When Is A Meeting Not A Meeting?

At the Legislative Meeting this morning it was announced by the County Executive that there had been in recent days a meeting in the Annex. about the resolution recommending the County opt out of the State required home inspections. In this meeting were some people from Financial Management, at least one Commissioner, the County Executive and a representative from the state. Immediately after stating this meeting had taken place she corrected herself and stated it was not a meeting, it was just a gathering of individuals.
Well, according to state law it was a meeting and it was held in direct violation of the state open meetings law.
T.C.A. 8-44-102 states that "all meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings". Governing body is defined in the statute as "any public body consisting of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration". "It is not necessary that a decision be reached before the sunshine law applies."
The statute "warns" that chance meetings shall not be used to deliberate public business in circumvention of the spirit of the act."
To simplify this entry the County Executive did instigate and take part in yet another violation of state law.

Another Freedom Bites The Dust

A second important vote was taken this morning in the Legislative Meeting this one will get much deeper into citizens pockets than a time change for the meetings.
Today in an act of moral cowardice Commissioners voted not to opt out of the new requirements by the state that will require a $350.00 new fee to be paid to the state for inspections of all new single and two family dwellings. A few months ago Mr. James Pillow with the state Commerce and Insurance Department came and met with the County Legislative Committee. In that meeting Mr. Pillow gave a very candid account of the results of taking back our tax money in the form of grants. The state requires that all new residential construction be inspected for environmental compliance. Right now that involves windows but will soon include almost every other area from roof material to water units used when flushing toilets. Currently the inspection cost $350.00 on a $150,000.00 house. Next year it will also include any additions containing 30 square feet or more. Of this fee $15.00 will stay in Giles County and the rest will go to Nashville.
Mr. Pillow explained that there are three options available to the county: 1) Do nothing and accept the situation as it has been implemented by the state. 2) Create our own program and enforce our own codes within the guidelines of the state. This could also be accomplished by contracting with the City of Pulaski's building program. 3) The county can opt out of the program by a 2/3 vote of the County Legislative Body. This would have to be re-voted on with each new election of commissioners. To opt out will not prevent the county receiving grants but it will reduce the score given counties by 15 points at the most. Currently 21 counties have opted out of the program and within Giles County the cities have opted out.

The committee voted unanimously to send the recommendation to opt out of the program to the full Commission. They also decided to hold community meetings to give the public an opportunity to address the issue.
Have any of you been to one of these meetings, so far only Commissioner Beech has held a formal meeting and mostly contractors were there and in favor of the fees and restrictions.

Every commissioner that spoke agreed that this was an encroachment into the rights of citizens, that it would be costly and that it was just the first step in a move to have every aspect of houses, additions, repairs and other buildings inspected for a fee. Yet ten commissioners voted to strip citizens of the right to control their own property and impose this new fee on the people.
Commissioner Campbell even went so far as to say if we opt out of this we probably won’t get the Hwy. 64 and I 65 projects completed.
Over and over commissioners complained about “being held hostage” by the state and forced to do this but few had the guts to stand tall and vote against it.
As was stated in the meeting this morning, “building codes and zoning go hand in hand”. This is just another underhanded attempt to impose county wide zoning on people who have consistently made it very clear they do not want it.
Those voting to opt out were Commissioners Reece, Pope, Wilburn, Adams, Carpenter, Risner, Howell, Pollard, and Faulkner.
Those voting to roll over for the state and accept these fees and restrictions are Commissioners Cary, Flacy, Jackson, Beech, Woodard, Holt, Brown, Campbell, Coleman and Harwell. Commissioners Reedy and Houston were absent.

To Change Or Not To Change

The County Legislative Body met this morning and discussed, then voted to keep the Commission Meetings at 9AM instead of moving some of them to the requested evening time. Commissioners Reedy and Houston were absent due to injury and illness.
Commissioner Campbell led the charge against the change stating, “we tried this before and it didn’t work why try it again?”
Commissioner Harwell was next to speak, having been a supporter of changing the time of the meeting during the election I was hardly surprised when he stated, “5:30 would be harder for me than 9:00.”
The first voice of reason came from Commissioner Faulkner who made the simple statement, “we need to remember why we’re here and how we got here, and the people should be considered.”
Commissioner Pope when given the opportunity stated, “we need to keep personal agendas out of this.”

After these statements the vote was taken and ten Commissioners voted for the time change and nine voted against it. The proposal failed because it required a two thirds majority to pass.
Those voting to change the meeting were Commissioners Reece, Pope, Wilburn, Adams, Carpenter, Risner, Howell, Pollard and Faulkner.
Those voting to keep the meeting time as is was, were Commissioners Cary, Flacy, Jackson, Woodard, Holt, Brown, Campbell, Coleman and Harwell.