| Comptroller sides with Lenoir City BOE
The Tennessee Comptroller for the Treasury’s Office
of Open Records Counsel has found no wrongdoing by the Lenoir City
Board of Education.
An inquiry to the office made on May 12 was returned
last week after News-Herald presstime for the May 17 edition.
According to Lee Pope, deputy open records counsel
for the comptroller’s office, a private meeting held by the BOE on
May 11 before the start of the regularly scheduled meeting did not
violate the Tennessee Open Meetings Act.
Jeanne Barker, Lenoir City Schools superintendent,
told Pope that the BOE meeting was only for the purpose of sharing
information. There was no further investigation by the comptroller’s
office.
The law states that, “All meetings of any governing
body are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all
times, except as provided by the Constitution of Tennessee,” and
that a meeting is the “convening of a governing body of a public
body for which a quorum is required in order to make a decision or
to deliberate toward a decision on any matter.”
Because Barker informed Pope that the meeting was
strictly for the sharing of information, and did not include any
sort of deliberation toward a topic that will be acted on, the
meeting was declared in legal standing.
The comptroller’s office did not disclose details of
the meeting.
Barker declined to provide further comment regarding
the meeting, adding only that she was also informed by the
comptroller’s office that the meeting was legal.
Loudon City Council dealt with its own questions
regarding open meetings last week when Councilman Lynn Millsaps
refused to go into an executive session he felt was in violation of
the open meetings act.
Millsaps said during the meeting that he felt the
city had been breaking the law, a charge that was quickly refuted by
Joe Ford, the city’s attorney.
In a follow-up interview Monday, Millsaps stood
by his claim.
“I just don’t think they were following the
guidelines,” he said. “Our attorney said it’s legal, but I read
the law and it pretty clearly says that the city shouldn’t have
closed meetings unless it pertains to a potential lawsuit.”
Millsaps has not received clarification from Ford
and declined to comment further. He directed further questions
to Ford when asked if deliberation toward making a decision had
taken place during previous executive sessions.
Ford has not returned a request for comment.
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