County Commission - Regular Meeting

Everybody like to call this meeting to order. Jefferson County Board of Commissioners regular monthly meeting and uh Mr. Cler here here. Bill Coleman, Jimmy Dale Patterson, Austin Brooks here, Paul Low, Jim Snogers here, Bird, John Johnson here, Tim Seals here, Sammy Solomon

here, Rob Levens here, sir. Randy Bells here. Aaron Lloyd here. Johnny Co here. Henry here. J Carmichael here. AJ Walker here. Spring here. Thomas

here. 16 present. 16 present. We have one. Would everyone please stand for prayer led for Mr. Aaron Lloyd? Please remain standing for the pledge. Mr. Sam, please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we give thanks to you this evening for allowing us to gather here and uh conduct the business of this county. We thank you for giving us this opportunity that we don't take lightly to represent those throughout the county. And we ask that you guide us as we go throughout the business this evening and make decisions that would be pleasing to you. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the uh service members of this country and this county that protect our right to be here this evening. Lord, and give us all uh the blessings in this country that we have and protect those rights. We ask all this in your name. Amen. Amen. Attention salute. Welcome everyone out this evening. Uh do we have anybody from the school here? youth leadership or anybody in the house. Back in the back, thank you for coming. Next, we have proclamations, courtesy resolutions. Uh, Mr. Mayor, we have a mayoral proclamation for the Jack Akard family. Are they here? Come up and commissioners from that district as

well. you care to join the family. We appreciate y'all being here. Whereas Howard Jack Akard passed away April 7th, 2026 and is survived by his wife Gerald Dean, Jerry Akard, daughter Noah Henderson, and grandchildren Gracie and Hunter Henderson. Jack Aker graduated from the University of Tennessee, served in the US Air Force for four years as a nuclear weapon and re-entry vehicle specialist and retired from the Tennessee Department of Labor after 36 years. He was the epitome of the volunteer spirit, happy to establish the New Market Volunteer Fire Department and a proud 60-year Mason. Jack Actor was the recipient of the Scottish right 33rd degree commander of the Knights Templar. He served multiple roles in Yorkright, Red Cross of Constantine, call Cedars of Lebanon, Shriners, and the Royal Order of Gesters. Jack Akard served the citizens of Jefferson County, Tennessee as a county commissioner of District 7 with dedication, integrity, and uncompromising principles. He promoted the well-being and advancement of Jefferson County during both difficult and good times. Jack Akard is worthy of special recognition and appreciation for his dedicated service. He was loved, respected, and admired by family and friends and will be sadly missed. Now, therefore, I mark by virtue of authority vested in me as mayor of Jefferson County express sincere thanks, deepest sympathy, and condolences to the family and friends of the late Howard Jack Hackard. In witness hereof, I

caused my signature to be on this seal. Thank you so much. We appreciate all that he did on this county. I'm driving shoulder. Next on the agenda, we have the approval and corrections of the agenda. Does anybody have anything? I believe the mayor has a resolution the rule suspend the rules and add one item and an executive session at the end of this normal meeting

at the end of this meeting. Correct.

All right. Uh, I think we got a couple more. I think uh we need to add to the uh notaries and bonds. Mr. Terry Reno also and the mayor has resolution 2026-28 which is um I think he's passed these out. This is a resolution for Jefferson County Board of Commissioners authorizing the procurement of fire department turnout gear and agreeing to the terms of specified cooperative purchasing flat platform. Is there a motion on the floor to suspend the rule?

So move, Mr. Chairman, we have a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Got a second.

I didn't see the ones we had up. We had two. Sorry about that. I didn't know we had done had two up. Stand corrected. Question or comment to suspend rule. Proceed to vote. Get your computer over. There we go. There we go.

16. Yes. Zero. No. The uh the mayor's resolution will be added to the mayor's time and uh Terry Reno will be added to approval of notaries and bonds and the uh Mr. Snod grasses will be at the very end of the meeting. Next, we'll move along to consent agenda. And my knowledge there is none. We need to vote on that.

Oh, sure. Sorry about that. I'm Mr. Frank. moving forward. Yeah. Go to the next one. Cuz actually we voted to correct it instead of suspend is what we actually did. Yeah. Got past that.

What's this? We suspended the rule. So you're one out. I didn't realize. So what we need to do is back up from what we're doing right now. And what we're going to have to do is we voted to we're just going to vote to suspend the rule and then transpose them. Yeah. Well, we did vote to suspend the rule. Yeah, but we had it on the wrong docket in the computer. So, the only way to get back up.

Oh, you went too far. You have to go back forward. Bear with us, new guy. Let me back up. Go back forward. We'll do a roll call. Pull your roll call sheet. We'll go back to where you was. What we'll have to do is roll call. This will be for suspending the rule because we were on the wrong side of the docket. Just call everybody's name. Suspension rules. Katy Huffacaker. Yes. Jimmy Austin Brooks. Yes, Jim Snogris. Yes, John Johnson. Yes, Tim Seals. Yes, Sammy Solomon. Yes, Robert Blevens. Yes, Randy Bells. Yes,

Aaron Lloyd. Yes. Ronnie Coleman, yes. WD Henry, yes. AJ Walker, yes. Yes. Marcus Reed, yes. Jimmy Carmichael, yes. Heidi Thomas, that gets a square. Yes. Okay,

we got to go to the agenda.

You should be able to go forward here in April. Yeah, there we go. Okay. Is that what you want? We done done that. Come on forward. Approval of minutes is what we want. Yeah. You just now got back where you need to be. We're good now. Yeah, I think you're good. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We're good. Are we voting on to add those to the agenda?

Nope. We've done several that we're in approval of the minutes. Okay. Good. We had to back up because that's why we had to do the roll call. Okay. I thought we had to add we just we just found where we made the mistake.

Approval of the minutes. That'll be a regular monthly meeting. April the 20th, 2026. 16 yes zero no minutes are approved. Next we have appearance of citizens. I only received one and it's outside the county. I believe the gentleman's name's Bobby Johnson. Sir, come up to the podium. You'll have three minutes to tell us who you are and what you're about.

The first time that's happened. Just got to find a way. I'm learning. Can you hear me? Everybody hear me, please? Can you hear me now?

