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TENNESSEE
www.tncounties.org
A publication of the Tennessee County Services Association
November - December 2014
Vol. 37, No. 5
COUNTY NEWS
Governor To Call Special Healthcare Session
Smith
Bradley
Mackey
Stoppenhagen
New Presidents
Elected For 2014-15
A special session of the 109th
General Assembly is being called
by Governor Haslam in January to
address a two-year pilot program he
has unveiled to provide healthcare
coverage to those Tennesseans who
currently don’t have access to health
insurance or have limited options.
Haslam on December 15 unveiled his Insure Tennessee plan,
which rewards healthy behaviors,
prepares members to transition to
private coverage, promotes personal responsibility and incentivizes
choosing preventative and routine
care instead of unnecessary use of
emergency rooms.
The governor added that he
plans to call a special session to focus
on the proposal after the legislature
convenes January 13.
“We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not
to expand traditional Medicaid,”
Haslam said. “This is an alternative
approach that forges a different path
and is a unique Tennessee solution.
This plan leverages federal dollars to
provide health care coverage to more
Tennesseans, to give people a choice
in their coverage, and to address the
cost of health care, better health outcomes and personal responsibility.
“Our approach is responsible
and reasonable, and I truly believe
that it can be a catalyst to fundamentally changing health care in Tennessee. It is our hope that this plan opens
the door in the future for innovation
within our existing Medicaid program. I look forward to working with
providers across the state to advance
payment reform and with members
of the General Assembly to make
this plan a reality.”
Early news reports included
mostly positive comments about the
governor’s plan with many legislative leaders saying they look forward
to studying the details.
Five key areas of the governor’s
plan include:
• A fiscally sound and sustainable program;
Please See Governor, Page 2
Memberships for the Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA)
and two of its affiliates have named new presidents for 2014-15 during the
organizations’ recent annual fall conference.
TCSA membership on Oct. 30 named Fayette County Highway Superintendent James E. “Jim” Smith as its new president. As head of the county
association umbrella organization that includes Tennessee County Highway
Officials (TCHOA), Tennessee County Commissioners (TCCA) and the Association of County Mayors (ACM), Smith will preside over a board that
includes a mix of members from each of those affiliates.
Also named presidents of their associations during the conference were
Robertson County Mayor Howard Bradley, now president of ACM; Warren Mackey, a Hamilton County commissioner now head of TCCA; and
Please See Presidents, Page 6
Associations Lose
Blanchard To Cancer
County associations and officials
across the state lost a valuable ally
with the death of Debbie Blanchard,
chief administrative officer for the
Tennessee County Services Association. She had been with the County
Technical Assistance Service (CTAS)
and TCSA for nearly 15 years, all the
while earnestly working for county
officials through her passionate commitment to outstanding customer service.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi,
May 29, 1953, she lost her lengthy
battle with cancer on Sunday, Dec.
14, 2014, at the age of 61. She was a
resident of Hermitage, TN.
“We lost a good friend and amazing human being to cancer,” said David Connor, executive director of the
Tennessee County Services Association. “I had the privilege of working
daily with Debbie for over a decade.
But this year, after she received a
terminal diagnosis and continued to
fight, to love, to care and to endure,
I witnessed a strength like I’d never
seen before. In the end, she lost her
battle, but I can guarantee you this
was a fight that cancer regretted ever
starting.”
Blanchard
began her career
with the Muscular
Dystrophy Association
and the State
of New Hampshire before taking a break to
raise a family.
She started with
the Tennessee
Department of
Blanchard
General
Service’s surplus
property division in 1987 and went
on to work as legislative assistant to
state Rep. Arnold Stulce from 19922000.
Her work at CTAS started in
January 2001 as an administrative
assistant and put her in daily contact
with county officials through direct
assistance to county associations. She
joined TCSA full time July 1, 2014.
“Her customer group included
county mayors/executives, county
commissioners and highway officials,” said J. Rodney Carmical,
executive director of the Tennessee
Please See Blanchard, Page 3
County mayors talk about future meetings recently during the Tennessee County Services Association’s 61st Annual Fall Conference & Trade
Show held in late October. Additional photographs from that conference can be found inside this issue on Page 8.
Local Govt’s Shift Strategies As Healthcare Costs Rise
Although health care costs have
slowed recently, rising costs over the
last decade have prompted many local governments to make changes to
their plans and strategies, according
to a new nationwide survey released
by the Center for State and Local
Government Excellence in partnership with The University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service (IPS).
The top cost drivers of local gov-
ernment health care increases cited
by survey respondents were:
• increased claim costs (64 percent)
• prescription drugs (57 percent)
• an aging workforce (46 percent)
• insurance company price increases (45 percent) and
• federal health care policy (45
percent).
“Local Government Strategies to
Address Rising Health Care Costs”
describes the findings from a national
survey conducted by the Center for
State and Local Government Excellence (slge.org) and the International
Public Management Association for
Human Resources (ipma-hr.org).
Two hundred fifty-two (252) IPMAHR members took part in the survey,
which was conducted in August 2014
at the request of IPS.
Fifty-seven (57) percent of respondents increased cost sharing of
premiums paid by employees and
nearly half of respondents reported
that their local governments changed
the way health insurance is provided.
Nineteen (19) percent of those reporting changes shifted employees to
a high-deductible plan with a health
savings account and 14 percent established a health reimbursement arrangement.
The report includes six case
studies describing how local governments have produced savings in their
health benefit costs.
• Disease management proPlease See Health, Page 5
Sevier County Commissioner Ben Clabo, third from right, accepts the “Robert M. Wormsley Outstanding County Official of the Year” award
recently. With him during the program are, from left, Sevier County Hwy. Supt. Jonas Smelcer, Clabo’s son Doyle Clabo, Charlotte Clabo (Ben
Clabo’s wife), Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and Greg Patterson, assistance county mayor.
Ben Clabo This Year’s ‘Wormsley’ Award Winner
Now serving in his 49th year as a Sevier County commissioner, Ben
Clabo has been awarded with the “Robert M. Wormsley Outstanding County
Official of the Year” honor for 2014. The award was presented during the
Tennessee County Service Association’s 61st Annual Fall Conference, held
at the end of October in Pigeon Forge.
The “Wormsley” award was created in 2004 to recognize retired TCSA
Executive Director Bob Wormsley and his ‘unmatched compassion and commitment” to counties in Tennessee during his lengthy, 52-year career. Commissioner Clabo is the 11st recipient of the prestigious award, the only honor
of its kind awarded to a county official by TCSA.
Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters, the 2010 recipient of the honor,
presented the award to Commissioner Clabo during the conference business
session.
“I have had the pleasure of serving with Ben for many years,” said
Mayor Waters. “He is an excellent commissioner and representative for his
district and Sevier County. I can think of no more deserving recipient of the
Robert Wormsley award.”
Commissioner Clabo currently serves as chair of the Sevier County
commission’s budget committee and water committee. He is also a member
of the county planning commission and beer board. A board member for
the Wears Valley Volunteer Fire Department, he has served as chair of the
Sevier County Republican Party and a member of the ambulance service
committee.
A strong supporter of fire, law enforcement and ambulance protection,
Commissioner Clabo has been a consistent supporter of local road maintenance needs and Sevier County schools, particularly Wearwood Elementary
School in his 2nd district. He has been active in the protection and preservation of Cove Mountain.
