Lenoir City Mayor proposes civil

A candidate for Lenoir City Council may be sued by the Lenoir City Mayor for $45,700 in court costs incurred by the city judge she has sued, in a case that’s awaiting a ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The initial lawsuit was filed after an Aug. 4, 2022 election, in which Robin McNabb, Gregory “Gregg” Harrison and another candidate ran for the position of city judge. Harrison won the election with 350 votes — 37 more than were cast for McNabb, who served as city judge for Lenoir City from 2016 to 2022.

Later that month, McNabb filed a complaint against Harrison on the grounds he was not qualified to hold the office since he lived outside the city limits. The case was initially heard by Chancellor Tom McFarland, who ruled in Harrison’s favor.

The case was heard by the Tennessee Supreme Court on Sept. 5. McNabb, a law firm owner, represented herself, while Harrison was represented by attorney T. Scott Jones.

The agenda for the Sept. 23 Lenoir City Council meeting included an item for council members to discuss paying legal fees to Banks & Jones, Attorneys at Law, in the amount of $45,700. Council voted to cover the cost of this representation, instead of leaving it to Harrison to pay himself.

Item two on the agenda called for discussion “regarding giving Mayor (Tony) Aikens the authority to file civil action against Robin McNabb, Attorney at Law, for the purpose of recovering legal fees involving lawsuit against Gregory H. Harrison, City Judge/City of Lenoir City, pending Tennessee Supreme Court decision.”

With Harrison being a Lenoir City employee, attorney fees were covered by the city. In an exclusive interview with the News-Herald on Sept. 18, Mayor Tony Aikens said that Jones providing his bill to the city is what sparked the reimbursement conversation.

“The judge is a city employee, just like a police officer, just like a street department worker, just like anybody else, just like me, anybody,” Aikens said. “So, obviously, the city represents that employee. You know, as long as they’re in the right, there’s no type of… malfeasance or whatever the case may be.”

During the Sept. 18 interview, Aikens said that McNabb never expressed concern, or at least didn’t file a complaint with the election commission, before or after the election. In his opinion, prior to the election would’ve been the ideal time to address the issue.

“Our position is, my statement is, it’s very unfortunate that we’ve gotten to this, that obviously the former judge had other resources to go through if she chose to do that… And of course, it’s gone on for two years, and just like any other lawsuit involving governments versus governments… it’s only the taxpayers who lose,” Aikens said.

After the City Council Meeting on Sept. 23, McNabb told the News-Herald that it was never her intention to include the City or its citizens with her lawsuit.

“I think it’s disappointing that the city has decided to take on the defense of Mr. Harrison without knowing how much it’s going to cost, without getting a bill until the end, and when the city wasn’t the one being sued,” McNabb said. “And I also think that if they felt the defense was necessary, they could have had the city attorney defend the lawsuit at no additional cost to the city taxpayers.”

According to McNabb, there are only two times a candidate can contest an election — when the ballot is filed and certified, and then after the election.

“You can file an election contest when people file and the ballot’s certified, which is at the beginning of the election process. At that point, you can file a lawsuit against the election commission to argue that a candidate is not qualified. If you start that lawsuit in April when the ballot’s certified, that means you are fighting a lawsuit against the county election commission, which really didn’t do anything wrong, while you’re trying to campaign for the office you’re trying to win,” she said.

“For time reasons, for every reason in the world, especially because I don’t think the county election commission did anything wrong based on the information they had and the ordinance as it existed at that time, I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to file a lawsuit against the county election commission,” McNabb continued.

“The second time that you can file an election contest is after the results are declared… The process is not to sue the city. The process is to sue the candidate and have the court decide whether he is constitutionally qualified in this case to hold the office. The city council passed an ordinance saying that he could run even though he doesn’t live in the city limits (in 2021), but the provision that actually requires that city residency goes all the way up to the Tennessee Constitution of 1870, actually.”

City Council voted to postpone any decision to file a civil action suit against McNabb until a later date, pending the Tennessee Supreme Court ruling.