County Commission - Regular Meeting

Yes, sir. Come to order. This commission's now open for business. We're ready for roll call.

[clears throat]

We have 17 present. That is a quorum. We're ready to move to the first item would be the invocation with brother Chuck Hopkins. Would you please come to the lectern? Be sure your microphone is turned on. It's a little slide switch. Sorry, I'm not real technically involved here. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Most kind and gracious heavenly father, Lord, thank you for everything that you've done for us today. Lord, we want to thank you for the beautiful country that we live in, in the county that we live in. Lord, we know that we are blessed beyond anything that we could ever imagine just by where we live. Lord, I ask that you uh set a hedge of angels around our young men and women in our military, the ones that are in harm's way. Guide them and protect them and bring them back to us and their families healthy both physically and mentally. And Lord, as we gather today to do the business of the county, we ask that you oppress upon us what you need from us and your desires so we can do what you want us to do and not what the world wants us. And through it all, Lord, through everything and all the good stuff and all the turmoil, we'll make sure that we give you the honor and the glory now and forever. And I pray these things in our Lord Jesus's name. Amen. Amen. [clears throat]

Thank you, brother Hopkins. I would like to ask uh Commissioner Dwight Miller to please lead us in the pledge to the United States flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. Uh we're now moving to approving the agenda. We have a motion by Commissioner D. Ford, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Uh if you guys notice, we have the uh consent items are all grouped together. So when you approve the agenda tonight, all of these consent items are automatically approved. Without objection,

Commissioner Brown has a motion to amend. Yes,

I'm going to add to the agenda the ouster charges or investigation on Mike Hodgej. With no second to that amendment motion, it would fail for lack of second. I'll second.

I think it was who who? Okay. Is there's a motion to amend by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner Chambers. Is there any discussion? Hit your button, please, and speak in your microphone. I guess I'm just questioning what uh is this amendment for? Is it for against? I'm not sure clear what this is.

I guess we'd have to ask the maker of the amendment his intent. This investigation has went on for an unreasonable amount of time and I think we need to put it to an end tonight. We either need to oust him tonight or dismiss it. It's went on too long.

I would have to say without the presence of our attorney, he's in Southeast Asia and uh without him here to have a executive session to address this with the body privately that it would probably be inappropriate to vote on this tonight. I think we're big enough to make a decision tonight. We don't have We need to discuss it. At least come up with an answer between us. Is there any more discussion on this amendment? We need to vote on the amendment.

Commissioner Chambers, did you push your button? There we go. He's got it. Excuse me, but I am um a little bit confused about what we're voting on. I heard the motion in the second to address, but I also heard the mayor's comment that there's not appropriate action that can be taken without our attorney here. And so, Mr. Parliamentarian, how would we as a commission address that? I guess I'm saying we have nothing to vote on if there's nobody here to address the motion. Am I correct?

The amendment was to bring up the group discussion. You have to push the button. Keep holding it. Hold it.

Excuse me. Uh the the amendment was to bring before the group uh discussion of the ouster proceedings of Commissioner Hodgej. And so uh what you're voting on is whether or not to add that to the agenda. Uh this uh if it fails, then you'll go back to the motion on the agenda. If it passes, then it you'll go back on voting on the agenda as amended. Commissioner Jones, did that satisfy your question?

No, sir. I guess if we vote yes to amend it and add it to the agenda, if I'm understanding your response correctly, there is nothing that we can discuss without the presence of our attorney.

That is my opinion. I think it'd be totally inappropriate to move forward with this without the county's attorney present. We can't discuss it between each other and try to come up with something because it's went on long enough and I still don't know nothing from the beginning. Nothing different. Are you guys ready to vote on the amendment? Commissioner Smith, are you voting? Thank you. Motion fails. 11 no for yes. Thank you for that. Now we're back to the full uh to approve the agenda as presented and reminding you once again that we do have uh the without objection we have an consent items that are uh lumped together. We got a mo the motion by Commissioner Deford and seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Is there any discussion on the agenda? Is there a request to speak or is that been cleared

again? Yeah. I don't understand what's going on. There's so many commissioners that's that's had their lips surgically attached to your high end. They can't see the truth. We we need to end this. Those remarks are totally out of character here. This is not a place for that kind of language. I ask you to please refrain from that type of language. It's my freedom of speech. Thank you. We're ready to vote on the agenda as presented.