From a historical perspective it should be noted that Commissioner Clabo is currently the fourth longest serving county commissioner in Tennessee,
and the longest currently serving from East Tennessee. The only three with
more years of service are Madison County Commissioner Arthur Johnson
and Obion County Commissioner Ralph Puckett, each with 48 years of service, as well as Haywood County Commissioner Allen King, who currently
has more than 58 years of continuous service. Both Commissioner Puckett
and King are former winners of this award.
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR MAIL
County Government Day
Registration, Agenda Coming In early January
Mike Garland, left, is presented with the “Outstanding Public Service Professional” award by David Connor, executive director of
the Tennessee County Services Association.
Garland Public Service
Professional Of The Year
The Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA) this fall revived its “Outstanding Public Service Professional” award by naming
Mike Garland, former executive director of The University of Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) as this year’s
honoree.
Garland’s 37-year tenure with CTAS started as a county government consultant in Northeast Tennessee, where he also served as a
Washington County commissioner. He was with the State Planning
Office before joining CTAS in 1977.
When he retired earlier this year, he was the longest serving
CTAS employee in its 41-year history. He spent 12 years as CTAS
executive director, named to the position in 2002. He was only the
fifth executive director of CTAS.
In presenting the award, TCSA Executive Director David Connor
said Garland’s service to Tennessee counties throughout the years is a
prime example of the dedication this award was created to recognize.
“Too many times we tend to forget to say thank you to the people
who work so tirelessly behind the scenes to make county government
in Tennessee better in what they do and how they do it,” said Connor.
“Mike is one of those servants we want to honor.”
2
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT
TENNESSEE
COUNTY
NEWS
Vol. 37, No. 5
November - December 2014
November - December 2014
Executive Director/Editor: David Connor
CTAS Communications Specialist: Brett Howell
TCSA President: Jim
1st Vice President: Jim Westbrook
2nd Vice President: Dan Eldridge
Tennessee County News (USPS 599-770) is published bi-monthly for $10 per year
by the Tennessee County Services Association, 226 Capitol Boulevard, Suite 700,
Nashville, TN 37219. Periodicals postage is paid at Nashville, TN. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to Tennessee County News, 226 Capitol Blvd., Suite 700,
Nashville, TN 37219.
Tennessee County News encourages the submittal of information and material for
publication. TCSA does not assume responsibility for the loss of or damage to any
material submitted. All unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and other material
should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
State Hearings Address Hwy. Funding
At this time of the year, Governor
Haslam has been holding budget hearings
with most major state departments. This
process began the last week of November.
The hearings were shown live on the internet and archived recordings of the hearings
can be viewed on the state’s website: www.
tn.gov. In most cases, the Governor has asked
his commissioners to present how they would
approach a seven percent cut in their budget
should that become necessary.
During the hearing for the Tennessee
Department of Transportation, Commissioner Schroer talked about how the lack of
growth in highway funding coupled with an
uncertain environment coming out of Washington D.C. is creating a situation where the
department is having to operate in what is
basically a “maintenance only” mode. New
projects are on hold because we cannot afford to make significant investments with the
amount of revenue currently generated by
state and federal gas taxes. This message is
nothing new to county officials. Many highway departments in Tennessee have found
themselves in this mode for quite some time.
County highway departments have had to
cancel projects, extend re-surfacing schedules, and make staff reductions.
On the bright side, as tough as it is here,
Tennessee is in a better condition than many
states because it has essentially maintained a
“pay-as-you-go” stance for many years. Oth-
Jim Smith
TCSA President
& Fayette County
Road Superintendent
er states that have borrowed extensively for
highway maintenance and construction now
spend tremendous amounts of their current
highway funding paying off debts from prior
years. Because of this, they are even more
strapped for revenue for current needs.
Governor Haslam has stated publically
that the current path Tennessee is on for highway funding is not sustainable. At the Capitol
and in the Legislative Plaza, there has been
growing discussion around the need to do
something to enhance revenue before our
infrastructure reaches such a condition that
it will be even more expensive to repair or
maintain it.
At the TCSA Annual Conference this
past October, this topic was discussed extensively in both highway association meetings
and in the first meeting of the TCSA steer-
ing committee on transportation issues. The
materials that were presented at the steering
committee meeting are available on the association website under the resources section. If
you did not attend that meeting, I encourage
you to study the materials that were presented
there. It is important for county officials to
be informed on these issues when talking to
state leaders about the problem.
Everyone is reluctant to talk about raising taxes, but sometimes, refusing to spend
on necessary infrastructure will cost you
more in the long run. Tennessee has one of
the best highway systems in the nation, but
we are at risk of losing it if we cannot find
a funding solution that is sustainable. If we
aren’t good stewards of the infrastructure we
currently have, we are not serving the interests of Tennessee taxpayers. Now is the time
for this message to be heard. In this case,
county officials are literally where the rubber
meets the road. Your community is directly
impacted when there is no funding to resurface a crumbling highway, when an outdated
and structurally deficient bridge has to be
closed, and when highway departments are
faced with reducing or laying off staff. Talk
to your state legislators about how important
it is to address this issue. It is crucial to the
safety of our citizens and the economic viability of our communities. We need our state
leaders to step up to this challenge and make
the hard choices that will be in the best interest of our state for the long run.
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www.tncounties.org
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
New Year Brings Changes, Challenges
TVA Helps Add Industries,
Jobs To Southeast Region
By DEBORAH GRUBBS
Program Director
Association of Tennessee Valley Governments
Aaron Stewart, a regional development specialist for the Tennessee Valley Authority, discussed TVA’s role in economic development during a presentation to the
Leadership Bedford class at the Chamber of Commerce building, in Shelbyville,
TN.
Economic development, or industrial development, as it was called then, was in
TVA’s original charter, said Stewart, and is one of its three core missions along with
flood control and electric power generation.
Economic development goes hand-in-hand with TVA’s power generation since
any industry relocating to, or retained in, the TVA service area is going to buy TVA
power. Stewart said that TVA ended the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 with a total
of 60,300 jobs created or saved within its service area, and $8.5 billion in capital
investment. He showed a year-by-year analysis of those figures, which have been
rising as the service area recovers from the economic slowdown. Stewart said TVA’s
industrial power sales have increased right alongside those numbers.
Stewart defined economic development as producing a rising standard of living, with higher per-capita income, and a sufficient tax base to fund local government. But economic development is only successful if it’s in line with the local
vision, said Stewart. Communities need to identify their strengths and weaknesses
in order to know what types of businesses or industries would be a good fit. He
said communities need to invest in order to be attractive to potential businesses and
industries. “It’s real easy to tell the difference in communities that invest in themselves,” he said.
Sometimes, a community’s quality of life can be a big factor in landing a business or industry.
A company and its site-selection consultants look at practical concerns, things
like workforce, highways and infrastructure and eliminate many communities before they even know they’re in the running. But when it comes down to a short list
of sites, all of which meet the major requirements, sometimes it’s intangible things
like quality of life that set one site apart from the others. For example, Stewart told
the story of one company with a short list of three sites which decided to schedule
visits to each of the communities before making a final decision. The visiting team
included the company CEO, but it also included the man who would relocate to
become manager of the new plant, as well as that man’s wife. The wife was an avid
gardener and was delighted when one of the three communities turned out to have
a large and active garden club. Her enthusiasm for that community was a key to the
final decision, said Stewart.
Stewart said there are four components to economic development:
• Recruitment. This grabs the headlines when a big new factory or other
business is a very visible and an outward sign of growth.
• Retention and expansion. This is equally important, keeping existing industries and working with them to expand as conditions permit.
