Commissioner Hurley must move ba

The district attorney general has ruled Loudon County Commissioner Julia Hurley is violating residency requirements for serving her elected position.

Russell Johnson, 9th Judicial District attorney general, sent a letter Friday to Hurley’s attorney, T. Scott Jones, that said Hurley must either move back into the second district before March 6, which is four days after election day, or resign her position.

If Hurley does nothing, Russell’s office could begin ouster proceedings.

Hurley represents the second county district but recently moved to the fifth district.

“I realize that, if we have to go down the road of an ouster lawsuit, that we may be making new law as there is a dearth of case law on this issue,” Johnson said in the letter. “If I, however, simply ignore what the facts show in this situation, then I am ignoring what I think is a clear violation of the residency law. You cannot make a decision to move somewhere on a permanent basis, then say the move was temporary because you made a mistake.

“The statute begs for interpretation by the courts or at least to bring these issues to the attention of legislature,” he added. “I do not believe that they intended to make a law to allow any elected official to move where they want on a permanent basis and to be able to cloak themselves in the blanket of a claim of temporary residency when the intent was otherwise.”The letter alleges Hurley rented her former home on 5th Avenue in Lenoir City on a long-term lease and moved to the Harrison Woods subdivision, emphasizing that Hurley did not contact Loudon County Administrator of Elections Susan Huskey to determine the district boundary. The letter also points out Hurley’s tenant, who is or was a coworker, indicated her move was permanent, and neighbors both old and new indicated the same.

“Instead of stating that it was a temporary move (because it was not a temporary move) she consulted a friend who advised her, telling her what to say,” Johnson said in the letter. “Instead of admitting she made a mistake and taking action to correct her mistake, she is maintaining an untruthful position that is easily rebutted by her own actions, her own statements on social media and to others, as well as her post discovery response to her mistake conduct.”

In a follow-up interview, Johnson said county attorney Bob Bowman has indicated he won’t get involved the issue. Only the county attorney and district attorney general can file an ouster lawsuit.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation looked into the matter on the request of Johnson. The investigation has not officially closed, Johnson said.

“There’s still some stuff I’m going to have them do based on other information I have, so it’s concluded as far as me having enough information to move forward,” he said. “There’s still other things that are coming up as people feed me information that I’m going to look at.”

Hurley’s residency came to the forefront in July after Van Shaver, county commissioner, questioned Hurley’s place of residence after becoming aware of her move through social media.

Loudon County Commission in August voted to seek help from Johnson’s office to help settle controversy.

“It’s very difficult,” Gary Whitfield, county commissioner, said. “I mean that’s why we wanted to send our concerns to the district attorney and let him do a thorough investigation so he could determine the status of temporary or permanent, and based on the letter I saw on Friday he’s determined that is not a temporary move and that this is her permanent residence and that’s in direct violation of the law.”

TCA 5-1-104 notes a “county legislative body shall be required to make an appointment to fill a vacancy within 120 days of receiving notice of the vacancy unless during that time period there is a general election scheduled in the county and there is sufficient time for the vacancy to be placed on the ballot in accordance with this section.”

TCA 8-41-101 also points out a vacancy will occur if an elected official ceases to be a “resident of the state, or of the district, circuit or county for which the incumbent was elected or appointed.”Jones, Hurley’s attorney, believes Johnson’s letter is not necessarily an “accurate representation of the law.”

“The good thing about the law and is reflected in the letter is that it’s a fluid concept,” Jones said. “There is no case law for decisions, if you will, on this particular area and it comes down to what is a definition of a temporary move? Ms. Hurley has always maintained that the move was of a temporary nature, so I suspect that when I speak with her today that we’ll be able to apprise the general when she will be permanently back, if you will, within her district. I’d say that will ... alleviate any of the concerns. The general cites in the letter a couple of other incidences that in fairness were for an extended period of time that other folks basically lived outside of the confines of their electoral area. It really comes down to what is actually the intent of it.”

He said Hurley has done nothing that violates the law to the level of an ouster suit.

“I mean, I’m not the one that created the law, the legislature placed that out there without exception and then they didn’t define it, and any time we have laws that don’t provide a definition, then it comes down to this arbitrary interpretation of it,” Jones said. “What might be reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me and that’s just sometimes what we see as far as shortcomings in all legislation that they may need to go back and revisit it and define it and say, ‘OK, if you’re gone three months that’s beyond a temporary. If you’re gone six months, if you’re gone a year.’ What about a serviceman who gets sent overseas or transferred? I mean, where really is that fine line?"