I'm just going to make a little friendly speech here. Next time maybe can we have a close session with the attorney maybe in try to put this behind us. There's an election coming up May the 5th. I think that will be the appropriate outcome of the issue at hand. That's fine. Can we please vote on the agenda? Is anybody else wish to speak? Commissioner Brown,

just want to make a comment of what you said. Yes, elections coming up and Mike Hodgej has got everything to lose until we settle this. I've had people in my district and he's in my district that want to know the answer and I can't come up with an answer for him. And I've been told that there's been two people running in my district to bump me and him out. That's why there's so many people running in my district. So that's why we need to solve this. But I know it's convenient for Mark to be out of time. Somebody please call the question. I call the question.

Thank you. We're ready to vote on the agenda as presented. The agenda has been approved with 15 yes, one no. Thank you guys. Now the floor will be open for public comments. Is there anybody wishes to make public comment regarding tonight's agenda? All right. There being none.

Thank you. All right. Now the resolution of let's see I'm sorry minutes. We have to approve the minutes. Need a motion. Motion by Commissioner Stubblefield. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Any changes or amendments to last month's meetings of meet minutes? discussion. Let's vote, please, on the minutes. Minutes have been approved with 16. Yes. Thank you guys. Okay. Now, next item on the agenda. We're going to recognize uh if uh Commander Kimberly King could please come to the lect room and uh Lamar Wilkey, if you'd like to join her, that would be just fine. Our VFW Post, uh Christy Connley, would you like to come up as well? If any other members of VFW Post 10904 are in the audience, you can come up with them. We're recognizing the post for their recognition of teachers and students in Coffee County. And I'm going to let Kimberly King, post commander, to explain exactly what those recognition certificates were and awards

that that happened at their meeting uh few weeks ago. If you would explain exactly what you guys do.

Okay. Thank you, mayor, and thank you all for having us uh and to be able to explain this to you. So, each year we have two uh patriotic essay contests. one for the middle school called Patriots Pin and another one for high school students called Voice of Democracy. So we take submissions from the students. We had dozens literally of submissions. So some of the students sitting behind us here are some of the winners in the various categories for those. So they had to write their thoughts on some patriotic uh topic and that's how that works each year. And then we have another program called teacher of the year. Uh anybody can submit a teacher of the year and they do and we had quite a few submissions. So the teachers that are here tonight with me one at the post level, the district level, the state level, and now their nomination packages are at the national level to see if they can win at that level. I I cannot say enough good things about these teachers. Just reading what they did is just extraordinary. It goes well beyond the classroom, but basically they push out the values that we hope every American would have and honor and cherish. So do the students. Writing about writing about a patriotic topic is tough at such a young age, but they do a marvelous job. And so that's who's here with me tonight. Mayor,

thank you. Would you have do you have in the audience the students and teachers that did receive these awards? If so, I'd like for them to come up and form a semicircle behind you guys. All right.

While they come up, I would like to thank you all for your constant and total support of our post and the veterans organizations in this county. I've been doing a research on that since the beginning that the county started and what I have learned is the county, the city and the mayors have always really supported everything the veterans have ever done in in all these years. So, thank you for continuing that support. It really means a lot to us. Thank you. Of this. I'm gonna have them come up and tell you who they are. How about that? Yeah, that would work great.

Tell them what you want. Tell them what prep you won in which essay. Tell them your name. Kenneth Buchanan. And what did you win? Did you win the Patriots pen? And I won second place. In the Patriots pen. [applause] I'm Roy Slaughter. Um, Coffee County Middle School, uh, eighth grade American history. Um, she's already told you won the post district and the state and really want to win national. So, [laughter] we want you. [applause]

And out of the three levels that there were, there was elementary school, middle school, and high school. Of the three that were there, all two of those were out of Coffee County. So, that was really amazing. out the entire state. [clears throat] I'm Robin Walker. I'm a teacher at um East Coffee in Deerfield. I teach um English as a second language. Um I won the elementary teacher of the year this year and I want to win nationals, TOO. [applause]

I'm Lexi Newman and I won third place for the Patriots Pen. [applause] I'm Riley Willie and I won uh second place. [applause] I'm Jada Kushberger and I won third place. [applause]

Okay. So, all these students that are behind me here are from Westwood. We also had a whole lot of students enter from Temple Baptist and uh one from the high school mayor. Are they all here? Is this this all that showed up? Right. Okay. Listen guys, we certainly appreciate that. Congratulations. Thank you so much for the post for doing this. Absolutely. And you can tell them about that award we got on Sunday. Oh yeah, I was going to [laughter] Don't slide us on it.