Oh, yeah. First of all, thank you all for having me. My name is Bobby Johnson. I'm running for a state executive committeeman in the Republican party. And I just want to come on and convince myself. And uh I'm also a county commissioner in my county. I'm from Hancock County. I've been a county commissioner for 21 years. So I know what you all go through. I applaud you. And uh I'm also the chairman of Republican Party Hancock. This is my third term. and a gentleman who's in his position now is retired and me and him talked and uh I prayed about it and asked my wife would you give me permission to run for this. So I just want to come and introduce myself if anybody's got any questions I'd be more than happy to try to answer

question or comment. Not hearing any. Thank you sir. Thank you. Next we have approval of notaries and bonds. Do you have a list? And add one. Terry Reno question or comment. Not hearing any. We'll proceed to vote. We have 16. Yes. Zero. No. approved.

Next we have nominating committee election committees and boards. Do we have anything? No. Next we have reports of elected officials. County Mayor Mark Pototts. Good afternoon. I hate to say that we were not successful with our legislative agenda in Nashville and Mr. Seal's going to address that some more. But one one that really really uh was was difficult was the 911 sir charge that was going in that would greatly have enhanced and helped our 911. It passed every committee

went all the way through 95 counties behind it and at the last minute the governor vetoed it. So uh try again next year and hopefully Mr. Seal can help us out on that as we go forward. Real estate income tax. I'm I'm not ever going to give up hope on that because that's money we collect. It needs to stay here in the county. So hopefully next legislative session we can be successful in getting some money that I'll be retained here that's not. So I wanted to to tell you real quick that uh I'm going to introduce Joe Gibson with Jefferson Lights. I'm going to let them have some of my time here real quick. Uh Joe has decided that he no longer um I let him say this politely. he no longer wants to serve as the director of the Jefferson Alliance. So the alliance has hired a new person and customarily we we won't introduce the the new person for the line. So Joe, if you John will come up you didn't make that sound very good.

Well, I backed it up a little.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. Uh yeah. when you know the Jefferson Alliance board was formed in uh 2022 and uh I've got to commend them for putting together a a board that represents everyone in the county that wants to see positive economic development growth. Uh, I was, uh, asked to serve as the first director, get it kicked off and going, uh, started part-time, interim, and three and a half years later, here I am. Uh, so it's time for my, I guess, second retirement. I've got two reasons, family and family businesses. Both are very important to me, and I've, uh, and I'll honestly, uh, uh, neglected, uh, both in the last three years. So, it's time for me to focus on family, family businesses. Uh, when I shared that with uh Treasur Secretary Don Miller and Chairman Pototts uh uh couple of months ago, they said, "Well, you have to find your replacement." And uh I think they thought maybe I couldn't. But anyway, I I've been watching someone for a long time that's uh been doing the same job that I'm doing for the uh uh city of Knox and Knox County and doing the same economic recruitment down there. uh Egyptian County from uh New Market uh graduate University of Tennessee and comes highly highly qualified uh recipient of the nice wanderers scholarship to go to UT which is uh uh speaks for itself but uh John will uh do a great job. uh our board last month uh uh voted unanimously uh 11 to zero to uh um appoint John as director of Jefferson

Lot. So I'm going to let John speak and tell you what he's all about and and he's excited to be part uh of the county again as he's been down in in Knox County. So, I just want to thank the commission for all your support and uh all of uh all of the board that has supported uh me to get this thing kicked off and uh if I could have one job, it would be this job. But uh uh I just again, thank you. And Mr. John Turner, thank you. Thank you.

Just want to echo uh these comments that Mayor Pots made earlier about Joe because Joe has done an excellent job uh leading the Jefferson Alliance. I think what' you say Joe you signed up to be part-time for a year and a part time interrum and that

three years and three and a half years. So just uh once again grateful for Joe and his leadership and direction. Um a little bit about me. Joe kind of hit on it. I'm from New Market. Uh grew up there. Uh graduated from Jefferson County in 2019. As Joe has told, I think three times today, he has socks in his drawer that are older older than I am. So, good to be here. Uh, graduated from the University of Tennessee. Uh, these past few years, I've been working as the director of business attraction for the Knoxville Chamber. So, the Knoxville Chamber handles economic development in Knoxville, Knox County. Um, had a lot of fun there. Had got to work on some really interesting projects. But Jefferson County is home for me. My my dad worked for Appalachin Electric for 20 something years. He now uh him and my mom recently relocated and live in Georgia now. He runs a co-op uh down there. Have a little sister who just graduated from East Tennessee State. Um still have a house here in New Market. Um just enjoy the area. Um a little bit kind of goals that I have here. uh kind of what I want would like to accomplish here and and build off what Joe and our board and the leadership has kind of directed us and is uh re really the first and kind of the easiest thing is working together. Um I like to think in Knoxville I've developed a pretty good reputation of working with our friends in Anderson County, Rome County, Blunt, etc. And I think the goal here in Jefferson County is not to not to become the next Hamlin County, the next severe, the next Green, but to really become the best version of oursel. And I think we have a lot of momentum and a lot of really great opportunity here uh these past few weeks. So I started uh two about two weeks ago. Joe and I have gone on the tour of Jefferson County. It's been good that I've known a lot of people. I know several people in this room from when I was growing up. Um, so it's a lot of more reintroductions

rather than meeting people for the first time. Uh, few things that really I'm excited about are working uh with our existing industry. So, uh, we had a a counterpart at my old job who talked about, you know, 80% of the new jobs that are created in your community are from existing employers. So whether that be uh Bushes just down the road here, uh Oshkosh, JLG, Anderson, the Bose, like working with some of those employers here to help grow our base uh is exciting. Uh working to identify new sites and new properties. Like I said, Joe and I have driven all over the county this past uh 2 and 1/2 weeks here, and it's been really awesome to see kind of the opportunity and the dirt moving. Uh, I know that chancellor Donnie Clement at UT always talks about you want to if where you're at has a lot of cranes and a lot of construction, a lot of dirt moving, you know, you're in the right place. And I think Jefferson County has that. But I mean, just as importantly is that growth in the right places, right? Like along our corridors, along the interstate. I know we were uh we've been talking about 412 and 415. That's been super exciting as well. Um, and kind of what I would ask for you all is, you know, when you hear something that's going on in your district, whether it be somebody growing, someone needing help, please feel free to reach out to us at the Jefferson Alliance. I think, uh, we've not quite updated the website yet, but my contact information will be on there. Um, I think my email is jerjffersonalliance.org, so feel free to reach out. Um, just kind of closing on this, you know, Jefferson County is my home. This is where I'm from. This is where I want to be and I want to leave it better than what I found it as. And I just want to thank you all for your continued support of the Jefferson Alliance. And as people said earlier, I got big shoes to fill and I know I'll be calling up on Joe uh any chance I get. So, thank you all.