• Creation and entrepreneurial development. This refers to start-up companies, business incubation and the process of encouraging entrepreneurs to start new
ventures.
• Tourism and culture. Tourists are generally considered a boon to a community because they generate taxes but require less in the way of government spending
than do permanent residents.
Stewart also stressed the importance of preparation in industrial recruitment.
A community needs to have information and contacts ready to go when a prospect
calls, or else it’s already lost the competition, he said. TVA offers resources and assistance to local communities in their industrial recruitment efforts. For example,
if an industry is looking at relocating, TVA can create a graphic showing what its
existing building would look like at the proposed new site, which can help the company evaluate the site’s size and layout.
Unfortunately, as many of you know by
now, a few days ago we lost a dear friend and
irreplaceable colleague in Debbie Blanchard.
She was an amazing and tireless fighter who
inspired us all through her battle with cancer
over the past year. Debbie’s commitment to
customer service will be an inspiration to us
this coming year as we try to fill the void she
has left behind and maintain the high level
of professionalism she always demonstrated.
I had hoped that I would not be writing of this
loss. I had hoped somehow Debbie would escape the effects of this disease and continue
working with us for many more years. But
as much as I miss her, I am thankful her pain
and suffering are over. Because of her faith,
Debbie did not fear death. More importantly,
because of her faith, Debbie did not fear life
and any of the difficulties and challenges it
brought to her. She cherished the gift of life
and found pleasure in each day and in each
person she met. There is so much more I
could say about her, but words can never do
justice in trying to describe the truly beautiful
soul she is.
She would want us to move forward, to
continue on and to remain true to the mission of the association, which is serving you,
our members. And so I will let the rest of the
column be what it was originally drafted to
be – a look forward to the coming year, the
coming legislative session and our ongoing
service to county officials in Tennessee. We
appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we
move forward without a dear friend.
As we approach the end of the year and
the start of 2015, my thoughts of course turn
to the next session of the Tennessee General
Assembly. While we are here for you throughout the year, the months when the legislature
is in session are the most hectic and demanding. It is also the time when we most need input and support from you. For new officials,
I want to make you aware of two things to
watch for in the coming months.
First of all, every year during the legislative session we host a County Government Day conference in conjunction with the
County Officials Association of Tennessee.
This two day event, scheduled for March 10th
and 11th, will bring county mayors, commissioners and highway officials, along with the
registers, clerks and trustees of COAT, into
Nashville to see the legislature in action and
to meet with lawmakers on issues that affect
county government. Watch for an announcement shortly after the first of the year on
registration and hotel info. We are working
toward a new on-line registration system that
will give you a more convenient way to sign
up and register for the event. In addition, you
Governor
Continued from Page 1
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION
1.
Publication Title: Tennessee County News
2.
Publication Number: 0599-77
3.
Filing Date: September 30, 2014
4.
Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly
5.
Number of Issues Published Annually: 6
6.
Annual Subscription Price: $10
7.
Office of Publication:
Tennessee County Services Association
226 Capitol Blvd. Bldg., Ste. 700
Nashville, TN 37219-1896
8.
Headquarters of Publishers: Same as above
9.
Publisher & Editor:
David Connor
Tennessee County Services Association
226 Capitol Blvd., Ste. 700
Nashville, TN 37219-1896
10.
Owner:
Tennessee County Services Association
226 Capitol Blvd., Ste. 700
Nashville, TN 37219-1896
11.
Bondholder: None
12.
Tax Status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months
14.
Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: 09/18/2-14
15.
Extend and Nature of Circulation:
Avg Copies
Actual
Last 12 Mos
Last
Issue
15a.
Total Copies
4217
4200
15b-1.
Paid/Requested Outside County Subs
3701
3632
15b-2.
Paid In-County Subsciptions
338
326
15b-3.
Sales Through Dealers & Carriers
N/A
N/A
15b-4.
Other CLasses Mailed Through USPS
N/A
N/A
15c.
Total Paid and/or Requested Ciculation
4039
3958
15d.
Free or Nominal Rate Distribution
1. Outside County
0
0
2. In-County
0
0
3. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS
0
0
4. Outside the Mail
51
59
15e.
Total Freeo r Nominal Distribution
51
59
15f.
Total Distribution
4090
4017
15g.
Copies Not Distributed
127
183
15h.
Total
4217
4200
15i.
Percent Paid or Requested Circulation
98.73
98.53
17.
Publication of Statement of Ownership:
Will be printed in the Nov. - Dec. 2014 issue of this publication.
18.
Signature & Title of Publisher: David Connor
10/01/14
• Providing two new private market
choices for Tennesseans;
• Shifting the delivery model and
payment of health care in Tennessee from
fee-for-service to outcomes based;
• Incentivizing Tennesseans to be
more engaged and to take more personal responsibility in their health;
• And preparing participants for
eventual transition to commercial health
coverage.
Fiscally Sound & Sustainable Program
The program will not create any new
taxes for Tennesseans and will not add any
state cost to the budget. The Tennessee Hospital Association has committed that the industry will cover any additional cost to the
state. The program will automatically terminate in the event that either federal funding
or support from the hospitals is modified in
any way.
New Private Market
Choices for Tennesseans
Insure Tennessee offers several options
of coverage for individuals below 138 percent of poverty ($16,100 for an individual
and $27,300 for a family of three). Tennesseans 21 to 64 years old will be offered a
choice of the Healthy Incentives Plan or the
Volunteer Plan.
The Volunteer Plan would provide a
health insurance voucher to participants that
would be used to participate in their employer’s health insurance plan. The vouch-
David Connor
TCSA Executive Director
can of course call, mail or fax our office, but
this new system will let you register yourself
and pay via credit card on line.
The second thing to look for is an increase in communications from us. Throughout the legislative session, TCSA produces
a weekly Capitol Update to bring important
legislative issues to your attention. We usually alternate between printing and emailing
the newsletter each week. We will feature
updates on specific major developments plus
list a schedule of legislation of interest that
will be heard in committees during the upcoming week.
With some developments in recent years,
specifically the addition to procedural rules
of a limit on the number of bills filed by each
member of the House of Representatives, the
flow of legislation has slightly decreased.
Still, the last two-year legislative session saw
over 2,500 bills filed in the House and Senate.
While this may sound like a lot, it was a major reduction from the 3,800 plus bills filed
in the previous General Assembly. Each bill
must have a companion in the other chamber
and must pass the House and Senate with the
exact same language in order to be sent to the
Governor for his signature.
A new twist that has been thrown in the
mix is the possibility of a special session.
Governor Haslam has expressed an interest
in calling for a special session of the General
Assembly to examine his health care proposal. This would be similar to a special called
meeting of a county commission. Throughout
the duration of the special session, the legislature would be limited to acting only on the
purpose for which it was called. It is my anticipation that if the special session is called,
it will happen early, sometime shortly after
the members convene in Nashville. This will
postpone all other business for most likely a
couple of weeks while this issue is resolved.
As we learn more about this plan and the
schedule for the upcoming year, we will pass
that on.
er, valued at slightly less than the average
TennCare per-enrollee cost, can be used to
pay for premiums and other out-of-pocket
expenses associated with participation in
an individual’s employer sponsored private
market plan.
Participants in the Healthy Incentives Plan may choose to receive coverage
through a redesigned component of the
TennCare program, which would introduce
Healthy Incentives for Tennesseans (HIT)
accounts, modeled after Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), which can be used
to pay for a portion of required member
cost-sharing.