I was waiting on that. Okay, if the teachers and the students will go ahead and take their seats, please. All

[applause]

right. VFW, hold on. [applause] Okay. There is uh every year there is the annual governor's volunteer stars awards where 95 counties are represented. They were represented at the Marriott in uh Franklin, Tennessee. And I was I was very impressed. I I was honored to attend this event. And in the 95 counties, there is one adult and one youth that are nominated to receive this award. Coffee County's Jennifer Simmons received the adult. We did not have any youth. So all you kids out there, think about this. You know, we're going to get we're going to get a volunteer youth nominated next year. But Jennifer Simmons, if you guys remember, we presented a certificate in here uh meeting before last maybe or the last meeting. But anyway, Jennifer Simmons with our rescue squad was the adult. Now, what's really significant only there's three divisions in the state. You have the West, Middle, and Eastern. The Eastern Division recognized volunteer nonprofit 501 group was our own Coffee County Manchesterers Post 10904 and these are the individuals represent that. So that statewide there was only three and they received it. So we were really proud of our VFW. If everybody would give them a standing ovation. [applause] Thank you so much guys for coming.

Okay, next item on the agenda is the 9A. That's a separation policy. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're actually going to vote on that one.

And we have the uh motion by Commissioner Hersman, second by Watkins. We will Any more discussion? All right, let's vote, please. We're voting to recognize these people. Thank you. This po passed. This was affirmed with 16 yes votes. Thank you very much. Okay. 9A. Motion to approve by Commissioner Miller, seconded by Commissioner Stubblefield. Everybody sees that in their packet. Is there any discussion? There being none, let's vote. This

[clears throat]

the um the policy has been adopted with 16 yes. Thank you for that. 9B Coffee County Commission public comment policy. Motion by Commissioner Miller, seconded by Commissioner Hollinssworth. Is there any discussion, questions about that? I'm going to make a comment regarding that just so it's recorded for prosperity in this YouTube video. this policy uh in public comment periods and some of the more controversial subjects. We've had individuals stand at the lectern and uh ask for time to be donated to them so they can continue to speak and we've been advised that that's totally inappropriate because it takes away time from individuals that may have a different opinion. So from now on your allotted time is all you get. Uh so everybody remember that that uh comes to speak publicly. Um ready to vote on that please. That passes with 16 yes votes. Thank you for that. 9 C. This is the resolution for the 20263 resolution number municipal solid waste regional plan. Motion by Commissioner Mars, seconded by Commissioner Watkins. Any discussion? Commissioner Mars, would you explain that please? You are chairman of our

rural wallet solid waste board. This is just a continuation of the T deck state of Tennessee required 10-year plan for rule solid waste and we're knocking off 2425 and adding 34 35 years to the plan of what rule solid waste will do for Coffee County.

Thank you. Any more discussion? Let's vote on that, please. This plan has been approved with 16 yes votes. Next item is we're already through the business so we got report of standing committees. Chairman Pro Tim Stubblefields.

Thank you mayor. Standing committees budget and finance commissioner Morris. Our next meeting is Thursday, March the 26, starting at 4:00. That 4:00 start time has five uh 12 minute time periods for I sent out a thing called the early bird. If you had your budget done, ready to present this year and you were a small budget. So, we'll have five of those run through at 4:00. Uh meeting, the true meeting starts at 5. So that's March the 26th to Thursday. Okay. Thank you. Capital Outlay, Commissioner Hirman.

Uh Capital Outlay, we have our next meeting will be in um April the 2nd at 4:00. Um this last um Thursday on the 5th, we went out and visited both sites at the health department and the animal shelter. And I thought it was a pretty good tour. Uh all the committee members went and um I thought the progress was going along very well both those projects. So everything's looking very well at the on the those two projects right now.

Okay. Thank you. Health, Welfare, and Recreation Commissioner Hensworth. Yes. Our next uh monthly meeting will be Tuesday, March 24th at 6 PM. Okay. Thank you. Law enforcement commissioner Missy D. Ford. Our next meeting will be April 9th at 4:30 on Thursday. Thank you. Legislative Committee Commissioner Frank Watkins. Uh we'll have a meeting on March 30th at 6 PM.

