County commissioner attendance is topic for Ethics Committee

County commissioners meet to discuss ethics and commissioner attendance which has seemingly become an issue for some members.

After their regularly scheduled White County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, on Nov. 17, commissioners conducted a meeting for the Oversight and Ethics Committee. The meeting was called to address an issue of commissioner attendance, a matter that both constituents and other commissioners have addressed both online and during commission meetings. Another commissioner was called out specifically, due to rumors he had moved out of his district. 

Commissioner Derrick Hutchings began the discussion, admitting he was the one who initially called the meeting. He also asked the White County executive’s office to compile an attendance record for the commissioners over recent months. Hutchings also said, however, that for the sake of being unbiased, that the committee should not see the record until they made a decision.

By the end of the night, the attendance record was not presented outright. It will, however, be listed alongside the minutes for the meeting once they are approved in December, which will be available for public view.

“I specifically asked to not see the attendance record until we deliberated and saw what we thought, so we can make an unbiased decision,” Commissioner Hutchings said.

The commissioners then discussed their options. The committee had no authority to do anything retroactive to commissioners who have repeatedly missed in the past and pay scale changes would not go into effect until the following term. The committee then deliberated on whether attendance should be measured by meeting or by percentage. They were not sure if there should be wiggle room for when accidents occur that prevent a commissioner from attending a meeting.

“I appreciate this meeting because I feel like if you aren’t attending the meetings, you’re not representing your people correctly,” Commissioner Dakota White said. “This whole job is about representation, and if you aren’t here to vote, you aren’t representing.”

After a bit more discussion, Commissioner T.K. Austin then put forward the idea of simply cutting pay for each missed meeting.

“There’s two required meetings,” Commissioner Austin said. “It’s 50% per meeting, and if you don’t show up to two of them, you don’t get a check that month. If you show up to one of them, you get half a check that month.”

Commissioner White wanted to ask if that would even solve the attendance issue.

“Would reducing pay help attendance, because I would love to think that no one here is doing this for the whopping $250 a month, but would, truly, reducing pay - would it help fill these seats more?” Commissioner White asked.

The commissioners continued to discuss and get the opinion of the commissioners present that are not on the committee, before they finally sent this motion to full court: The 12.5% base pay for commissioners will be paid each month, but the 43.75% payment per meeting will be deducted from their monthly pay if they are absent. So, if a commissioner misses the committee meetings, they will lose 43.75% of their monthly pay. If they miss the full court as well, they will lose 87.5% of their pay for that month. The motion passed committee, and now the full court will vote on it in December to see if it will truly take effect.

There was another issue brought up during the meeting which concerned Commissioner David Cranford. Commissioner Hutchings brought the topic forward as some of his constituents brought the matter to his attention, and he wanted to give Commissioner Cranford a chance to speak on the topic. The matter was about Cranford’s home address and rumors that he had moved out of district or even the county.

“I have secured an apartment right down the road from my house, so it’s in my district,” Commissioner Cranford said. “My wife and I have sold our business, and we’re selling our home, and we’re downsizing. In order for the new owners of the pharmacy to get a fair shot at the business, we need to get away from there because everybody’s going to want my wife to solve their problems whenever she no longer owns that business.”

Cranford continued, “We have rented - staying in our condo in Nashville quite a bit, but I also have an apartment here, and I am here quite a bit. I am going to be retiring from the fire department later on, and I have taken a full-time job as a consultant which covers this area as well. So, I will be in this area for the foreseeable future as of right now.”

The commissioners were satisfied with Cranford’s answer to their questions. During the audience comments, one member of the audience urged the commissioners to revisit the topic as she believed Commissioner Cranford should resign.