answers that question. Uh you

[44:20] know what what authorities are we given? Now this is a legal contract. our legal

[44:25] person is is handling those. You know, it's it's a legal contract what we're

[44:30] negotiating. So, obviously, our attorney is going to be, you know, we've given

[44:34] him the authority to to to

[44:40] negotiate on our behalf in that regard. Um, I said we haven't seen a core civic

[44:44] agreement, so we can't really speak to any anything that may or may not be in

[44:47] that one. Um, I think the next last question, what written commitments? Um,

[44:54] nothing's been provided to the county commissioners. Now, at least I have not

[44:57] seen anything u whether the county attorney or mayor have received

[45:00] anything. I I can't speak to that. You'd have to ask them. But those are the

[45:04] answer pretty much the answers as we have right now.

[45:07] » Let me reiterate my what I said earlier. We have employed retained a firm to

[45:15] assist in these contractual negotiations with Core Civic.

[45:20] We're not waiting on Core Civic to offer us something. We're moving forward with

[45:24] them. Okay. On behalf of Hartsville Trousster County to alleviate, as I

[45:32] think Miss Atwood said, some of the cookie cutter provisions of the core

[45:37] civic contract. But also on top of that, I want to say again, we are still

[45:42] talking with TDOC. uh we're working on relationships with

[45:47] them in order to alleviate some of the problems that we had June 2025.

[45:55] » Thank you. Thank you, Melissa.

[46:00] Anybody else public comment?

[46:06] Okay. At this time, I'd like to take a moment to address our outgoing

[46:09] commissioners. You guys are going to be sorely missed.

[46:13] your contributions have been immeasurable. Um, each and every one of

[46:17] you guys have have become actually very very close and

[46:22] dear to me. And um, those of you leaving um, there's going to be a vacancy. We've

[46:28] got new folks coming in and I'm excited to get them in here and and get their

[46:33] contributions, but um you guys all left a mark and you'll be sorely missed and I

[46:40] just want to thank you uh very much for the assistance you've

[46:44] given the county and for me personally. I I take something from everybody I meet

[46:49] and I've you know I just have a debt of gratitude to you all myself

[46:53] and um at this time um Jerry and David um we have a couple

[47:02] of state resolutions for you gentlemen because of the length of your tenure.

[47:09] This is David. Yeah.

[47:14] So

[47:18] this is news. I can't tell.

[48:24] One more.

[48:51] for those that begin their next term on September 1. Uh please make your way

[48:55] over behind Bubba Gregory if you will if you're here those that are here. And um

[49:03] uh Miss Rita will uh will officiate your oath.

[50:37] You need to come home.

[51:04] You ready? >> If you don't mind, once before you

[51:08] leave, uh I need you to stick around and sign this for me, please. So, if you'll

[51:13] raise your right hands and when we start when after I say I

[51:18] state your name and then when I get to your district, state your district.

[51:21] Okay? I >> do solemnly swear

[51:27] » swear >> that I will perform with fidelity

[51:31] » fidelity >> the duties of the office

[51:33] » duties of the office >> to which I have been elected

[51:37] » and which I'm about to assume >> to

[51:41] » I do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear

[51:44] » to support the constitutions of Tennessee

[51:49] » and the United states and to faithfully perform

[51:54] » faithfully perform >> the duties of the office

[51:57] » of the office >> county commissioner

[52:01] » representing the >> of Trasdo County, Tennessee.

[52:08] » Thank you very much.

[52:28] Everybody's >> ready to go.

[52:44] I have nobody to leave us. >> I sent um an email to everyone except

[52:50] for you, Mr. Whitaker, because I can have a county email address for you. Um

[52:54] or a regular one, but I sent you an email. I'd like to introduce you all

[52:58] through the paper questions. So, if you can respond to them, um if you didn't

[53:04] get it, um it it should I only had one or two come back and I put it in again.

[53:09] It went through. It says, um there's a couple of questions. If you have a head

[53:13] shot you'd like to use, send that with it. And then not this issue. I think the

[53:18] deadline I use by is September 1st. Um then I can put in there and introduce

[53:22] everyone. I appreciate

[53:27] » Hey, Lonnie. Lonnie Lonnie.

[54:12] Jerry, can we get a motion to adjourn? Motion by Jerry.

[54:19] Thank you, Steve.

20260824 Commission

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