December Commission Packet

Many of you may know this already, but just as a reminder, our “December Commission Packet” can be found here. They are regularly posted on the Robertson County website approximately a week before each Regular Meeting of the Robertson County Commission.

As you know, the “commission packets” are our monthly agendas for the Robertson County Commission “Regular Meetings.”

The Week of December 17, 2012

MEETINGS SCHEDULED

December 17, 2012 – December 21, 2012

Date & Committee/Board             Time                    Location

Monday – Dec. 17

Animal Services                                                    6:00 p.m.                      RCOB

Finance                                                                  6:30 p.m.                      RCOB

County Commission                                            7:00 p.m.                      RCOB

Tuesday – Dec. 18

911 Board                                                             9:00 a.m.                       ECC Building

EMS                                                                        5:00 p.m.                      EMS Buildin

Wednesday – Dec. 19

OPEN

Thursday – Dec. 20  

Highway Commission                                         10:00 a.m.                      Highway Office

Friday – Dec. 21

OPEN

The Week of November 19, 2012

Here is a list of Robertson County Commission meetings for the Week of November 19, 2012:

Date & Committee/Board                                             Time                    Location

Monday – Nov. 19

Ceremony - honoring Meggs/Walton                           10:00 a.m.                           Courthouse

Audit Committee                                                              5:30 p.m.                             RCOB

Budget Committee                                                           6:00 p.m.                             RCOB

County Commission                                                         7:00 p.m.                             RCOB

Tuesday – Nov. 20

911 Board                                                                           9:00 a.m.                              ECC Building                      

Wednesday – Nov. 21

RTA                                                                                      10:00 a.m.                           Nashville                             

GNRC                                                                                   11:00 a.m.                           Nashville

MCHRA                                                                               12:00 p.m.                           Nashville

Thursday – Nov. 22 

COUNTY OFFICES CLOSED/HOLIDAY                                                                                                                                 

Friday – Nov. 23

COUNTY OFFICES CLOSED/HOLIDAY

The "Batson Property" Purchase

On Monday, March 19, 2012 , at the Regular Meeting the RCC voted to allow the Robertson County School Board to purchase what has come to be called the “Batson Property.”

I wanted to note here that if you would like an electronic copy of the contract and/or the site plan for this endeavor, please e-mail. I will be happy to send them to you, since I am not able to post them here on FTB.

SIDE NOTE: Many folks have been asking me how and where the RC Commission “found the money” to purchase the property. The Robertson County Commission did not purchase this property – Robertson County Schools purchased this property – they will be using funds from their own budget to do so. Frankly, RCS came to the RCC for the purposes of the RCC to purchase the property. It was made known early on that the County is not anywhere near the financial position to undertake that project, but anything could be done to assist would be done since the purchase of this property was so ideal.

Reminder: "March Commission Packet" for the March Regular Meeting

With there being a ‘Regular Meeting’ of the Robertson County Commission scheduled for Monday, March 19, 2012; I just wanted to remind everyone that you kind find the “March Commission Packet” (agenda).

Ms. Atchley (Robertson County Clerk) and her deputy clerks do a great job of providing those for us – they are customarily posted a week in advance on the Robertson County website. Here is a direct link to the March Commission Packet.

The Week of March 19th

MEETINGS SCHEDULED WEEK OF:

March 19- March, 23, 2012

Date & Committee/Board                           Time                                      Location

Monday – March 19

Animal Control                                                6:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom

County Commission                                       7:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom                                                                                                                                       

Tuesday – March 20

911 Board                                                         9:00 A.M.                             ECC Building

Health & Safety                                               5:30 P.M.                             Finance Office

Wednesday – March 21

RTA                                                                    10:00 A.M.                          400 Charlotte Ave., Nash.

GNRC                                                                 11:00 A.M.                          400 Charlotte Ave., Nash.

MCHRA                                                              12:00 P.M.                           400 Charlotte Ave., Nash.

