What Our Vote Meant

County Commissioners received the following letter from County Attorney Clyde Richert this afternoon.
As always, any commentary I add will be in ITALICS.

"I write as County Attorney after your recent meeting and to follow-up my sending each of you a copy of my letter of inquiry to the CTAS legal staff last week. I have received a response from the attorneys at CTAS.

                As a preliminary matter, CTAS advises:

1.       “This is a difficult and complex issue”;

2.       “The issue has not been researched before”; and

3.       “After considerable time researching the issue, …the answer is not perfectly clear”.

I can certainly understand the sentiments expressed here since my own cursory review of the caselaw yielded little, if any , substance from which to form conclusions.

After I sent my letter of inquiry you received, the County Clerk further advised that in another

part of your County Commission Rules, , it provides that 13 votes is necessary to have a majority of the “legal membership” of the County Commission. After my own research, it became more clear that the Rules which the County Commission had adopted provided that in order to fill the vacant seat for the 4^th District, 13 votes for one candidate were required. Further, CTAS has agreed with the interpretation of our Rules. Thus, the answer you received at the County Commission meeting was the correct answer based upon your Rules.

                Next, the CTAS legal staff has now had the opportunity t research the Tennessee case law and statutes. Based upon a Tennessee case decided many years ago, the CTAS legal staff believes that only 12 votes is necessary to fill the 4^th District position and that no further action is necessary. The thinking is that in our situation, 23 members would be the “legal membership” and 12 is a majority vote, even though our Rules state otherwise. Generally speaking, where local Rules are in conflict with State law (or its best interpretation), the State interpretation prevails.

                In conclusion, following the CTAS reasoning, Ervin Brown has been elected by the Robertson County Commission to fill the vacant position as Commissioner from the 4^th District. No further vote is necessary and I would assume he will be sworn in either at your June meeting or at such other time as the County Mayor may determine available. I would suggest the Nominating Committee meet and assign Commissioner Brown committee assignments such that he may begin his service to the County."

I will look forward to working with Commissioner Brown. I welcome the insight and expertise that he will bring to the Robertson County Commission.

And, I certainly applaud Mr. Wade for his willingness to serve. District 4 certainly presented us with a “good problem.” Of course, I mean that the Robertson County Commission faced the difficult task of choosing between two well-qualified gentlemen.

District 4 Vacancy: Upcoming Vote

We will be voting on a new Robertson County Commissioner on Monday, May 16, 2011.

There are three formal candidates that have “applied” for this seat: Donna Fike, Dennis Wade & Ervin Brown.

I have spoken to each “candidate.” Of course, there will be nominations taken right up and until the roll call vote.

You may have missed my earlier post on the processes & procedures in my earlier ‘District 4 Vacancy.’

I must say that I would love to hear from folks in District 4 – this is your district.

District 4 Vacancy

As discussed previously, Commissioner Polen has resigned.

District 4 now has one vacancy. Many folks have asked how and when the processes will take place to fill this vacancy.

The Robertson County Commission received the following letter from County Clerk Susan Atchley to County Mayor Bradley. Mayor Bradley had requested a letter detailing the processes for announcement to the public. For your consideration, here it is pertinent part:

Shannon Polen

It has been difficult to keep up with this story as it unfolds. It even crept into the national media.

And, to think, I did not even know of the arrest but for a telephone call I received from Jim Bellis of the Robertson County Times letting me know of the story he broke this morning:

Robertson County Commissioner Shannon Polen was arrested at his home Tuesday night by officials from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Special Investigations with the Tennessee Attorney General.

Polen was charged with three felony counts of theft of property and taken to the Davidson County Jail for booking.

Held on a total of $400,000 bond, Polen made news recently after three civil lawsuits were filed against him for what has been described as a “Ponzi Scheme,” by some. He will now appear in court on April 4 to begin to answer his charges.

The Times will continue to update as further information becomes available .

Here are the other outlets that I have been keeping track throughout the day:

MSNBC here.

WTVF – Channel 5 here.

WSMV-TV - Channel 4 here & here.

As your RCC Ethics Committee Chairman, rest assured the RCC is keeping close track of these allegations as they unfold. Many have asked just what action the RCC will take in the days and weeks ahead.

We must remember that these allegations are unfolding at this point, and that this is an evolving process. The RCC Ethics Committee is keeping eyes and ears open monitoring this situation but due to the nature of these unfolding investigations, we cannot become another investigatory entity.

County, State and Federal officials are currently at work on their own investigations.

Of course, this investigation, and the connotations of this investigation do not cast Robertson County in a positive light. It is a dark day for everyone involved. It is our hope that the civil and criminal justice systems will bring Robertson County swift justice.

UPDATE - 4/4/2011: Check out the update to this post - "Commissioner Shannon Polen Resigns"

Our Sister Counties: A National Perspective

This is a survey I came across on NACo (National Association of Counties).

Sobering, because it is definitely one of those surveys where you know what the results will be, but when the numbers leap from the page it is almost like a slap in the face. Check it out and see what I am talking about.

