Residents question lack of clear communication with the public

During the regular called meeting of the White County Board of Commissioners, on May 17, 2021, two residents addressed the board to ask questions about their concerns with the operations of the county government.

Connie Davis, a White County resident, asked to address the board as soon as the meeting began, but chairman Stanley Neal reminded her the time for residents’ comments came toward the end of the meeting’s agenda, and she returned to her seat.

Before the board recognized audience members and entertained their comments, they first conducted the business on the prepared agenda. Those items included:

• Resolution 27-05-2021: Speed Limit Change on Roy Hudgens Road, which passed with 10 commissioners voting yes, three being absent, and Terry Alley voting against the resolution on grounds that he felt the proposed 25 miles per hour limit between Purvin Lollar Road and Duck Pond Road was too low.
• Resolution 28-05-2021: Support of Drug Dealer Liability Lawsuit, which passed with 11 yes votes and three absent commissioners.
• Resolution 29-05-2021: General Fud which passed with all eleven commissioners present voting in favor of the resolution which allotted grant money to the parks and recreation department and citizens donations money to the library as well as provided funds for a part time, temporary judicial commissioner.
• Resolution 30-05-2021: General Purpose School Fund, which passed with a unanimous vote in favor of the resolution from those commissioners present.
• Resolution 31-05-2021: Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System which also passed unanimously and serves to exclude future part time employees of the county from participation in the TCRS in accordance with TCA 8-35-219.

After all of the resolutions were discussed and voted on and after the board voted to approve the issuance and renewal of several applications for notary, Neal informed the audience they would be given three minutes each if they would like to address the commission.

Davis once again approached the board and voiced her concerns over past discussions about a countywide fire department that had taken place over the past several weeks and months.

“I talked to different people on the fire departments, and nobody I have talked to on the fire departments wants somebody to come in and tell them what to do,” she said and then directed a comment at the commission’s chairperson who is also the county’s EMA director. “I do not feel like we need to create a job for someone, Stanley, and I think we need to address the people we’ve already got.”

“There was also something else brought up about property taxes,” Davis continued. “We don’t have the money for these county things. We are going to raise our property taxes. There’s no reason in that.”

When Davis finished speaking, commissioner T.K. Austin from District 2, responded stating that the purpose behind the fire department discussions came from the White County Firefighters’ Association asking the board for help three years ago.

“We told them to come back to us with what they thought they needed us to do to help them,” Austin said.

“It gets pretty old to sit up here and do this stuff and then whenever we get something worked out everybody shows up and says we don’t want this, we don’t want that, we don’t want more taxes, but nobody ever comes to any of the meetings,” Austin said as he addressed the audience. “There’s subcommittees people should have came to. For people to come and actively say that we are trying to push stuff off on the public is not fair. We’re just trying to fix a problem that we’ve got. We’ve got calls that are going out that nobody’s showing up to. There was a very important call that nobody showed up to.”

“We’re doing our best. The fire departments need to get up, and, if they want help doing something, they need to come to us with what they want. We gave you all what we thought – if that’s not what you want, come to us with what you want.”

After Austin finished responding to Davis’s comments, commissioner Roger Mason stated it was his understanding that the countywide fire department was no longer being discussed as part of the upcoming budget for the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

“It’s been pulled from the budget. It’s no longer under consideration for this budget,” Neal confirmed but added that it could be brought up again in a future year. “If anyone else wants to bring it up for next budget year, have at it.”

“I will address this,” Neal continued, responding to Davis’s comment indicating her concern that a position might be being made for him. “I don’t like the insinuation that a job’s being made for me. I’m retired. I made more over there than this was being considered for as chief here. I enjoy my retirement. I don’t need any more jobs. So that was never under consideration or even talked about or discussed by anybody except the people out in the public that are making up stuff. I don’t appreciate it and I’m not going to tolerate it anymore. If you want to come insinuate something, come to me and talk to me first. I’ll tell you up front.”

Davis spoke up, saying that was the reason she brought the issue to the board of commissioners during the evening’s meeting.

“Well come to me and talk to me first. I’ll tell you – I’ll tell any of you,” Neal responded again saying that the proposed program had been an attempt to help the county’s fire departments and had even been suggested by the city’s mayor as much as six years ago.

When Davis attempted to discuss more details about the proposed countywide fire department, Neal reminded her that there was no need for discussion as there would be no further discussion of the topic among the commissioners.

“It’s not under consideration anymore,” he said. “It’s dead in the water.”

Derrick Hutchings also took time to address the board of commissioners informing them that the county’s website does not contain the agenda for the meetings despite a statement that says they will be posted the week before the meeting is scheduled to be held.

“So to answer your question as to the general public, how do we know when the meetings are? How do we know what is going on in those meetings if they aren’t posted and we don’t have access to that information?” he asked and said he wasn’t here to argue or complain. “Because I want to know. I just want to know what’s going on.”

Neal responded to Hutchings questions saying the time and location of the public meetings are posted in local media outlets, including The Expositor, and also said that Steering Committee meetings are the first Monday of every month with the full court meetings being held on the third Monday of every month.

“Your question is legitimate, if you are on the county website and you can’t find it [the agendas],” Mason spoke to Hutchings, with Neal agreeing to call the county executive’s office and discuss the issue further.

Further discussions about the county’s upcoming budget were held, with explanations for how deficits are handled and how budgets are balanced as well as the deadline for passing a budget being Aug. 31, but the preferred date being June 30 were held.

Before the meeting adjourned, Neal addressed the commissioners.

“Going back to last Monday night, it came to my attention that some of us must not be reading our minutes,” he said, referencing comments that were made in the May 10 budget meeting. “So, beginning next month, we are going to start reading the minutes like we did years ago. The chairman of each committee will read the minutes, and we will approve each minute each time. We will begin that next month.”