Thursday – March 22

Highway Commission                                     7:00 P.M.                             Highway Office

Friday - March 23

OPEN

The Week of October 17th

October 17, 2011 – October 21, 2011:Date & Committee/Board           Time                    Location

Monday- October 17

Animal Control                                                   6:00 P.M.            Juvenile Court

County Commission                                         7:00 P.M.             Juvenile Court              

Tuesday- October 18

911 Board                                                            9:00 A.M.                   ECC Building

Health & Safety                                                  5:30 P.M.             

                                                                      

Wednesday – October 19

RTA                                                                        10:00 A.M.                 400 Charlotte, Nash.

GNRC                                                                    11:00 A.M.                 400 Charlotte, Nash.                     

Thursday- October 20

Re-Districting Committee                             5:00 P.M.                    3rd Floor Conf. Rm. 

Personnel Committee                                    5:00 P.M.                    County OB                                                  

Friday-October 21

Open           

August 'Commission Packet'

Please do not forget that Robertson County Clerk Susan Atchley posts the “Commission Packets” in the weeks leading up to the monthly “Regular Meeting” of the Robertson County Commission.

You can find the packets at the Robertson County website. Here is a direct link.

Also, here is a list of the resolutions and those commissioners who will be presenting them at the August Regular Meeting:

The Week of August 15, 2011

MEETINGS SCHEDULED WEEK OF: August 15 - 19, 2011

Date & Committee/Board                           Time                                      Location

Monday - August 15

Animal Control                                                  6:00 P.M                              Juvenile Courtroom

County Commission                                        7:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom          

Tuesday - August 16

911 Board                                                            9:00 A.M.                             ECC Building

Budget                                                                 5:00 P.M.                             County Office Building

Health and Safety                                            5:30 P.M.                             County Office Building

Wednesday - August 17

RTA                                                                        10:00 A.M.                          400 Charlotte, Nashville

GNRC                                                                    11:00 A.M.                          400 Charlotte, Nashville

MCHRA                                                                Noon                                     400 Charlotte,

Thursday - August 18

Redistricting                                                       4:00 P.M.                             County Office Building

Friday - August 19

Open

MY Minutes: 2011.8.2 RCC Budget Committee Meeting

Here is a summary of last night’s Robertson County Commission (“RCC”) Budget Committee Meeting (“BC”):

There were presentations from various agencies including the Gorham-MacBane Public Library; as well as discussions regarding funding for various non-profit/not-for-profit agencies.

Following this discussion, the BC considered cuts to several departments, and even considered cutting Robertson County Animal Control. However, this was general discussion and no motion/proposal was specifically considered by the BC.

After this general discussion, the BC came to the conclusion that they did not necessarily know what direction that the RCC would want to go with the Budget. Meaning, would the RCC pursue further cuts, or would the RCC consider the “needed” $.40 property tax increase. When the discussion turned to some form of both cuts and tax increses, the BC decided to send the discussion to the RCC.

The BC voted to send the $.40 property tax increase to the RCC.

This will be considered at the next Regular Meeting later this month.

I hope to have more on this issue in the coming weeks.

Robertson County, what are your thoughts?

Robertson County Commission Regular Meeting - July 'Packet'

Regular readers may know, but a week before the RC Regular Meetings, the agenda’s are published on the Robertson County website.

Here is the direct link.

The Week of July 18th

July 18 - 22, 2011

Date & Committee/Board                 Time                            Location

Monday - July 18

Legislative                                                         6:00 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

Finance                                                             6:30 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

Nominating                                                      6:30 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

County Commission                                       7:00 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

Tuesday - July 19

911 Board                                                        9:00 A.M.                   ECC Building

Wednesday - July 20

Open                                            

Thursday - July 21

Budget                                                              5:00 P.M.                    Finance Office

Redistricting                                                    6:00 P.M.                    County Office Building

Friday - July 22

Open

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: Rule 23

This is the section (Rules of Procedures & Regulations) guiding the selection for a successor to the District 4 Vacancy:

RULE 23

Procedure for selecting a successor to fill a vacancy in any office which by law is to be selected by the Robertson County Commission:

A.         When a vacancy occurs, each member of the Commission shall be notified to said vacancy at least seven days prior to the meeting at which a successor is to be elected.