Payment Reform Efforts
The governor’s Delivery System Reform Initiative lays the foundation for reform by addressing the underlying quality
and outcome deficiencies that contribute to
growing health care costs and unaffordable
insurance coverage. This initiative creates
financial incentives for providers to provide high quality care in an efficient and appropriate manner so as to reduce costs and
improve health outcomes. Insure Tennessee
builds on this reform initiative by creating
new participant incentives that align with
the existing provider incentives. Ultimately,
bringing the health care consumer into the
equation is critical to successfully controlling cost growth.
Personal Responsibility
& Patient Engagement
The voucher program provides a fixed
contribution that can be applied to the costs
of a person’s private market plan. All costs
incurred in excess of the amount of the
voucher are the responsibility of the participant. This structure empowers individuals to
As an association, we monitor far more
legislation than we propose. Typically, TCSA
and its affiliates will approach legislators and
ask them to sponsor a handful of measures for
counties during a legislative session. On the
other hand, TCSA typically tracks about 300
bills a year that look to be of interest to county government. Some of these will become
law. Others may never even be scheduled for
a committee hearing. In other cases, a piece
of legislation that looks harmless when it is
first filed may suddenly take on new significance if it is amended along the way to impact counties.
In addition to legislation that the boards
of the association vote to propose or support,
there are often great ideas that come to the
legislature from individual counties. If your
county has approached your legislative delegation about something that you think could
also benefit other counties, let us know. This
enables us to be better informed about the
background of an individual bill and allows
us to lend support as an association.
Another excellent resource we are lucky
to have in Tennessee is an award-winning
legislative website. If you have not explored
www.capitol.tn.gov., I encourage you to do
so. On that site you can find out about individual legislators, see lists of bills and resolutions, find schedules of committees, read
detailed reports on the status of legislation
and even watch committee hearings live or as
archived video. If you read something from
us about a particular bill and want to learn
more about the details of a proposed piece of
legislation, you can find almost everything
you want to know about it on that website. Of
course, as your association, we will always
be here to answer questions, provide summaries and explanations and keep you informed.
Don’t hesitate to call or e-mail us.
I’ll add that this is the time of year when
the relationship you have with your elected
representatives in Nashville is critical. I hope
you have already begun the process of building these connections and establishing a partnership with your Senators and Representatives. A single piece of legislation can have a
multi-million dollar impact (positive or negative) on county government. A word from
you about the positives or negatives of a bill
can make a big difference in how it proceeds
through the General Assembly.
In closing, I want to say “thank you” to
all of you for how hard you work for your
communities and for your support of the association. So many of you give of your time
and resources to keep this association strong.
I ask you for your patience with us as we
move through this transition.
make a choice about which plan is better for
their needs and to manage their health care
expenses to avoid additional costs.
Newly eligible individuals who choose
to participate in the TennCare program and
whose incomes are above 100 percent of
poverty will be required to pay premiums
and copays for services. All enrollees, including those with incomes below poverty, will have modest pharmacy copays.
TennCare members “earn” contributions
into their HIT accounts by performing
healthy behaviors. The account then can be
used to cover copayment expenses.
Prepares Participants for Commercial
Health Coverage
The design of Insure Tennessee is
based on private market principles that provide incentives to participants to engage in
their health care by actively managing their
health care costs. Through both programs,
Insure Tennessee introduces a commercial
health insurance experience which can help
Tennesseans prepare for independence from
public assistance.
Background on the Issue
In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that the federal government could not
mandate that states expand their Medicaid
programs under the Affordable Care Act. In
March 2013, Haslam announced that Tennessee would not expand the traditional
Medicaid program but that he would work
with the federal government on a plan for
Tennessee. Haslam has received verbal approval from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) on the plan. The
next steps are for the state to submit a waiver to HHS and for the governor to take the
proposal to the legislature for consideration.
November - December 2014
TCSA
OFFICERS
President
Jim Smith
Fayette County Public Works Director
First Vice President
Jim Westbrook
Weakley County Commissioner
Second Vice President
Dan Eldridge
Washington County Mayor
DIRECTORS
ACM President Howard Bradley
Robertson County Mayor
Benny McGuire
Obion County Mayor
John Gentry
McMinn County Mayor
Dale Reagan
Clay County Mayor
TCHOA President Jonas Smelcer
Sevier County Highway Supt.
Van Boshers
Maury County Highway Supt.
Milton Legions
Crockett County Highway Supt.
Johnny Deakins
Washington County Highway Supt.
TCCA President Warren Mackey
Hamilton County Commissioner
Carolyn Granger
Roane County Commissioner
Danny Jowers
Obion Commissioner
Anthony Taylor
Lincoln County Commissioner
Tim Burchett
Knox County Mayor
Jim Coppinger
Hamilton County Mayor
Karl Dean
Metro Nashville-Davidson Mayor
Mark Luttrell
Shelby County Mayor
ACM
President
Howard Bradley, Robertson County
First Vice President
David McCullough, Cheatham County
Second Vice President
Kevin Davis, Hardin County
Secretary
Dan Eldridge, Washington County
Regional Vice Presidents
Larry Waters, Sevier County
Gary Davis, Bradley County
Michael Nesbitt, Smith County
David McCullough, Cheatham County
Brent Greer, Henry County
Skip Taylor, Fayette County
Dwain Seaton, Chester County
Past Presidents
Jimmy Harris, Madison County
Greg Lynch, Unicoi County
Benny McGuire, Obion County
Kenny McBride, Carroll County
Franklin Smith, Haywood County
Larry Waters, Sevier County
Jeff Huffman, Tipton County
TCHOA
President
Carl Stoppenhagen, Gibson County
First Vice President
Tommy Snyder, Rhea County
Second Vice President
Ronald Coates, Hickman County
Third Vice President
Bill Dunlap, Blount County
Secretary
Bart Walls, Madison County
Region I President
Dennis Ferguson, Roane County
Region II President
Scott Blaylock, Cumberland County
Region III President
Judy Hardin, Sumner County
Region IV President
Jip Lofton, Obion County
Past President
Jonas Smelcer, Sevier County
TCSA 1st Vice President
Jim Smith, Fayette County
TCHOA Officials on TCSA Board
Johnny Deakins, Washington County
Barry “Buck” Carter, Benton County
Van Boshers, Maury County
TCCA
President
Warren Mackey, Hamilton County
President-Elect
Paul Mathenia, Henry County
Secretary
Carolyn Granger, Roane County
Treasurer
Roger Reedy, Giles County
East Tennessee Directors
Bill Kilgore, Sullivan County
Chuck Fritts, Anderson County
Lee Chase, Washington County
Middle Tennessee Directors
Landis Turner, Lewis County
John Gannon, Montgomery County
Dwight Jones, Williamson County
West Tennessee Directors
Dale Overton, Weakley County
Emery White, Hardin County
Denny Spain, Dyer County
Directors
Warren Mackey, Hamilton County
Vacant, Knox County
Diane Neighbors, Davidson County
Justin Ford, Shelby County
Past Presidents
Ralph Puckett, Obion County
James H. Westbrook, Weakley County
Danny Jowers, Obion County
Tommy Vallejos, Montgomery County
TCSA Directors
Danny Jowers, Obion County
Carolyn Granger, Roane County
Anthony Taylor, Lincoln County
Jim Westbrook, Weakley County
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
3
County Officials Approve Platform For 109th Legislature
TCHOA Honors Deb Blanchard
County association members on
October 30 approved the legislative
platform for the Tennessee County
Services Association, providing a
blueprint on legislative issues headed into the next session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
The 109th General Assembly
convenes for the first time at 12
noon Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015.