Thank you, sir. Mayor, your resolution. I think we should give uh Joe Gibson a round of applause for police. venture and I I very truly believe that he was the right person at the right time to fill that role. So, thank you Joe, thank your family and uh we look forward to what John can do for us in the future.

Your resolution, do you want to speak to it? Oh, you I was going to wait till later. That's fine.

No, it's on your time. Let's do it. All right, we'll do it. So, resolution 2628. I apologize. I got it today, so I couldn't get it to you any sooner. This is the conclusion of the CDBG grant that you approved previously. This is the fire turnout gear going to the fire departments. We've got to that point, so it'll be 128 sets of turnout gear at no cost to the county. So, uh the grant will cover 84%. and fire departments will be paying 16%. So, everybody's getting turnout gear that want it and this is just the uh the bid document that says we can go ahead and do it. So, uh CDBG money's there. Fire departments will reimburse on their part. But, uh the reason I brought it tonight is if we can get this closed out, you'll be eligible for CDBG grant again in September and October. But, we got to close this one out first. So, this is just housekeeping. Is there a question or comment? Not hearing any. We'll proceed to vote. It'll be a roll call vote. It will not be on the computer.

Katy Huffaker, yes. Janet Norton, yes. Austin Brooks, yes. Jim Snogress, yes. John Johnson, yes. Tim Seals, yes. Sammy Solomon, yes. Robert Blevens, yes. Randy Bells, yes. Aaron Ly, yes. Ronnie Coleman, yes. WD Henry, yes. Angelina Walker, yes. Marcus Reed, yes. Heidi Thomas, yes. Jimmy Carmichael,

yes. That passes. Mr. Mayor, do you have anything else? All right, moving down to chairman's comments. I have two uh topics tonight hearing all of the campaigning and everybody with constituents and everything. The biggest talk that I heard was cell phone usage during meetings. Do we need to be doing it? Do we not need to be doing it? The second biggest topic was reading letters. A lot of people wanted to talk about that. They thought, well, people are to show up in person. And tonight, I was going to, you know, present to the county commission that we need to look at cell phone use. It really don't need to be going on during the meetings. And when you know if if we continue allowing letters read, we probably shouldn't be doing them as much. I'm open to any kind of comment from the commission. Uh looking for direction or no direction. Does anyone like to speak to that?

Yeah. Could you provide because we don't read them that often. It's just when A lot of people talk to me about it. It's all I they're concerned for. That's all I do. I don't see that big of an issue with it. It doesn't happen that often. I've read three in the last meeting, I believe, which is the only three I've ever read. So, I don't see any issue with it. If someone has an opinion to voice, that's one mechanism for doing that. Anyone else?

Cell phone use. I think we need to do away with them as far as the meeting going on. We can't pay attention. Turn them off. Speak in the microphone, please. Don't bring them in here. I never do. Well, I've got mine in my lap right now. And my husband texted me and said, "The painters just finished. Where's the checkbook?" Thankfully, I have my phone laying beside me and it's now out. We We appreciate you sharing with us where the checkbook's at. But, you know, this this has been a big topic for a lot of people that's talked this whole spring about it and, you know, they they really think that

we need to limit cell phone usage. And, you know, I and I I tend to agree with the constituents that, you know, they spend a lot of time thinking on cell phone to face an issue, hand it, and say, "Hey, this is private, you know, but you are in a public, so we need to just move on." Next, we got county clerk Frank's office. I believe you got a Do you need a vote on that? Do we need a motion? This is for information.

Do you have action for that? No, it's the permit update presented involved. All right. Trustee Jennifer Hall, do you have anything for us? Jennifer here. County Attorney Doug Gron, you have anything for us, sir? Department directors, finance department, Jessica. You want to go do it on budget? We can budget now. J. Yeah. folks right there together.

Jesse, are you speaking as finance director or budget? Sounds like I'm budget. All right, we're in the budget now. Okay, we'll move into um unless anyone has any questions on the financials that's in your packet. Okay. So, we'll move on to budget amendments. General fund 101, amendment number 21. It's using a total of 71,3845 of fund balance. Those reflect item number four, item number five, and item number seven. If you have any questions,

question or comment. Jim 16 yes zero no ma'am you have the floor next item sanitation fund 116 amendment number four no use of fund balance or reserves and this is shifting funds to prepare for year-end adjustment Question or comment? Not hearing any. We'll proceed to vote.

16. Yes. Zero. No. Pass. Ma'am. Next item. Drug fund 122 amendment number five. No use of fund balance or reserves. This is adjusting funds that we have received from gov deal bills for a vehicle and bringing in donations and drug fine. Question or comment? Not hearing any. Proceed to vote. Item 16. Yes. Zero. No. Pass.

Next item. Highway fund 131 amendment number seven. No use of fund balance or reserves. Item one, shifting funds for drilling and blasting here at year end. Item two is preparing for year end for their acred payroll.

Question or comment? Proceed to vote. 16 yes, zero no m. Next item, Lynfield fund 207 amendment number seven, use of fun balance $160,000. That reflects with item number two, and that is for replacement rear drive drum for a TANA class one household waste compactor, which is required.

Question or comment? Proceed to vote. 16 yes, zero no passes. Last item or the it's a school budget amendment general fund 141 amendment number 19 no use of fund balance or reserves and there are four items question or comment proceed to vote I believe that concludes thank you Tim do you have anything else we we got any more that's new business.

It's under new business. Next on the agenda, no. Wait, can I ask a question? Where we did the two pennies before and we made that motion. Did we approve that in this? So, the budget will be presented to county commission on June 15th. And how you just approved it, that's how it will be presented. Okay. Yep.