Economists say the national recession is over. But local governments are still feeling the aftershocks of the economic slowdown, according to a new NACo survey released at the association’s Legislative Conference.

The published report, The Recession Continues: An Economic Status Survey of Counties, highlights the continuing impact of the sluggish economy on county budgets and the actions counties are taking to cope with decreased revenues.

"After multiple tough budget cycles, counties appear to be settling into the ‘new normal’ of revenue and staffing levels," said NACo President Glen Whitley. "However, the budget cuts have become increasingly more severe and are affecting more Americans."

Among the key findings:

Declining revenues from the state are the number one contributor to lower revenue for counties (46 percent);

Counties used rainy-day funds (40 percent), made administrative changes and adjusted personnel to help keep their budgets balanced; and

More than half of the counties surveyed (53 percent) have fewer county staff than they did in 2010. Seventy-one percent of counties with fewer employees lost up to 5 percent of their workforce.

Five hundred counties with elected or hired administrators from 44 states responded to the survey, conducted in early February, making it the most comprehensive in the series of seven economic surveys NACo has conducted since 2007. The largest counties had populations of 1 million or higher; the smallest, less than 100,000.

The survey shows that counties are cutting services and employees to a greater degree, rather than the less painful budget adjustments reported in previous NACo surveys, such as delaying purchases and across-the-board budget cuts.

Consistent with earlier surveys, only a small percentage (15 percent) of counties reported increasing property tax rates, and only 2 percent have increased their local option sales tax rates to make up their shortfalls. Of responding counties, 50 percent said their states cap their ability to raise taxes, and 6 percent have county caps.

Instead, most counties have adjusted their budgets through actions such as follow (Counties were asked to indicate all actions taken):

47 percent have delayed purchases and repairs

47 percent have postponed capital investments

45 percent have frozen salary or pay

41 percent have instituted hiring freezes

40 percent have dipped into rainy-day funds

37 percent have imposed employee travel restrictions

31 percent have delayed construction, and

24 percent have laid off county workers.

Other actions by counties include scaling back employee benefits (22 percent) and offering early retirement to eligible employees (9 percent).

The survey data shows that "counties are not out of the woods," Whitley said. "Additional state aid cuts are looming, increased energy and operating costs are nearly certain, and increasing demands for public services remain."

It is not anything that we “want” to hear, that is for sure. Yet, so quickly how we in government forget just how dire the situation is for all of us.

I am told over and over again how “different” this recession. I try to be a student of history, and it is odd in the sense that it is a “working” recession for there are so many folks. It is difficult at times to remember just how close we are to edge. We must be diligent to see ourselves chart a different course.

I know Robertson County will as we head into our own budget process this spring/summer.

Worth the Looking At

I wanted to pass along a note to go along with Jim Bellis’s reporting in his “County Commission to Examine Employee Policies”  

We will certainly being doing just that in the coming months. As this particular issue unraveled (w/EMS), more and more aspects of the Employee Handbook appear to be out-of-date and/or not a good fit for Robertson County.

The current Employee Handbook was last substantively updated back in the mid-1990s.

At the last RCC Personnel Committee Meeting,  the Committee asked that each department head submit issues they note for the Committee to consider. Further, the Committee has already begun the process of requesting and receiving Employee Handbooks from other counties to begin a process of comparing and contrasting handbooks.

RCC: Revised Resolution Process

We received this Memorandum last week: “Format for Resolutions”

I thought I would share here for a little insight into the inner-workings of the process and also in the event that someone out there, or some entity out there would propose a resolution for the RCC to consider.

January 26, 2011

To All Departments:

As of September 1, 2010, the County Clerks office became responsible for all reports, resolutions and information for the County Commissioners’ packets.  We want to make sure we keep everyone informed and updated, so this memo is to make sure all departments are on the same page. All completed reports and resolutions should be submitted to the County Clerks Office before noon on the 2^nd Monday of each month. The School Board will have until the 2^nd Tuesday at noon, due to the School Board meeting schedule.  Please email reports, resolutions, and all documents for the Commission to: donna.riley@tn.gov  and to tamica.harrison@robertsoncountytn.org or fax to 615-384-2218.  Reports and resolutions submitted after the deadline stated above will be in the next month’s packet.

FORMAT FOR RESOLUTIONS:  All proposed resolutions (does not include Planning & Zoning) should first go to the appropriate committee chairperson.  The chairperson should then email proposed resolutions to Clyde Richert (crichert@r-dlaw.net), Mayor Bradley (hrbrad@robertsoncountytn.org) and Susan K. Atchley (susan.atchley@tn.gov).  Once resolutions are accepted by Clyde Richert, he will then acquire resolution numbers from the County Clerk’s office.  We hope this will make the process much easier for all involved, and please remember this process is on a timeline.

Packets will be available on the Robertson County web-site (robertsoncountytn.org) no later than 4:30 PM on the 2^nd Tuesday of each month. 

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Susan K. Atchley

Robertson County Clerk