Each year TCSA and its affiliate associations - the Association of
County Mayors, Tennessee County
Commissioners Association and
Tennessee County highway Officials Association – act on a platform
for use by its membership and staff.
The TCSA member met last week
of October and approved the platform in one of its final actions before adjourning the 61st Annual Fall
Conference. The TCSA platform is
intended to complement the more
specific agendas of the affiliate associations. Following is the platform,
as recommended by the TCSA board
and approved by the TCSA membership on Oct. 30.
General Legislative Policy
Statement
The Tennessee County Services
Association, and its affiliates - the
Association of County Mayors of
Tennessee, Tennessee County Commissioners Association and Tennessee County Highway Officials Association - generally oppose legislation
which has the effect of imposing
additional unfunded mandates on
Tennessee’s 95 county governments,
or which further erodes the narrow
tax base currently available to Tennessee counties. Further, county associations will defend against intrusions into the already limited local
autonomy vested in county governments. TCSA will support the legislative platforms of its affiliates when
they promote the mutual missions of
our affiliate associations.
Local Mandates
TCSA opposes any local unfunded mandates. Any change in
law that costs county governments
money that does not have a source
of funding to offset that cost is considered a local unfunded mandate.
Local mandates put pressure on an
already stressed local property tax
rate. Unfunded mandates are a leading cause of property tax increases.
We also oppose the mandatory
earmarking of any local revenue
sources for specific purposes. This
undermines the ability of county
officials to make yearly budgetary
decisions based on their needs and
priorities as best determined by the
local governing body. Just like the
state opposes federal mandates, we
oppose the state putting unfunded
mandates on local governments.
Education Funding & School
Employee Insurance
Understanding the critical role
a quality public education system
plays in the preservation of health
and economic viability of our communities, TCSA supports the complete and full funding of the Basic
Education Program (BEP). This includes support for continued annual
inflationary growth in both state and
local match portions of the BEP formula, as well as the capital outlay
component of the formula.
It is hoped that the Administration and General Assembly will regard Tennessee counties as partners
in offering local education opportunities to our children and would
recognize that county governments
continue to invest far more than
statutorily required in our public
education system. This commitment is evidenced by the hundreds
of millions of dollars budgeted annually “above and beyond” the basic
amounts deemed necessary as a local match by the BEP formula.
TCSA supports efforts to ensure
quality teachers in every classroom
by providing competitive salaries
and benefits for Tennessee teachers. While the state funds 70 percent
of instructional salaries for positions generated by the BEP formula,
TCSA would point out that every
school system in Tennessee hires
significantly more teachers than the
formula generates and pays them
more than the formula recognizes.
The funding component provided in
the formula for an instructional position lags approximately $10,000 per
teacher below the actual salary being
paid in Tennessee schools. TCSA
would ask for the General Assembly
and the Administration to join local governments in investing more
in teacher salaries and enhance the
instructional salary component in
the BEP to more closely reflect the
actual salaries being paid by local
education agencies in Tennessee.
Further, TCSA asks that the
state extend to 12 months its funding of health insurance costs for
local educators as directed by the
BEP formula. According to the State
Comptroller, the state currently only
funds its share of the cost for 10
months of insurance coverage, rather than a full year. Health insurance
is provided by districts for the full
calendar year, creating an additional
mandated fiscal requirement on the
local governing body that is not currently shared by the state.
TCSA asks the General Assembly and the Administration to be
cognizant of the fact that the significant number of changes and educational reforms being implemented
in Tennessee has placed tremendous
The Tennessee County Highway Officials Association recently honored Debbie “Deb” Blanchard for her outstanding customer service,
professional dedication and personal commitment to the goals and objectives of TCHOA at the group annual meeting in Sevier County
(Pigeon Forge) on October, 28, 2014. The meeting was part of the Tennessee County Services Association’s 61st Annual Fall Conference
that week. Present during the presentation were, from left, TCHOA President Jonas Smelcer; Eddie Simpson, Region 1; Deb Blanchard; Jip
Lofton, Region 4; Tim Gill, Region 3; and Scott Blaylock, Region 2.
Blanchard
Continued from Page 1
County Highway Officials Association. “But
without question, county highway officials
were her personal favorites. She called highway officials ‘her guys.’”
TCHOA recently honored Blanchard for
stress on Local Education Agencies.
These reforms are applauded for
their intent to improve educational
outcomes in all Tennessee classrooms and help our state maintain its
ability to compete in a global economy. However, the challenges created
by these increased demands on our
school systems would be exacerbated and undermined by efforts to
require Tennessee counties systems
to simultaneously provide a variety
of options for the delivery of educational services.
TCSA has concerns that an expansive pursuit of school choice options that divert state and local public school funds out of traditional
classrooms without providing supplemental funding will damage the
long-term fiscal well-being of the
local education agency as a whole
and will erode the desired gains of
many of the educational reforms
currently being implemented in our
schools. TCSA asks the Administration and General Assembly to make
a comprehensive study of how alternative educational options, like
vouchers, virtual schools and charter
schools, impact the ability of a local
education agency to plan, provide
her outstanding customer service, professional
dedication and personal commitment to the
goals and objectives of the association.
Added Carmical, “I am sure The Lord
needed an experienced great chief administrative officer to organize, guide and direct His
county highway officials association in Heaven. Now, He has the very best!”
Blanchard is survived by her companion,
Tommy Williams of Wilson County, son Jason
Carpenter, and brother Steve Blanchard of Texas. She was preceded in death by her parents,
and fund the underlying traditional
K-12 system. While many have said
with regard to school choice options
that the funding would follow the
student, there has not been a serious
examination of whether the costs
follow that student who leaves the
traditional classroom and takes the
associated state and local funding
with them. Our concern is the state
is left without further funding obligations, while locals must maintain
some dual financial obligations.
Jails and Correctional
Facilities
The housing and healthcare
costs of maintaining a state prisoner population in a local jail facility remain a top priority for TCSA
as its membership continues to
face pressures created by providing
this service to the state. Just as the
state prison system is experiencing growth in the amount the state
spends on it prison population each
year, counties face the same predicament in local jails. One of the fastest
growing populations in local jails is
the backlog of convicted felons who
are awaiting space within a state
prison. With that said, TCSA reaf-
Sidney and Dolly Blanchard.
Debbie Blanchard is a 1971 graduate of
Abilene High School in Abilene, TX. She attended school at Volunteer State Community
College and Belmont University.
Blanchard’s family held a memorial service December 18 at Hermitage United Methodist Church. The family is asking that in lieu
of flowers, donations should be forwarded to
the Susan G. Komen foundation or the American Cancer Society to support future cancer
research.
firms its long-standing position that
the $37 per diem for housing state
inmates in local jails is grossly inadequate for funding the total cost
of housing such prisoners. TCSA
wants to work with the Administration and General Assembly to
develop a funding mechanism that
will one day better reflect the actual
cost, which includes such things as
unpaid medical expenses and the
transportation of inmates, including
those seeking mental health evaluations. To that end, TCSA urges lawmakers to authorize new cost saving
measures to help reduce the financial
burden, particularly rising inmate
medical costs, that counties face in
dealing with the cost of housing all
prisoners and we encourage the Administration and General Assembly
to take all appropriate steps to better
manage the state inmate population
so as to alleviate the backlog of convicted felons housed in jails.