B.         Nominations:  All members of the Commission are eligible to nominate persons to fill certain vacancies in office.  To insure the candidate is qualified to serve, the Commission member shall state the name of candidate, his or her place of residence and the length of time the person has lived in Robertson County.  No second shall be required to place the name in nomination.  The candidate shall either in writing or orally give assurance to the Commission that he or she will serve if elected.

C.           Upon the close of nominations, voting for the candidates shall begin.

               A majority vote (13) of the Commission shall be required to re-open nominations.

D.         If any one candidate receives a majority vote of the legal membership he or she shall be declared the winner.

If there are three (3) candidates for the position and none receive a majority vote, the candidate receiving the fewest votes shall be dropped from the ballot and a vote shall be taken on the remaining two candidates.

If there are four (4) or more candidates and no single candidate receives a majority vote, any candidate who received less than ten percent of the total votes cast shall be dropped from the ballot.

If on a subsequent ballot there is still no candidate receiving a majority vote, any candidate who receives less than twenty percent of the vote shall be dropped from the ballot.

If on the next ballot there is still no candidate receiving a majority vote, then forty percent would apply and that candidate would be dropped from the ballot.

E.          The County Mayor shall vote only in case of a tie when there are two candidates.

District 4 Vacancy: How the Votes Fell

I have been asked throughout the day just how the votes broke on filling the District 4 Vacancy (Thank-you, Ms. Atchley for providing the breakdown).

Here are the respective totals for the two nominations submitted at Monday's Regular Commission Meeting.

District 4 Vacancy: Upcoming Vote (II)

Here is a letter each County Commissioner received from RobertsonCounty Clerk Susan K. Atchley regarding the meeting Monday, May 16, 2011:

Dear  Commissioners,

At the County Commissioners’ meeting to be held on May 16, 2011, at 7:00 PM, the vacancy of the 4^th district County Commissioner’s seat will be filled.  Nominations will be accepted at this time from Mayor Bradley, current Commissioners, letters submitted to County Clerk or from persons in the audience.  Oral roll calls will be taken for this election.  For any questions regarding procedures, please direct them to my office at the above listed number.

Best regards,

Susan K. Atchley

The Week of May 16, 2011

MEETINGS SCHEDULED WEEK OF:

May 16 - 20, 2011

Date & Committee/Board                Time                                    Location

Monday - May 16

County Commission                           7:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom, RCOB

Tuesday - May 17

911 Board                                            9:00 A.M.                             ECC Building

Health and Safety                              5:30 P.M.                              Finance Office

Wednesday - May 18

RTA                                                       10:00 A.M.                           400 Charlotte, Nashville

GNRC                                                    11 A.M.                                400 Charlotte, Nashville

Thursday - May 19

Open    

Friday - May 20

Open

The Week of April 18, 2011

Also, do not forget that the Robertson County Commission agenda can be found here at the Robertson County website.

MEETINGS SCHEDULED WEEK OF:

April 18 - 22, 2011

Date & Committee/Board           Time                    Location

Monday - April 18

Animal Control                                   6:00 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

Building and Grounds                          6:30 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

Nominating                                         6:30 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom

County Commission                            7:00 P.M.                    Juvenile Courtroom                                                                                                    

Tuesday - April 19

911 Board                                           9:00 A.M.                    ECC Building

Health and Safety Board                      5:30 P.M.                     Finance Office

Wednesday - April 20

RTA                                                    10:00 A.M.                  400 Charlotte, Nashville

GNRC                                                 11:00 A.M.                  400 Charlotte, Nashville

Thursday - April 21

Open

           

Friday - April 22

HOLIDAY: Good Friday

MY Minutes: 2011.3.21 - RCC Regular Meeting

Several folks have e-mailed me inquiring what the results were with some of the resolutions from Monday (from the Regular Meeting March 21^st).