Anyone else? We good. County commission items. We just got attorney invoices, care treasure activity, Parrotwood Memorial Library, director's report, David Seal, lobbyist report. Sir, you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those uh Constitution booklets on your desk is compliments of the 917 Society, and there are 250th edition. You're getting those before they're made available to the general public. I'm going to breeze through an entire legislative session in about six minutes. So, I'm I will provide for you all a PDF document with a lot of fields in it that has links, authorities, and documents to back up what I'm telling you just in case there's ever any doubt about it. You heard from Mayor Pototts SB 1080, the real estate transfer tax bill did not pass. And I want to come back to that just a little later. I want to give you a few other things first. And by the way, I want to tell Commissioner Huffacaker, I really appreciate the updates. it was necessary for me to stay in Nashville on those Mondays and Tuesdays when y'all were having the meetings. Felt like it was better time spent being in Nashville than being up here trying to give y'all a report concerning the veterans tax relief program. Uh I'll leave that slide projected tax relief multi-year projections. The legislature infused $10 million into that program to bolster the fund that pays Not that was we need tax relief multi-year projections the the legislature put $10 million into the fund that supports the veterans and disabled people uh tax relief program. That's the one. So

the office of budget analysis provided this graph and it kind of shows over the period of time what is going to happen to that fund. And if I if I can call your attention to that little blue block there in the middle, that shows the situation we're in right now. After $10 million have been added to the base funding amount to 41 million, that gets us by one more year. The next year, fiscal year 27 and 28, we'll need an additional $8 million. In the 28 29 budget year, we'll need an additional 23 million. And then in the 2930, we'll need an extra 30,000. So if you look at the next to last column on the right, you can see how much that goes up each year. And the two graphs down there graphically represent that. So our effort needs to be to keep that fund up to speed each year so that we don't run short or have to cut benefits to our veterans and our disabled. So that's what that All right. You made a resolution asking for that appropriation which was $41,265,100. That just shows the appropriations over time and how much it needs to increase to keep that fund solved. That amount will sustain the fund for one more year. And the rest of this I'll explain that. And let's project slide B16. Now

B16,

what if you'll notice there under controller of the treasury, just leave right there, Glenn, that's fine. Under comproller of the treasury to provide nonreoccurring funding for property tax relief. That just puts it on the map as a non-reoccurring fund. So it's not like a salary increase that you all approve. It's a yearby-year, case-bycase funding analysis. So, if for example, they did not fund it, we would have to either cut benefits or cut the program all together for the veterans. So, that just shows you what happens over time. I can't take full credit for lobbying this in. I did speak with a good friend of mine on on the House Finance Committee. He assured me we'd get the $10 million in there. I worked with other members. They got it in, but I was by far not the only person who was lobbying for it. So, I can't take full credit for that. You're going to get a page uh out of the state budget B16 shows that appropriation and it's listed as a non-reoccurring expense and uh if you could go ahead and project slide B41.

I do not have that one. I'm sorry.

Okay. Y'all are going to get a copy anyway. What it does, it describes the program and it describes the funding the program needs and it gives you a definition of who is eligible for the veterans and disabled benefits. Perfectly okay. At the end of my report, I'm going to have you a link of the state budget and uh it will show all 564 pages of the budget. It was a 59 57.9 billion budget. I had some smaller items I wanted to explain to you. Uh we the county commission passed a resolution last year asking the legislature to enact law empowering school boards in Tennessee to open their meetings with prayer. That bill passed unanimously in both chambers. The House vote was 86 to 0 and the Senate vote was 32 to 0 and it was signed by Governor Lee on April the 14th. I can take full credit for that one because I wrote the bill and I and I did spend a few minutes lobbing it down there in committee. The restoring state sovereignty through nullification act. You all passed a resolution on that about a year ago, maybe a year and a half. Bud Hoy carried a bill and Janice Bowling carried a bill that would give us five pathways for nullification of federal overreage. And that was almost a unanimous resolution in Jefferson County because at times the federal government does step out of its article 1 section 8 boundaries and we need five ways to nullify those actions. So that bill that we lost the bill in committee this year. It was uh scheduled to pass in the House chamber but it was stopped in the uh cities and counties government committee in the And you get reference to all references to that. You passed an election recall bill. It advanced in the Senate, but it did not

advance in the House. And one of the reasons that it did not advance in the House is because it did not have a permissive clause in it that would give county governments the option to use it or not use it. So, I've spoken to the sponsors. They're going to refile it. And next year, if we can get it passed, you'll have a choice of either being a recall county or not. And that is for local offices only, not for state offices. Now, I've got something here in the we need to work on category. This issue is ongoing as it relates to reimbursement for the medical care of inmates in our in our jail. The mayor alluded to it, but he didn't tell you how much the cost was. So, I'm going to tell you in just a minute. Over the years, our county has had to pay these large amounts for inmate care, some reimbured by the state and some not. If we're not being reimbured for we need to be. They're in state custody. They don't and we're responsible for their medical care. Period. Whether the state reimbures us or not. So you've been appropriating about $1 150 to $185,000 per year for that. So let me read you the the actual expenses. 2021 254,000. 2022 220,000. These are round numbers. 2023 231,000. 2024 52,000. In 2025, $794,000. That only puts us $1.2 million over budget for those 5 years. Again, I would defer to share of coffee to tell you how much of it we've been reimbursed for and how much of it we've not. We ought to get it all from the state. I'd like to work on that. And then

concerning the uh veto that Governor Lee imposed on the 911 bill, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but he's only vetoed two bills in his entire governorship. The second one was the bill that would have bolstered our 911 funding across the state. In Jefferson County, we lost an opportunity cost of 272,286 that could have gone into our 911 system. And you think, well, the governor might have vetoed it because it's such a huge expense on our search charges on our cell phones. 32 cents a month is what we would have paid for it and he vetoed. I think it was asinine for him to do that and I've talked to the sponsors. They're going to reintroduce the legislation next year and I hope to be able to work on it. Concerning the real estate transfer tax legislation, I've got a simple answer for why we didn't get it. The bill failed because it said if competing special interest were given funding priority. Let me tell you what a few of them were. Over time, Oracle got $240 million of corporate welfare. Starbucks just got $30 million. The nuclear industry, if you have any doubt about this, go back and play a tape of the governor's state of the state speech. They got $25 million. Charter schools, $40 million. Again, if you have any doubt, go to the state of the state address, watch the video. And then here's the big one. School vouchers are costing us about $1.7 billion dollar every 5 years. Interestingly, the $7,500 that goes to the vouchers per student is also paid to the local school system. We're paying for the voucher

