| Amid comptroller inquiry, years of Greenback ordinances could be
nullified “Under the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (“TOMA”), governing bodies, such as the Mayor and Board of Alderman, must provide adequate public notice of both regularly scheduled and specially called meetings.”
Pope sent an inquiry to the Greenback’s mayor’s office on Dec. 12
and had not received any response to questions regarding the
complaint.
After being accused by citizens of overestimating costs for public
records requests and failing to post public meeting notices,
outgoing Mayor Tom Peeler gave The Daily Times conflicting
explanations for each complaint.
Records requests:
On Oct. 25, Wendy Tittsworth, of Greenback, requested these records
from the mayor:
• Minutes from all Greenback Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings
from 2014 to present.
• A comprehensive list of bylaws followed by the city of Greenback
and its government.
• A comprehensive list of all city ordinances enacted from 2014 to
present.
• A current copy of any and all insurance policies held by the city
of Greenback and the name of the company and individual who wrote
each policy.
Russell’s request on Oct. 30 was for the following:
• A copy of the Greenback City Charter.
• A copy of the Greenback bylaws.
• A copy of board meeting minutes and agendas from Jan. 1 to Oct.
31, 2018.
• A copy of any and all city insurance policies.
Despite the requests being for different records and different
quantities of copies, the two received identical responses from the
city, estimating 139 pages to be copied at 15 cents per page and 20
total labor hours required for each request, totaling $360.85 per
request.
In response to queries about the cost estimates, Peeler first said
that he had paid two contract workers out of pocket to compile the
records, resulting in the high labor costs. When asked for details
on the contracted employees and number of labor hours charged,
Peeler backtracked, saying he never paid the contractors, later
saying he had compiled the records himself.
In either case, Pope said the labor charges are questionable.
“That’s a little strange. If the government had to use a third party
for the request it could be reflected in the costs, sure, but I
don’t know about someone hiring contractors and paying out of
pocket,” Pope said. “And obviously you can’t charge for labor that
you didn’t expend, so if he never paid them, for any reason, it
wouldn’t be reflected in the charge.”
The meetings
Questioned about open meeting notice complaints that stem back to
the early 1990s, Peeler again offered contradictory versions of the
story.
When asked by The Daily Times earlier this month how the city
publishes public meeting notices, Peeler initially responded “we
don’t,” admitting later that day that he knew it was illegal to not
provide adequate notice and adding “what are they going to do? Fine
me for it? I’m out.”
The next day, Peeler told the newspaper that he misspoke, claiming
public meeting notices are posted every month in the Greenback post
office, though he was unable to provide dates of publication except
for November 2018, when a meeting was canceled.
Four citizens of Greenback have denied to The Daily Times that these
notices are posted regularly and a former Greenback alderwoman said
the few notices that were posted in her tenure (from the late 1980s
to early 1990s) were usually only posted on the day of meetings and
only if a meeting had been canceled.
While Pope is still looking into the matter, he said that if
Peeler’s original statement is true, the case becomes clear and
would be the most sustained missed notices from a governing body
that he can recall.
“If they’ve really been providing no notice at all, it’s pretty
obvious that it is not adequate notice,” Pope said. “In that
case, hopefully, whoever replaces him in his position will
operate in more accordance with TOMA.”
Even with the inquiry underway, the comptroller has no
enforcement power and can only act as a mediator between
citizens and governing bodies.
“The way it works is, it is all void if the meeting notices
weren’t done properly, but there’s no way to enforce it except
in court,” Pope said. “Then, a judge would nullify actions taken
at meetings that weren’t properly handled and then the court
would probably monitor the governing body for a while.”
Failure to publish ordinances
If Greenback has been acting in compliance with TOMA, many years
of government action may still be nullified under the city’s own
charter, adopted in 1991.
Per section 6-2-101 of the Greenback charter, “each ordinance,
or the caption of each ordinance, shall be published after its
final passage in a newspaper of general circulation in the
municipality. No ordinance shall take effect until the ordinance
or its caption is published.”
Additionally, section 6-2-103 of the charter requires that “the
annual operating budget and budget comparisons of the proposed
budget with the prior year’s actual figures and the current
year’s estimated figures” also be published in a newspaper of
general circulation not less that 10 days before the governing
body considers passage of the final budget.
Documents provided by The News-Herald in Lenoir City show that
Greenback has only published seven total meeting or other public
notices over the last nine years.
Dates and subjects of notices published by the city from Jan. 1,
2010, to Dec. 24, 2018:
Peeler did not respond to multiple phone calls regarding this
story and, according to what he said earlier, will be leaving
office on Thursday.
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12/31/18