Transportation
Infrastructure
The continued lack of funding
for county highway projects has
reached a critical point in Tennessee as state gasoline/fuel tax collec-
tions remain consistently stagnant,
hovering at their lowest rates in
more than a decade (since FY20012002). County highway departments
are continuing to scale back or cancel resurfacing projects and reduce
staffing until additional revenues
become available. As a part of the
overall Tennessee transportation
system, county roads and bridges
are an integral part of the state’s economic and community development
success, the impact it has on safe
and efficient transportation of school
children, the essential element in
providing emergency services to our
taxpayers, and the daily life value it
adds to the citizens of our counties.
The vast majority of vehicle trips
in Tennessee begins and ends on a
road maintained by a local government. The association asks that the
General Assembly recognize and
support the important role county
government highway departments
play in the success of overall state
transportation system. The association also asks as to be a part of any
open discussion to that end. TCSA
continues to support mass transit
initiatives, which exist in some form
in all 95 Tennessee counties.
4
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
November - December 2014
NACo Unveils Interactive Mapping Tool, Data
EMILIA ISTRATE
Research Director
& CECILIA MILLS
Research Assistant
National Association
of Counties (NACo)
This past summer, the National
Association of Counties (NACo) unveiled its latest map interactive tool,
the County Explorer available at
www.naco.org/countyexplorer . It is
a one-stop-shop for county data and
profiles for each and every of the
3,069 U.S. counties, while incorporating city-county searches and other queries. This is an upgraded version of the previous NACo database
County Intelligence Connections
(CIC), with the addition of familiar
“Find a county” searches available
on the NACo website (www.naco.
org).
What the user can find on
NACo’s County Explorer?
The map is available for free to
NACo members and other users interested in county information. It is
easy to access either going through
the regular NACo website at www.
naco.org/countyexplorer or going
directly to explorer.naco.org . The
interactive allows the users to map
county data from more than 70 datasets and 500 county indicators for
the latest year available. The indicators range from county finance
and demographics to the number of
bridges and roads in a county.
What users notice first when
accessing the County Explorer is
the colorful, interactive U.S. county
map. The interactive guides users to
visualize data and benchmark counties quickly by color. First, the user
needs to select an indicator by clicking on the top left-hand side corner
“Map an Indicator.” For example,
how many county-owned bridges
are in each county? By selecting the Transportation category in
“Map an Indicator”, then hover over
“Bridges” and click on “All BridgesCounty Owned”, the user can see the
map of the number of county-owned
bridges and click on any county to
see specific data at the county level.
Beyond the individual county data,
the map shows how counties compare with each other on a specific indicator. The darker the color on the
map, the higher up is the county in
the rankings on that indicator. Most
often, the five colors in the legend
show the bottom 20 percent, the following 20 percent up to the top 20
percent of counties for the mapped
indicator. The legend placed at the
bottom right hand side of the map
explains not only what the colors
on the map represent, but also the
year of the data and the name of the
indicator. Further, below the map,
County Explorer has the list of the
definitions for the indicators shown
on the map.
The County Explorer allows us-
ers to see two indicators for a county
simultaneously. For example, a
user might want to see the number
of county-owned bridges and the
share of publicly-owned road miles
within the county. To see the second
indicator, the user needs to click on
“Compare an Indicator” tab in the
top right-hand corner and select the
appropriate category, in this example, “Transportation”, then “Road
Ownership”, and click on “Total
Public Road Miles.”
The interactive tool also incorporates the information available
through NACo’s “Find a County”.
The user may locate a county on
the map directly by clicking on the
location of that specific county or
typing in the name of the county in
the search box in the top right hand
corner. In case the user wants to find
out the county in which a city or a
township is located, she would click
on the top right corner on the “City
Search”, type in the name of the City
in the search box and the interactive
tool will pinpoint the county on the
map. The “State Search” button
provides the user the ability to see
a list of all the counties in a state
with some of the basic county info.
In addition, by double-clicking on
any county on the County Explorer
map, a user can find the names of the
county officials in a county and other county government information.
County Explorer is a do-it-your-
timated cost for counties of the removal of the federal exemption of
municipal bond interest and profiles
of county economies. For MITFA
profiles, the user would select “Map
an Indicator”, select “County Profiles”, then “MITFA” and click on
“MITFA Profiles.” Clicking on any
county on the map or typing the
name of a county in the search box in
the top right-hand corner, will allow
the user to see the one page printable
MITFA profile for the selected state.
Because these PDF profiles show up
as an additional webpage, the user
needs to ensure that her web browser allows popups. County specific
profiles can prove a useful tool for
county leaders and decision makers
with in-depth looks at specific areas
of concern.
The County Explorer map has a
companion data query tool-County
Explorer Extraction Tool, useful for
more sophisticated data users. For a
paid annual subscription, users can
access data files of the data shown
on the map and also previous years
of data starting with 2000, to build
their own trends and rankings. An
user interested in purchasing a subscription would need to click on the
top right corner “Access more data”
button, click on the “here” button
in the following popup and fill out
their info in the box showing up by
clicking “Contact for Price for an
Account.” The user will receive a
follow up email with the price of the
subscription and the license agreement.
Every month, NACo updates
the County Explorer map and the
extraction tool with new years of
data and additional datasets. Users
accessing the County Explorer page
are met by the latest monthly update
and the announcement for the following month update. For example,
in December, the NACo Research
Department who maintains the database, added to County Explorer 2014
Marketplace and Internet Fairness
Tax Act (MITFA) state profiles, as
well as current and projected county
Ozone concentration levels and job
skills data. In January, the County
Explorer will gain 2013 education
attainment data. To be alerted when
new data has been added, users
should plug in their email address
in “Sign up for our monthly update
here” in the welcome box showing
up on the County Explorer.
The County Explorer is one of
the latest NACo products and it is a
continuous work-in-progress. This
is a product that can bring valueadded to our members and others
who work on behalf of counties.
Our hope is that as many NACo
members will utilize the County Explorer and join us in building a more
useful and effective tool.
40-6-217 even if the affiant is not a
law enforcement officer. It is very
unlikely that Public Chapter 531’s
new procedure would invalidate
a warrant or summons issued before its effective date, July 1, 2014.
Opinion No. 14-93 (10/24/14).
Persons convicted of misdemeanor possession or casual
exchange of methamphetamine
under newly-enacted T.C.A. § 3917-455(b) are to be placed on the
drug offender registry, but persons
convicted before the effective date
of July 1, 2014 would not to be
placed on the registry retroactively.
The sentencing provisions for methamphetamine offenses set out in
T.C.A. § 39-17-417(n) and 39-17418(c)(2) apply to convictions under
T.C.A. § 39-17-455. Opinion No.
14-104 (12/3/14).
al of property, the State Board of
Equalization is authorized to revise
the special school district’s tax rate
to the certified tax rate under T.C.A.
§ 67-5-1704. Opinion No. 14-76
(8/14/14).
A handgun carry permit holder
is prohibited from possessing a firearm at an athletic field or recreation
area in a public park while the athletic field or recreation area is being
used by a school. Opinion No. 1488 (9/18/14).
A board of education may not,
by contract, require a supermajority vote to approve termination of a
director of schools when the statute
provides for termination by majority
vote. Any such contractual provision is unenforceable. Opinion No.
14-102 (12/2/14).
EDUCATION
A county board of education
may enter into a contract with a municipal board of education for school
transportation services, and as a part
of that agreement the county board
of education may charge the municipal school district a fee for provision of those transportation services.