students twice. That's where the 1.7 billion dollars comes from in five years. So, I knew you wouldn't believe that. So, I copied the fiscal note from the fiscal review board at the state legislature. So, you can see that number by number, line by line. I've also got a copy of the hold harmless agreement that was put in the last voucher bill that will make sure that our schools maintain the 2025 2026 funding no matter how many students withdraw. This past semester, we've had 1,14 students pulled out of the county school system. That was a report filed by the school system Friday to the state department of education. I I've got I didn't put this copy in here, but I'm just using that as an example of how many students have been pulled out of our school system and the school system continues to get the funding because of the voucher bill. All right. Oh, and I put the bill numbers down there for you, too, so you can see that I've spoken to the sponsors of SB 1080 and 649. They have pledged to me and other people they'll reintroduce the legislation next year and hopefully we'll have a friendlier governor, whoever that is, that will help us with this legislation to bring this money back to the county. That's almost a million dollars a year we're talking about here if we can get the full measure of the bill passed. And again, I think the sponsors are gungho to do this. Uh if Monty Fred happens to be the governor, he's pledged to bring 100% of it back to the county governments. Right now, the way the bill is written, it brings 50% of the real estate transfer pay tax back to the county governments. So that's a lot in six minutes. I'll

stand for questions. Mr. Chairman, question or comment. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Next, moving right along to old business, we have an appointment of the six district commissioner. Floor is now open to nominations.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bruners. Um, I would like to former Bruner. He was the top vote getter in the recent Republican primary. And, um, I believe that was the deal that we all made last time we were here. So, that's my nomination. Robert Bruner, fill the seat. We have a motion on the floor and a second. Question or comment? Is there another nomination? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Okay. We have a motion from Katie Huffaker and John Johnson that they cease. So we will vote when your name is called.

We can go back. We get the acclamation. We can take it by acclamation. If nobody has a problem, you want to come to the podium. Mr. Bruner, would you please come to the podium? DW get elected by acclamation. Yes. Acclamation works.

You'll raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I solemnly do swear I solemnly do swear that I will perform with fidelity I will perform with fidelity the duties of office the duties of office to which I have been appointed to which I have been appointed to which I am about to assume which I am about to assume I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear to support the constitutions of Tennessee to support the constitutions of Tennessee and the United States and the United States and to faithfully perform and to faithfully perform the duties of the office the duties of the office of county commissioner of county commissioner representing the sixth district representing the sixth district

of Jefferson County Tennessee

of Jefferson County Tennessee Take a seat. That takes care of the sixth district. Next, we have appointment of the 10th district constable. Anybody? I nominate uh

David Kelly. David Kelly. David Kelly. Thank you. I believe Marcus is a second. Yes. We have a motion on the floor. It's been seconded for David Kelly. Mr. Chairman, I move nomination cease. They make a motion. John seconded it. Let's get this wrote down right quick and we'll move. Ready? Yeah.

We'll have to do a roll call cuz we can't. We're having computer difficulties. Katie Huffacaker. Yes. Janet Nordon. Yes. Austin Brooks. Yes. Jim Sters. Yes. John Johnson. Yes. Tim Seals. Yes. Sammy Solomon. Yes. Robert Blevens. Yes. Robert Bruner. Yes. Randy Bales. Yes. Aaron Ly. Yes. Ronnie Coleman. Yes. W. D. Henry. Yes. Jimmy Carmichael, yes. AJ Walker, yes. Parker Freed, yes.

Heidi Thomas, 17. 170. It will be the new 10th district constable. Next, we have new business. We have Military Veterans Resource Center proposal grant request by Marissa King. You have to excuse me. I did an 8 mile ruck this past weekend and I'm not in my 20s anymore.

Okay. Can everybody hear me? Okay. So, the Military Veteran Resource Center, I am asking for the 2.7 acres um next to the county clerk's office to put this building in. It is under a community defense infrastructure grant. Um lowest is 200,000. Largest you can get is 20 million. Um the finances on it um 15 million. It's also we uh have a rule exemption so we don't have to file for cost shale cost share. So it's literally $15 million into the budget to build this building. Um we have memos of understanding from the local BFW. We are partnering with the VA to get those memos of understanding as well so the VA can come in and do teleaalth appointments, occupational therapy. Um we also have Mr. Folultz with us here today. Um who has graciously volunteered to uh head front the construction of this if it's approved. Um yeah. Any questions? It's a lot.

Mr. Brooks. Hold up. Hold up, sir. Mr. Brooks got the floor. All right. He's going to yield the floor to you, sir. Your name is

My name is Greg Plouds. Uh I brought uh six copies of a handout to talk about this. Uh I don't know who, what, where, and when to get them. Uh didn't know there were this many commissioners. Uh I'm a degreed engineer. I'm a Vietnam veteran. Spent time 17 years in the Marine Corps and 10 years in the Army Reserve. and retired as a captain with four years of enlisted service. Uh, as far as my occupation, since got out of active duty, I've been a project manager of large projects. Largest one uh was a water plant for Tissant Steel Plant down in uh Sarah, Alabama. That was 184 million. I had 28 contracts varying from 5 to 8 million on those contracts. Last project I finished in uh Detroit, Michigan area was a steel plant that takes metal and turns it into metal into metal powder for 3D printing. I worked at 11 different nuclear facilities including Paduka Gases diffusion plant and big commission ruffy flat bomb plant. So I've got lots of experience in doing projects. Uh last one I did a project uh up through 21 at the Farley Nuclear Plant uh with a similar building that's proposed for this facility. I uh had gone through it. I found out about it on Saturday morning when I went to a veterans meeting. Been in this area for five years and that was the first time I heard about the meeting. uh and I was glad to that I was there. Uh I proposed

that uh I would be the interim project manager to kick this off. I've uh very familiar with contract development and approval uh for subcontracts for mechanical, electric, and plumbing. and uh have all of the rules and regulations for uh new uniform building code and and all of the electrical mechanical codes likewise. So, uh I think this is a good project. Uh we have over 41 4,100 veterans in the Jefferson County area that I'm aware of. Uh I just checked with the building commission and uh they're issuing an average of 25 to 28 building permits for housing. And statistics shows that 3 to 5% of those people moving to Tennessee and Jefferson County would be military, retired or active duty type personnel whose sons and daughters are serving elsewhere around the United States and around the world. So I'm very much in favor of this project. Uh I would as a project engineer or project manager, I would solicit uh getting a designer who can take this blueprint and turn it into construction materials. I would solicit and obtain bids for contracts for all the different aspects of this and move forward. Any questions?

