Lenoir City responds to county v

Days after Loudon County Commission voted to reduce Adequate Facilities Tax funding to Lenoir City Schools, Lenoir City Council fired back.

On Monday, Councilmen James Brandon and Mike Henline motioned and seconded, respectively, to authorize the city codes enforcement and planning department to not participate in the AFT documentation process effective immediately.

The vote passed 4-0. Councilmen Eddie Simpson and Jim Shields were absent.

“County commission chose to reduce the Adequate Facilities Tax to the Lenoir City school system by 2.5% over the next four years — 2.5% each year, for a 10% reduction total,” Tony Aikens, Lenoir City mayor, said. “I think county commission got misled on the numbers they were given at the county commission meeting. It was like $4,600 or $4,700 when in fact the numbers were closer to $30,000.”

Funding for this year amounts to $34,506, Chip Miller, county trustee, said.

Amber Scott, Lenoir City administrator, said city attorney Gregg Harrison was briefed and council polled before a decision was made, which was “within our right to do.”

“I believe we can do it; certainly didn’t want to do it this way,” Aikens said. “I wish that it hadn’t ever happened to begin with but I have to take up for the school system of Lenoir City — that’s one of my jobs — and I consulted with the chairman of the school board and he concurred with me that this was the proper action. Again, I hope that county commission will reconsider their actions. They certainly should because it hurts the Lenoir City school system.”

Matthew Coleman, Lenoir City Board of Education chairman, who was present for the meeting, emphasized the missed funding will grow as new homes are built.

“My understanding is between 800 and 1,000 new homes are going up in Lenoir City over the next two years, which would be a big increase in what’s actually being taxed today, so that number’s substantially larger than the number we’re showing today,” Coleman said. “I think a little over half the permits pulled in the county are in Lenoir City, so it’s Lenoir City residents that are actually paying that tax, the majority of it. The Lenoir City Schools system services 31% of the county students. Of all the students in the county, 31% go to the city schools.”

He said 60% of Lenoir City High School students are county students.

“The city schools are servicing the county students,” Coleman said. “At the end of the day we’re one county and all that money should be split evenly. There is an argument to be made that instead of reducing the percentage going to Lenoir City Schools it should be increased to 30%, not decreased to 5%.”

Aikens emphasized the “best and easiest thing to do” is to restore funding. He said litigation isn’t likely, adding “only the taxpayers lose” when that occurs.

“Lenoir City government, unless council directs me otherwise and I don’t think they will, we will not file a lawsuit,” Aikens said. “But it’s sad. It’s a sad day for the Lenoir City Schools system. I would encourage people to call their county commissioner in their district and encourage those commissioners that voted and all of them voted for it with exception of Commissioners (Matthew) Tinker, (Harold) Duff and (Julia) Hurley. They opposed it and I would encourage those others, whether you be the commissioners in Loudon or Greenback or wherever they’re a commissioner at, they represent all of Loudon County and not part of Loudon County.

“They should be representing and doing the right thing and restoring that money to the Lenoir City Schools system,” he added.

Loudon County Commission will meet for a workshop at 6 p.m. Monday. Aikens said he planned to at least go to the August meeting.

Van Shaver, county commissioner, was present at the council meeting and afterward said AFT would be discussed at the commission workshop.

“I am highly disappointed the way that the commission did on taking funding away from the schools,” Jennifer Wampler, councilwoman, said. “I do not understand that with the sheer number of county students that we’re educating. … I don’t harbor ill will but I really feel like it’s detrimental to our schools.”

Miller said Tuesday morning that he would consult with county commission to determine a process should Lenoir City stand pat.

“I guess we’re going into some unknown territory because we don’t have a system in place other than the one that’s defined by the private act itself that says the cities or municipalities or other organizations, in this case such as (Tellico Reservoir Development Agency), that turn in the permits, the new act on collecting,” Miller said. “... When you take Lenoir City out of that process, which is actually defined in the private act that was devised back in ‘06, there’s not another apparatus that picks up that process. I think we’re going to be looking at potentially more employees, potentially a county vehicle, hiring someone just to go measure houses and so on and so forth.”

“... If they don’t do that there’s not a process in place for it to be done because they’re the one administering the permit, the building permit, and the person by law they have to sign the Adequate Facility Tax form when they get their permit,” he added. “There’s an acknowledgment in there that they know this going to be due. If they’re not doing that at that point, it will be an issue.”

Miller couldn’t determine an exact financial impact but estimated a “sizable number.”

“It’ll be hard to put a number on that because we don’t track Lenoir City separately, like we would not track Loudon city or TRDA separately,” Miller said. “... I guess the problem I see right off is how do you treat all the citizens in Loudon County fairly if this is a countywide impact fee, Adequate Facilities Tax fee, whatever you want to call it, if everyone is supposed to pay it and somehow we’re not able to track and collect a permit inside of Lenoir City, that’s not a level playing field for everyone else who’s paying the tax.”

In other news, Lenoir City Council:

• Agreed to close the downtown parklet 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 2 for an event hosted by Roane State Community College.

• Agreed to close North B Street from Broadway to First Avenue and First Avenue from B to A streets 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Aug. 28 for an event benefiting Loudon County Habitat for Humanity and Kids First Child Advocacy Center of the Ninth Judicial District.

• Approved closure of a block from Walnut to Cherry streets 5:30-8:30 p.m. July 26-30 for Bell Avenue Baptist Church’s Vacation Bible School.

• Awarded a contract to Stansell Electric Company Inc., for the signal optimization/improvement project on Highways 11 and 321. Stansell was the lowest of two bids at $1.36 million.

• Approved a $451,884.75 grant for a new fire truck.

• Made a one-time contribution of $5,000 to the Loudon County Visitors Bureau for a fishing tournament in November.