Opinion No. 14-73 (7/31/14).
A special school district has no
authority to deviate from the property tax rate set in their private act.
The general assembly must establish a single specific tax rate in the
private act and may not delegate its
taxing power to the special school
district. After a general reapprais-
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Under T.C.A. § 40-11-128, the
spouse of a deputy sheriff is prohibited from serving as a bail bondsperson if the spouses commingle funds.
Opinion No. 14-80 (9/4/14).
An all-terrain vehicle that is registered as a “medium speed vehicle”
may be operated on a state highway
that has a posted speed limit of 40
miles per hour or less. Opinion No.
14-97 (10/30/14).
Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement
Act, T.C.A. § 36-6-201 et seq., an
out-of-state order of protection providing for custody of a minor child
may be registered in a Tennessee
court, but a law enforcement officer
receiving such an order for service
has no obligation to submit the order to a local court for registration.
Enforcement of an out-of-state custody order is accomplished by an
enforcement order or warrant issued
by a Tennessee court. Tennessee
law enforcement officers must give
full faith and credit to all provisions
of an out-of-state order and there is
no requirement that the order be ratified by the local court before officers
comply with it. If a respondent has
been served with an ex parte order
of protection or has actual knowledge of it, a law enforcement officer
shall arrest the respondent without a
warrant if the officer has reasonable
cause to believe the respondent has
violated the order since receiving
service or acquiring actual knowledge of it. Opinion No. 14-101
(11/26/14).
self tool, allowing any user that has a
computer or a tablet and an Internet
connection to access county information and maps any time of day.
County elected and staff can use
the County Explorer in their daily
work or strategic planning, communication and advocacy activities.
The data provided for each county
for the wide range of available indicators and the ability to see the figures for any of the other county in the
country can help county officials in
making decisions in their activities.
Also, users can use the map images
in their materials and presentations,
as long as they attribute all images
to NACo Research. On Windows
computers, the user should press the
“Print Screen” button on the computer keyboard to copy an image of
the screen with the County Explorer
map displayed. Then paste it into
Paint, MS Word or another program
to crop the map part of the image.
On a Mac computer, the user should
press the “Cmd” key plus the “Shift”
key plus the number “4” key and
then click and drag across the area
they want to copy. After releasing
the mouse, the image is saved to the
desktop.
For advocacy purposes and not
only, the County Explorer includes a
category of printable county profiles
on specific topics such as Marketplace Fairness Act and the Internet
Tax Freedom Act (MITFA), the es-
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINIONS
Compiled By LIBBY McCROSKEY
CTAS Legal Consultant
Note: The full text of all opinions summarized here are available
on the website of the Tennessee Attorney General (www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/op/opinions.html).
ADULT-ORIENTED
ESTABLISHMENTS
The hours-of-operation restrictions for adult-oriented establishments in T.C.A. § 7-51-1402 are
constitutionally valid. Opinion No.
14-92 (10/24/14).
COUNTY CLERKS
A notary public is required to
keep a record of each of the notary’s
acts regardless of whether the notary
charges a fee. The record may be
kept in a well-bound book or in an
appropriate electronic medium that
meets the requirements of T.C.A.
§ 10-7-121. Opinion No. 14-89
(9/29/14).
In determining whether a particular person is a regular minister
or other spiritual leader having care
of souls under T.C.A. 36-3-301 and
is authorized to solemnize marriages, courts look to the tenets of the
particular religion. Absent a showing that the congregation’s custom
and practice authorizes the person
to solemnize marriages, a person
would not be authorized to do so under T.C.A. § 36-3-301. As long as
no improper methods of choosing a
religious leader are proven and the
leader’s ordination is by considered,
deliberate, and responsible act, that
spiritual leader would be authorized
to solemnize marriages. Opinion
No. 14-90 (9/30/14).
COUNTY GOVERNMENT
A county legislative body may
establish a partisan caucus for the
purpose of outlining and meeting
party objectives and goals, but meetings of the partisan caucus would be
subject to the Open Meetings Act to
the extent they decide or deliberate
toward a decision on public business
that falls within the authority of the
county legislative body. Opinion
No. 14-96 (10/30/14).
COURTS AND COURT
CLERKS
Jurors may be qualified and assigned a jury-service date via the Internet. Opinion No. 14-64 (6/25/14).
An appeal from a general sessions court’s order of protection is
properly taken to circuit or chancery
court. Opinion No. 14-69 (7/8/14).
The expunction of records in
juvenile court rarely triggers imposition of the $350 fee under T.C.A. §
40-32-101, but when circumstances
require the assessment of the fee the
juvenile court clerk is responsible
for collecting and transmitting it as
directed by the statute. Expunction
of criminal records under T.C.A.
§ 40-32-101 requires filing a petition and cannot be done by agreed
order, with two exceptions: (1)
where a defendant is acquitted on
all charges and the trial judge asks
the defendant if he or she wishes to
have the records expunged without
cost and without a petition, and (2)
where a defendant is required to post
bond under T.C.A. § 38-3-109 and
no surety on the bond is required
to fulfill the obligations of the bond
and the record is automatically expunged. The $350 fee is mandatory
and cannot be waived. The fee may
be paid in installments, but no order
of expunction may be granted until
the total amount of the fee is paid.
Opinion No. 14-77 (8/25/14).
If an undocumented alien minor,
the minor’s parents, or the minor’s
custodial parent has established domicile in Tennessee, a probate court
may establish guardianship for the
undocumented alien minor. Opinion
No. 14-84 (9/16/14).
Public Chapter 531 of 2014
amended T.C.A. § 40-6-205 and
-215 relative to warrants of arrest
and criminal summonses to set out
rebuttable presumptions for a magistrate’s issuance of such process. It
has no bearing on the law authorizing private citizens, including security officers, to make warrantless
arrests. An affiant who is not a law
enforcement officer but is seeking
an arrest warrant for a misdemeanor
must show probable cause to believe
the defendant has committed the offense and sufficient information to
show the need for the warrant and
persuade the magistrate that a warrant should issue. An elected judge
serving an 8-year term may issue a
felony arrest warrant under T.C.A. §
RECENT COURT CASES OF INTEREST
Compiled By KRISTY BROWN
CTAS Legal Consultant
BEER PERMITS
G and N Restaurant Group Inc.
v. City of Chattanooga, 2014 WL
5035428 (Tenn. Ct. App.)--This lawsuit stemmed from a change in the
city’s ordinance regulating beer sale
hours. The prior ordinance prohibited restaurants from serving beer and
other alcoholic beverages between
the hours of 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. during
the week and on Saturdays and between 3 a.m. and noon on Sundays.
The amended ordinance provided
that establishments that were open
for business between 3 a.m. and 8
a.m. could not also hold a beer permit. The plaintiff operated a 24-hour
restaurant and alleged this amended
ordinance was unconstitutional in
that there was no rational relation between the regulation and a legitimate
government interest. The trial court
found for the city and the restaurant
appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed and found for the restaurant.
The Court found the choice required
by the amended ordinance—close
your business between the hours of
3 a.m. and 8 a.m. or be able to have
a beer permit—was arbitrary and
not a reasonable exercise of police
power. According to the Court, the
legitimate governmental interest of
preventing alcohol related crime during late-night hours could be met by
prohibiting beer sales, rather than requiring businesses to completely shut
down, during those hours. The Court
found the amended ordinance was
constitutionally invalid.
EDUCATION
Union County Education Association v. Union County Board of
Education, 2014 WL 4260812 (Tenn.