Any questions, Mr. Brooks? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Have you viewed the site? Yes, I I I've been by there where it's proposed to be and I see no problems with that. I would assume that we have uh many reports of uh soil analysis for the area and I built everything on from on scene to uh underwater bridge uh structures to make sure that uh that we're safe to build on that site. Okay. Because there is more county property across the road as well.

Well, the the site is uh uh very good. I I'm not sure across the road, but uh it's when I built the project up in uh Michigan, I had 13 sites to look at to come up and evaluate to purchase to build that facility. And the advantage that you have here is that you're right on Highway 40 within a mile of it and access for construction materials and everything is readily available and can be processed anyhow. Okay, next question. Are these and this would probably be for Marissa or Rebecca. Are these grants competitive? I mean, okay,

they they are competitive grants. Um, but they keep pushing out the date. So, like first date I had to have it in by was June 6th. Second date was June 12th. Now it's June 24th. So, normally in that world, nobody's applying for it if they're pushing the dates out. Okay. So, do you need do you need us to make a motion to approve you pursuing this grant? Yes. Okay, that's done. So, I Well, I guess you can't answer this if they keep pushing the dates. You have You have no idea that upon application when they would uh get back to you on that?

It would be August when the first um the first wave of funding comes through. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Next, we have Katie Huffer, then Marcus Reed. I didn't see you, Marcus. Was you before Katie?

Yeah. There's just a few things that I would would like to say. I've talked to Marissa and Rebecca in depth about this. Oh, I'd like to remind you that there's 4,000 veterans in this county, but this building is not just for the veterans in this county. This building is going to attract veterans from East Tennessee. There's nothing like this building anywhere in the United States. And we're always talking about trying to get revenue in. This is going to bring revenue in because if you look at the plans and and I know we got it in the agenda, you will see that there's going to be people in there that are going to be paying to stay there to be there. There's going to be recruiters. So, there will be a recruiting office there. There most likely will be some medical personnel there. And it's actually a place where veterans can go, especially those who suffer any kind of me mental illness. Uh I don't too know too many veterans that don't have some kind of issue within their mind. But but really look at this. There's no money coming from the county. And when you look at it, take time to look and let's think a little bit beyond our nose on this one. Okay. Sooner or later, we're going to have to be proactive. We don't even know if we're going to get this grant. Thank goodness that Marissa came up with this as one of her projects to finish her whichever degree she's on. And I appreciate the fact that she's done this, but this is a golden opportunity for Jeff County to become a place where people who fought for this country have suffered for this country for you and me. And it's almost, excuse me for saying it this way, but it's almost a no-brainer.

On top of that, I received a phone call from Congresswoman Harshburgger's off office office last Friday from her point of contact there and she asked me, she said, "Marcus, are you going to support this?" And I said, "Yes, I'm completely going to support this because we need it. We need it for the veterans and it's going to be good for the local community." And I mean, look, it's time that we take a bigger step for the veterans of this county, for the spouses. This is going to minister to to wives or husbands who've lost their spouse who served for this country. It's a it's worth trying to do. If we don't get it, we try. But let's let's do something forward for a change and just instead of immediately saying no, I don't want to have anything to do this. There's too many unanswered questions. But the congresswoman's office told me if we approve this that she will immediately jump on board. The congresswoman will and push this. And when you have a person like Diane Hburgger who stands up for you in the House of Representatives in the nation's capital, why not try it? So then that's what I'm asking you. I guess I'm pleading with you. Come on. Let's do something together. Let's show that we can work together for the future of this county to make something possibly happen. We can't guarantee it. Marissa can't guarantee it. Uh thank you. Can you have a favor?

Okay, Marissa, I think you spent a lot of time on this and I appreciate it. And I'm not opposed to the idea, but I have several questions about this grant and I think it needs cleaned up. So, I've got a long well several items and I'll read them out. But, um, I think I think it's a great new concept idea. I just think this grant needs cleaned up before it gets submitted. And so, these are some reasons why. Um, these are questions and concerns I have. Okay. The grant summary location lists the Jefferson City zip code 37760 rather than Dandridge 37725. The grant states the building is 8,800 square ft. In the MVRC graphic with building layouts, but the VRC itemized budget form under item two, building construction, the square footage is listed at 20,000 to 22,000 square ft. In the summary of construction readiness, the grant lists the site as shovel ready. I don't believe the location is site prep ready. Has the site had geotechnical testing? Have core samples been analyzed to der determine subsurface soil conditions ensuring construction suitability and structural stability? Is there a record of environmental and engineering evaluation approval assuring the area is site prep ready? If not, there's no budget included in the grant for these costs. Multiple references within the grant state immediate readiness for development. Is it? If so, where is the documentation? Okay. VRC itemized budget form does not include costs for environmental, geo testing, engineering, construction oversight, etc. The sustainability plan under operation lists the primary operator as the county veteran service officer. But shouldn't that list it as Jefferson County sustainability plan form? County owned

it says county-owned facility. What are the rules associated with the grant in this reg regard? Since the federal and state monies are paying for the building, what are the rules for the county as far as longevity and commitment? Where does the grant state that it will be a county-owned facility? Sustainability plan form. Local government states responsible for utilities maintenance absorbed in the county budget. That's what your grant says. So, what is the cost analysis for the anticipated responsibility to the county and taxpayers? More specifically, what are the ant anticipated costs of utilities, electricity, insurance, maintenance of building and grounds, janitorial staff, building supplies such as toilet paper, etc., water, sewer, added staff because you're going to have an admin at the front, which I'm assuming that's a county staff person, etc. Have projected utility and maintenance costs been evaluated by the finance or all of these have they been projected by the finance department to compare a similar building such as the county clerk office building to this proposed building with a multiplier added for the increase in square footage. the county long-term commitment costs prior to approving the grant application submittal, which I'm not saying I'm opposed to it, but we need to know what the costs are before we vote to send it on through. Okay. Concerned with the proposed site location. So, we built the county clerk's office out there. the Lewis group. It's my understanding they shifted where the county clerk's building was to where it currently is from closer to where you're talking about from your location. So, why was it shifted? Was the Lewis group consulted to see why the county clerk's building was placed where it is and to see if