Okay. Thank you. Policies and procedures. Commissioner Hirschman. Our normal meeting was uh the 23rd, but we moved it up to clean up some language in our um sick leave policy, which we got that done, sent to legislative committee. They've got that in their hands now, and uh soon as they get um anything revised on it, they'll be sending that out. Our next meeting is on the May the 18th at 5:00. Thank you. That's it. Okay, that moves us to uh [snorts] Thank you, Commissioner Stubblefield. The um statements and announcements. Does anybody have uh

Commissioner? I sent out a email and I forgot that I was going to be out of town in a meeting for March of the Manchester Water and Sewer. Uh we voted last meeting to appropriate some money for the people of JU Sart and and that's sort of in question, but April the 9th, which is a Thursday night, is the Manchester Water and Sewer meeting and I'm going to show up. Uh if you can show just support for these people, I would appreciate it. It's at 6 o'clock on Thursday, April the 9th.

Anybody else? Does any other commissioner have anything they'd like to say? I would like to remind everybody uh there's a there's a rather controversial subject that's sweeping through Middle Tennessee regarding uh agricultural activity regarding farm ponds that are actually being uh opened up using track drills and dynamite and actually they are quarrying operations trying to circumvent local zoning. Uh the T deck permit is one of the first things that these uh operations have to be approved for the water runoff. Tde we requested a public hearing regarding the TKC approval regarding water quality only. That hearing is going to be in this room on March the 24th. Uh, anybody interested in that should be here at 5:00 p.m. And the TAC officials will uh will take comments. They're not going to listen to they're not going to listen to comments regarding anything but water. So, do your homework. And if you've got water quality comments and opinions, this will be the time for you to air those. So share this with your constituents. Be sure everybody knows about it because it is a it is a very very important uh issue. One other thing I want to charge everybody in here, all the commissioners, our nation's 250th celebration is this year. Uh

has already set out some pretty aggressive celebration plans. Manchester is working on some stuff. Our own Sandra Bennett with our historical society is sort of being she's in charge from that uh group for our county's uh celebration. We're we're hoping that we can work with the city of Manchester. I think they will have fireworks at night. So, if if any of you commissioners have got ideas, we really would like to hear them. Uh, get them to me. I'll get them to Sandra. But we will have there will be festivities around the old courthouse on the square during the day that will probably be coordinated and financed by Coffee County government. So, if everybody would please be thinking about that and give us your ideas because it's July. It's not that far off. So, um, having said that, I don't I don't have anything else. If anybody wants to comment, we got Commissioner Hirschman.

Oh, he's first. Go ahead. I wasn't finished speaking earlier, but somebody in the crowd, they've left already, handed me this paper and wonder if I would mention what it said. It made the headlines of Manchester Times. It says the DA says no crimes committed. Northcut calls Hodgej ouster a planned political shenanigan. That's the DA's words, not mine. And there's so many no votes and I don't have the information that all these no votes have. So I'll be well I'll stay past the meeting tonight to listen to the evidence that people's got because I don't know nothing. Even I guess they've got more than the the DA says because he said there's no crime being committed and it's obvious that most of the people's got some evidence. I'd like to hear it.

Anybody else got anything to say? I'm not afraid to stay. Commissioner Hersman,

um I was going to say um I want I appreciate everybody who came to the CTS training on Wednesday of last week. Uh we had good turnout. I think we had nine commissioners that showed up. I believe that's correct, maybe 10. And I appreciate each one of y'all showing up for that class. Uh, I think we're going to start for the next year be somewhere around October, November. We'll just have to we're going to get that scheduled in for training for next year's classes. So, thank you all. One other thing, this Friday, the 13th, our board of zoning appeals and planning commissioner members will be going through their state required 4hour training. Uh but our personnel have to have eight hours of training. So our trainer will be here all day Friday. Any of you commissioners want to drop in and get some training or see how our planning commissioners are trained, you're welcome to. So having said that, a motion to adjourn would be a welcome event. Are we voting? Can we get the vote screen up? Motion by Commissioner Chamber, second by Watkins. Please vote to adjourn. Thank you. 16. Yes. Good meeting. Thank you guys.