County May Face More Legal Battles

Jefferson County may be facing another legal suit if attorneys for Tom Carter, Director for the Environmental Office of Jefferson County, do not feel that corrective action from the County is sufficient, according to a letter dated August 27, 2015 regarding the reductions to the Environmental Office in the Jefferson County 2015/2016 fiscal year budget. As a result of those cuts, Carter’s salary was reduced $16,887, which was more than 1/3 of his salary. The letter, sent from Keith Coates of Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter Attorneys of Knoxville, indicated that it is their position that the Jefferson County Commission acted outside their scope of authority in reducing the salary of Carter, noting that under the Financial Act of ’81 Budget Committees and County Commissions are precluded from reducing the salaries or making personnel changes in County Departments. Citing Tennessee Code Annotated 5-21-213 and 5-21-125, the letter also contends that Commissioners that voted in favor of the “reducing of Mr. Carter’s salary has failed to perform his or her duties required by the Act and is subject to removal from office…”.

Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri stated Friday that he was opposed to the reduction of Carter’s salary, as well other serious cuts to the department, confirming that a letter was received from Carter’s attorneys. He stated:

“ I have said it before and I will say it again, this budget was more a political document than a financial one. I support Tom Carter and his department and said at the time that the County Commission was overstepping their boundaries. They had the opportunity to rectify the issue at the last County Commission meeting and they choose to stick to their agenda. The County rolled a significant amount of money back into fund balance, around $2 million dollars, and it would only cost $16,000 to fix this issue. It is obvious that available money to fund the salary of the Environmental Director is not the issue. Now the County will likely face a costly legal suit to restore what should have never happened in the first place. I ask you, how is this in the best interest of the tax payers of Jefferson County?”

County Commission Chairman Carmichael also addressed the letter in question stating:

“The County Commission had a lot of difficult decisions this year, in regard to the budget. As the funding body we must determine how much money the County can afford to spend on both County department operations and schools and sometimes, like in our personal finances, there have to be cuts. The County Commission followed the recommendation of the Budget Committee, who was charged with investigating the financial requests of County departments and made recommendations based on the information that was available at the time. They produced a balanced budget that included cuts in several areas and addressed the financial constraints that they were faced with and the County Commission, as a body, approved the final budget.”

The letter requested contact by Friday, September 3, 2015 and stated Carter’s hope that the issue will be resolved without formal legal proceedings, as well as his determination to take legal action if the issue is not resolved. Because it contained a claim against Jefferson County, the letter was forwarded to the County’s insurance carrier.

Source: K. Depew, News Director