they performed any soil sampling geo testing on the proposed site. Did we follow or are we following our grant policy and grant application policy for this grant? Was the finance department involved? Who revi who's reviewed the grant for errors? Was East Tennessee Development District consulted to help write this grant or to review the grant because they help us with other grants. Did an architect and/or engineering firm confirm that the building design outdoor footprint can be developed on the proposed property which we do have other properties. I'm not saying I mean in my opinion maybe it could be somewhere else but we just came the facilities committee just came out of a meeting with COPE and they gave us an aerial view of the justice center but in the corner of one of the diagrams they gave us it has the county clerk's building and it shows the footprint of what we own and the proposed green space location is actually smaller in their drawing than the county clerk's building yet your grant shows the building is two three times larger than the county clerk's building. So if their diagram was almost the scale, the building would not fit, the footprint wouldn't fit in the location the grant proposes it on the property. Okay. The MVRC site schematic shows a large green space also in front of the county clerk's office for healing guard garden and animal assisted therapy area. Just the center drive is rather close to the county clerk's entrance road. Utility lines run through that green space and the back of the building borders the elementary school playground which is allowed during the school day. Will that be an issue? The VSO reports to the commission chair, county commission. This grant is for a new

facility and should follow our facility policy, which is to go before the county facility director and the facility committee with input from the finance for review and recommendation of full commission. With that being said, I I would like to motion that the grant be referred to the facility committee for review and recommendation with input from the facility director and finance department prior to our June meeting, which I think that the parties that need to work together would be you, the finance director, the facilities director, and we need to have more information on what the cost is to the county before we go ahead and approve this for submitt. So, if I was going by grant policy, all I have to do is submit a grant request uh to finance and apply for the grant. That's how every other um director does it to my knowledge.

But this is for a new building. So, it I understand that. But the soil was tested when the county clerk with Lewis Group, the Lewis Group did test the soil over there, but it was the grade that kept the county clerk building from being over there. The 20,000 ft includes the 20,000 square feet includes the parking lot and the outside fixtures. Okay. But it still needs to go before the facilities director to approve it and then submit to the facilities committee to come back across to this committee committee and it needs to be reviewed by the finance committee is my I mean the finance department is my understanding for

that's not the grant policy that we have in the county. The grant policy in the county is I send a request up, I ask the finance department, they send it over to Mr. Pots, he signs off on it, and then I'm allowed to apply for the grant. Okay. But this grant affects the county's budget if you receive. How does it affect the county's budget? One person at a time, Ky, you finish answered.

Go ahead. The county is going to be responsible for paying for the insurance, the utilities, the building upkeep, everything associated with the building after it's built. So, I need to know as commissioner what that cost is before I commit for the county going forward with this grant. I'm not saying that I'm against it. I'm saying I don't have enough information to know what I'm actually agreeing to.

Okay. So in the budget, the contingency the contingency is for 5 years. It will fund itself in 5 years. The VA is going to be essentially renting those rooms for for us. Hope Nation has already uh pledged $500,000 a year that they're to this building. This building is not going to cost the county anything to run. We're not hiring anybody else to run this building. We have BFW volunteers. We have American Legion volunteers. Um, we have so many people want to get involved in this building, it's kind of ridiculous. Um, I ran a gap analysis for my doctorate degree. Um, and these were the gaps I found within Jefferson County. Tellaalth, it's not just for veterans either. It's a full cradleto death facility. Recruiters are going to be renting this out. If people, if veteran communities want to gather here, they will rent the building out. It's nothing that the county has to pay for. or if anything, it's another source of revenue for the county.

I'm not saying I'm opposed to the idea. I don't think there's enough information for me to vote on it like it is when you still have time for everybody to review it a little bit more and still submit it on time. I don't understand why we can't follow our procedures closer, run it through the facilities committee. We already have a meeting scheduled. Our meeting starts at 4:30 before our next voting meeting. We can I'm sure everybody in here would agree to meet at 4 if we needed to to have a little extra time.

I just don't want to go back in circles with all these committees like I had to with the assistant. It took me a year to get an assistant. And that's ridiculous. I don't want to be passed off. This has to be done by June 24th. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but there is a timeline on this facility on the grant. Anybody else got anything they want to talk about here? Are you going to amend the motion? I made a motion. We didn't have a motion. There's a motion to take. Okay. Well, I want to amend the motion. I'll second that. You're going to second her motion. Your motion is

I'm going to amend it to for the for it to get reviewed by the finance department, the facility director, come before facilities, let the mayor look at it and the chair and for it to go to facilities the day of our next meeting date at the facilities meeting. We already have a meeting in. So, what I would like to see is it revised and sharpened up and us have some kind of estimate on what the building maintenance would cost. And I think that's very doable. Push your amend button.

We got to make sure we got this right down. Won't work. Does it work? Nope. We got to make sure we got this motion right. Got it down. Second. We have a motion on the floor by Teddy Huffaker, seconded by Ronnie Coleman. Okay. You want me to shorten it? I'll shorten it. I'll condense that way. We get down. Right. Amend that the grant be referred to the facility committee for review and recommendation with input. referred to. The grant be referred to the facility committee

for review and recommendation with input from the facility director and finance department.

Mr. Coen, are you good with that? Absolutely. Mr. Snarkers, you got the right to speak, sir. Oh, yes. Thank you. So, um, just a point of clarification. I think what I hear is Marissa's followed the grant writing procedure correctly, right? I'm not asking to uh, Miss Jessie. Yes. In our office, we do not have anything signed by the mayor or myself to approve the grant process. So, we do not have a defined process or No, we have a defined process. I do not have anything on file for this grant.

Okay. And then Okay. Thank you. I was told to bring it to the commission first before I even went through the grant process.