As always, here are results of the votes (in bold font), and my editorial comment (in italics).

Appointment / Library Board –

Ms. Linda Thompson was nominated, and appointed to the Library Board.

I will look forward to serving with her.

Budget Amendments –

The Highway Commission and Robertson County Schools had proposed Budget Amendments. Both of these resolutions passed without discussion.

Generating the most discussion of the night, the backpay for former EMS employees was taken up by the RCC.

You will recall, and you have probably heard talk of this throughout the County. It was not an easy vote, and quite candidly it was a very difficult decision for the body. Recall that this proposal has been discussion, re-discussed and discussed again.

This issue stems from some of the original turmoil coming from EMS as noted here.

In my humble opinion, what made this such a difficult issue was the allegations and rumors surrounding EMS. But, at the end of the day, the pervasiveness of these problems dictated the outcome that the RCC had to come to terms with – that the lack of oversight and adherence to polices & procedures created a low standard of accountability that the RCC was bound to in making this decision.

At the end of the day, the RCC could night change the” rules of the game” when it came to these employment matters. I underscore employment matters because notwithstanding the issues and concerns with EMS, the employment matters will be handled separately.

The RCC could not consider both.

That is what made this decision tremendously difficult.

At the end of the day, I did not like it, but I think the RCC took the right approach. It brings the County closure on this issue, and allows the EMS Committee to focus on much needed reform in EMS.

This reform is forthcoming.

10 Commandments Resolution –

The resolution I mentioned in the couple of weeks leading up to this meeting PASSED.

It passed overwhelmingly.

I do not mind sharing with you that I voted against this resolution. I did, for several reasons. Most notably, I see no reason for the RCC to take such a position on such an issue spontaneously. It is spontaneous for this is but a special interest matter of a handful of folks. We do not have an existing monument or placard here in the County that is currently under attack by some outside group.

Now, we have drawn a line in the sand.

I just hope that no one was watching when we did.

Law Enforcement / Sheriff’s Department –

There were several proposals brought to the floor by way of the Robertson County Sheriff’s Department.

-          28-Day workweek: This proposal will give way to allow the RCSD to change the way that they schedule their shifts. The Sheriff hopes that it will allow them more flexibility in the way they schedule a work-week, by moving to 12-hour shifts. Further, over time, the objective will be a cost saving measure since it will likely decrease the amount of overtime.

-          Inmate Booking Fee: Relatively self-explanatory as it assesses a fee for the booking process in the Robertson County Detention Facility.

-          Inmate Medical Payment Plan: Relatively self-explanatory as it assesses a fee for medical payments incurred while an inmate is incarcerated.

The Week of March 21st

It appears to be a very busy Monday evening. Numerous committee meetings, and there are several that I would like to attend.

Not only are there numerous meetings listed, I would also note that the commissioners have been invited to the Robertson County Chamber of Commerce for a presentation on our “Three Star Strategic Plan.” Here is the note  that we received from Executive Director Margot Fosnes:

The Robertson County Chamber of Commerce serves as the lead organization in certifying Robertson County each year as a Three Star Community for the TN Dept  of Economic & Community Development. A large part of this process is creating and updating a Five Year Strategic Plan for the county.  We are asking all of our county commissioners and city mayors to attend a meeting to review and update the priorities in our plan on Monday, March 21 before the regular county commission meeting.

I plan on attending this update.

MEETINGS SCHEDULED WEEK OF:

March 21 - 25, 2011

Date & Committee/Board                           Time                                      Location

Monday - March 21

EMS                                                                6:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom

Ethics                                                             6:30 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom

Nominating                                                    6:30 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom

County Commission                                       7:00 P.M.                             Juvenile Courtroom                                                                       

Tuesday - March 22

Open

Wednesday - March 23

Open

Thursday - March 24

Appeals Board                                                 6:00 P.M.                             County Office Building

Highway Commission                                      7:00 P.M.                             Highway Offices              

Friday - March 25

Open