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Attorney: Commissioners'
actions on school board relocation may violate state law
Funds' shift required OK of school
board
Hugh G. Willett knoxnews.com
LOUDON — Actions by the Loudon County
Commission to transfer and allocate funds to move the county’s
school offices may have violated state law, according to an attorney
representing the school board.
Chuck Cagle, who represents the Tennessee
School Board Association and other school panels across the state,
met with the Loudon County school board in a special called workshop
Monday.
Commissioners did not have the authority
to allocate $800,000 earlier this month for renovations and upgrades
to the Loudon County Technical Center, according to Cagle. Funding
for an architectural study ordered by the commission may also have
been illegal, he said.
If County Commission intends to use money
from the Adequate Facilities Tax or any money allocated for school
buildings, it must first have approval from the majority of the
school board, he said. The same law would apply to a $1.3 million
“loan” the commissioners approved last July for renovation and
expansion of county offices.
Cagle also said that county offices must
be located within the county seat, which is the city of Loudon, he
said. The proposed new school offices are on Harrison Road in the
north end of the county.
Commission and the school board could
still come to an agreement that involves moving into the Loudon
County Technical Center, Cagle said. Precedent exists where, for
specific reasons, the school offices can be moved out of the county
seat.
Board members agreed to authorize Cagle to
speak with the attorney representing the county before deciding to
take any further action.
Commissioner Bob Franke made the motion
earlier this month for the transfer of funds. He doesn’t see the
actions as illegal. “What we are trying to do is properly manage the
taxpayer’s money,” he said.
In June, commissioners, in examining a
$400,000 request from the school board, determined the technical
center needed $800,000 to make the building ready for greater
utilization, Franke said.
Simultaneously, the commission was looking
at an expansion of the county offices. It was determined that the
county could save money by asking the school system’s offices to
move to the technical center so that the space vacated by the
district could be used for expanding county offices, he said.
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2/12/14