Okay. So, if you apply for this grant, that just gets the ball rolling, correct? meaning in the review process to say, "Hey, we're going to give this some money, yes or no." It doesn't mean we have to accept the grant right away. If we need, for example, all the things Katie is saying, I believe, are correct. We need to figure out, make sure we can take care of the building, whatever funding is needed in the meantime. That shouldn't I don't think that would swell up the process any. You go ahead and submit. If you were to go ahead and submit the grant, it's going to take a few weeks for that to happen. Your deadline is June June 24th, right? And it'll probably take a few months to review that, I can imagine. And then by that time, we back into the rest of this information analysis and make sure we got everything in line or not.

That's my point. I don't have any issues with going forward with the application because it's going to take some time and which will give us a window to back into all the key details we need to support the operation. Back say something uh uh I get got under into this Saturday morning at 9:00. Uh, I've reviewed grants in the past and submitted them and I will go through this uh with Marissa and uh verify we've got every all the information correct. I know what it takes to run a building, maintenance, operate, electrical, all of that good stuff for the size of this building. And I'll sit down with her and make sure we've got all of our eyes dotted and tees crossed. But we have to have something from this uh commission to move forward and say let's go forward.

Anyone else with a question or comment? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Brooks. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't see that there would be any danger for us to approve pursuing this grant, a grant we may or may not even get. I don't know why on earth we would not pursue this. And in the meantime, we can be working on answers to all those questions that Katie asked. And we have a facilities committee meeting. Uh our chairman for that committee is not here tonight. Uh but I'm the rest of us are. I think we would have no problem adding that to our agenda, but I do think that we should go ahead and proceed pursuing this grant tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bales,

my question is real simple. Do we need to allocate the 2.7 acres in case she does get the grant and say that we'll allow that piece to be used if we get the grant? That could be done at any time. That's my question. Mr. school. I call for a question. Questions been called. We'll proceed to vote on the motion by Katie Haker. Could you repeat the motion to that the grant be referred to the facility committee for review within the uh facilities director, the finance director, and legal?

No, I didn't say legal. No, I thought you did. No, just finance. Oh, that's your I'm reading somebody else's writings. I've never read before. Like we will proceed to vote when your name is called. I don't believe we've got that year. Yes, it might be. Well, wait a minute. We can't vote on that. what we're doing this the wording chairman we going to roll call here yeah yes yes the the wording there just do away with the wording the motion what you're voting on is the the motion that

All right and then you'll have one roll call yes You vote on my computer. What are we voting on? You vote on voting on her own motion. Katie's motion only on the computer on the iPad. I'm voting whether or not to amend or not.

Gets reviewed before it gets ahead and vote. We have 12 yes, five no. Yeses have it. It would go to facilities. Don't we need to vote on the motion as amended now? Yep. We'll have to do a roll call for that computer to delay this. Motion as amended. Motion as amended

for clarity. It just means it'll get reviewed and then come back.

We ready for the vote. Just read the motion one more time, please. for the uh the grant to be referred to facilities committees for review with input from the facility director and finance director. Is that correct? Okay. Well, now we're voting on the main motion, aren't we? This should be to We just amended it. We just amended it. Now you got to vote on what you amended. Lord, it's still the motion. It's still your motion. That's correct. The way you wanted. So in other words, you're going to vote pretty much one more time. We did it. Okay. Roll call vote. Katie Haker. Yes. K.

I don't understand the vote, so I can't vote until I understand. You have to read the motion plainly before the vote. That's standard operating process. Please read it. That's okay. The vote is for the grant to be referred to facilitate committees for review with input from the facility director and the finance director. That was the motion. That's the motion. And that's the only only other thing we're voting on tonight for the veterans thing. The only way it can go is to go now through facilities. Yes. Yes. Austin Brooks,

no. Jim Sners, yes. John Johnson, yes. Tim Seal, yes. Sammy Solid, yes. Robert Blood, no. Robert Grimmer, yes. Randy Bales, yes. Aaron Lloyd, yes. Ronnie Colin, yes. W. D. Henry, yes. Jimmy Carmichael, yes. AJ Walker, yes. Marcus Reed, no. Heidi Thomas, yes. 14. Yes. Three. No. Yes. Have it. It will go to the facility.

Next on the agenda, we have lobby funding, Mr. Marcus Reed. Yeah.

I'm really having a hard time right now uh because government I don't get it. We can jump. Never mind. I'm got to speak on this. David talked tonight about what he's done in Nashville for us. And I forgot to mention the 911 search charge tax that the governor vetoed. Over $300,000 would come to this county. And as many times I've told you that we don't pay our employees enough, Justin could have used that money to keep dispatchers. And when we try to move forward with something, it like we spin our wheels and we really don't listen to our citizens. But David has done a great job for us. I think we can get your real estate tax transfer. The unpaid medical expenses, we need to keep an eye on that. anything that is detrimental to Jefferson County as a entity. David is our eyes, our ears, and he speaks back to us and he looks out for us. So, I think we should fund again $25,000 to David Seal and make sure his contract goes to June the 30th. And he will do what he does for us so well. He will help take care of us. And I'm all for holding elected officials accountable. And I haven't forgot that. There's a lot of elected officials that need to be held accountable. But I would ask you please uh vote yes to give David 25,000 again to do the good job that he does for us

in Nashville. Thank you. Anyone else? balance. Where are you, Ronnie? Ronnie, where's money? 101. 101. Fun balance. Yeah. 101. Is this for next year or? Yes. Next year. So, I would put it in the budget. Okay. I was fixing to hold everything and say that would be in next year's budget if passed. Senator showing up.

Do Jesse, before we vote, do we have that money available in next year's budget? We do. Thank you, ma'am. Anybody else have a question or comment? We'll proceed to vote. vote. Mr. Grim. Yes. Thank you. We have 16. Yes. One. No. Passes. You think you can get some of the senators to show up at our meeting coming forward?

No. I've never seen none of those working senators up here since they went in. four years. Yeah. To answer to answer his question, the uh Senate majority leader has offered to make a trip to Jefferson County and speak about this exact thing and our senator Jesse Seal has invited him to do so. So yes, your first time with us. That's great. Thank you. Anything else you want to hear?

Anything else? Thanks, sir. All right. Next on the agenda is a executive session. So everyone that's not a county commissioner or the attorney needs to leave the room. Put this one here.