Ct. App.)--A teacher’s association
sued the county school board alleging the board had violated the Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act (Act) when it refused
to allow a teacher who was being
investigated for misconduct to have
an association representative present
during interviews with the principal
and supervisor of instruction for the
county. The trial court granted summary judgment to the board on the
ground that the association lacked
standing to sue. The association appealed and the Court of Appeals reversed. The Court of Appeals found
that the teacher had a right to have
a representative present during the
interviews pursuant to T.C.A. § 495-603 of the Act. According to the
Court, the fact that the teacher was
ultimately not disciplined was of no
consequence. The Court found that
the association successfully met all
the requirements to show it had organizational standing. First, it showed
its members would have the right to
sue on their own. Second, it showed
“the interests it seeks to protect are
germane to the organization’s purpose.” Third, it showed that neither
the claim nor the relief sought required the participation of the individual members.
EMPLOYMENT
Coffey v. City of Oak Ridge,
2014 WL 4536364 (Tenn. Ct. App.)-Oak Ridge police officer resigned
from his job and then sued the city
alleging retaliatory discharge under
the Tennessee Public Protection Act.
The officer was in charge of running
a training exercise and during preparation for that exercise he requested
blank ammunition from the officer
serving as the department’s armorer.
Prior to the training exercise, the officer discovered he had been given live
ammunition and he filed a complaint
against the other officer. As part of
the retaliatory discharge suit, the officer alleged he was demoted, assigned
to work under the officer about whom
the complaint was filed, and the department launched an investigation
into an unrelated incident involving
the complaining officer. The offi-
cer alleged these actions were a direct result of his filing the complaint
against the other officer and caused
him to have to resign from the department. The trial court found that the
officer did not establish the elements
of a claim under the Tennessee Public
Protection Act and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court of Appeals
found that the officer’s complaint
did not involve illegal activity as required by the Act. Also, there was no
showing that the officer possessed a
fear he would be dismissed from the
department at the same time he filed
the complaint. In addition, there was
no act on the part of the department
to end the officer’s employment and
the Court found that the employment
conditions were not “intolerable.”
Finally, according to the Court, the
city demonstrated legitimate reasons
for the actions it took toward the officer, such as putting him on patrol
because the department was understaffed. Based on this, the Court affirmed the ruling of the trial court.
ZONING
Wills v. City of Memphis, 2014
WL 3939430 (Tenn. Ct. App.)--Property owner sought to subdivide lot
after fire destroyed the existing structure on the lot. The subdivision was
regulated by the Unified Develop-
ment Code (UDC), which was applicable to land within the city and the
unincorporated areas of the county.
Under the UDC, initial approval of
the subdivision plan was delegated to
the planning director and the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use
Control Board (LUCB). Appeals are
heard by the Memphis City Council.
The planning director reported that
the subdivision plan met the technical requirements of the UDC. The
plan was then denied by the LUDB
and the city council, on appeal. The
property owner then filed a petition for writ of certiorari. The trial
court found for the property owner
and the city appealed. The Court of
Appeals found that the trial court’s
finding that the subdivision plan met
all regulations within the UDC was
in error in that there was a material
dispute as to whether certain sections
of the UDC applied and the outcome
of that dispute would determine the
final result. According to the Court,
an interpretation of the zoning ordinance and specific factual findings
related to the state of the property at
issue should be initially made by the
city council. The Court remanded
the case to the trial court with instructions for the trial court to remand the
proceedings to the city council for its
determination.
PLANNING AND ZONING
Under T.C.A. § 13-7-114, counties cannot apply their zoning regulations to buildings or structures on
land used for agricultural purposes if
the buildings or structures are “incidental to the agricultural enterprise.”
The term “agricultural enterprise” is
not defined in Title 13, but the terms
“agriculture” and “agricultural use”
traditionally have been broadly defined and courts have given the term
“agricultural enterprise” a broad definition. Buildings used as residences by farmers and farm workers are
incidental to the agricultural enterprise. The element of commerce is
essential to the definition of agriculture. Title 13 does not expressly define “farm” but that term is defined
in the Right to Farm Act as land,
buildings, and machinery used in
the commercial production of farm
products or nursery stock, and in
the voter registration laws as a tract
of land of at least 15 acres engaged
in the production of growing crops,
plants, animals, nursery or floral
products producing gross agricultural income averaging at least $1,500
per year over a 3-year period. Adequate facilities tax does not apply
to structures used primarily for agricultural purposes, and there could
be buildings that are not subject to
zoning regulations and the building
permit process, but which would be
subject to the adequate facilities tax.
Because adequate facilities taxes
are collected upon application for a
building permit, there would be no
mechanism for collection of the tax
for these buildings. Opinion No.
14-79 (9/4/14).
RECORDS
Where the designation of a person’s sex has been made on police
booking sheets, warrants, and other
court records in accordance with
the person’s birth certificate, a court
would likely conclude that the designation cannot be altered on those
records as a result of sex-change surgery. Opinion No. 14-70 (7/16/14).
November - December 2014
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
5
TCSA Awards 5 Counties For their Successes
At the recent Tennessee County Services Association’s (TCSA) 61st
Annual Fall Conference, several counties were recognized for innovative,
successful programs. Five counties were called out to receive “County Success Story” awards, having demonstrated excellence in governance, innovation in problem solving and best practices for delivering services.
To be considered for a County Success Story award, the project or
achievement should demonstrate an innovative solution to a problem, a sustained pattern of excellence in governance, a best practice that increased
efficiency in the delivery of county services or resulted in significant savings to taxpayers, a new approach or the use of new technology to deliver
services or improved cooperation or coordination between county offices or
local governments that resulted in enhanced delivery of services.
“We continually hear about some of the great things that go on in Tennessee counties, and many of those things go unnoticed,” said David Connor, TCSA executive director. “As an association, we should be telling these
stories to promote best practices, inspire innovation and help other counties
know about great solutions that their peers have found.”
Receiving awards for their programs included:
• Greene County: Constructed the second county-owned hot-mix
asphalt plant in the state, saving the county approximately $2,380,500 in
production costs.
• Lawrence County: Implemented the county’s own geographic information system (GIS) database of all roads and bridges, which assisted in
applying for disaster relief for the county.
• Knox County: Installed a video monitoring system at convenience
centers for $1,000 per center and improved customer service.
• Roane County: Developed several initiatives to improve communication between county executive’s office, county commission, and the public.
• Tipton County: Implemented a joint venture with the Dyersburg
State Community College Tipton County campus and the Tipton County
Public Library to expand library services.
David Weems, left, of Greene County receives a “County Success Story” award presented by David Connor, executive director of the Tennessee County Services Association.
Lawrence County’s Patsy Lee, left, and Logan Dooley, center, receive a
“County Success Story” award presented by TCSA Executive Director
David Connor.
Ron Woody, left, of Roane County receives a “County Success Story”
award presented by TCSA Executive Director David Connor.
Success Stories At A Glance
Greene County
The Greene County Highway Department has operated an asphalt
plant for approximately two years. Their asphalt plant is the second
county owned hot-mix asphalt plant authorized by the Tennessee General Assembly under the provisions of Public Chapter No. 344 – Hardeman County was the first hot-mix asphalt established under the these
provisions. The asphalt plant was awarded in the fall of 2011, and was
delivered and constructed in January, 2012. The plant began production
on May 29, 2012. The total Cost of the plant – including scales, lab
equipment, delivery, and construction was $961,017.
The asphalt plant is located adjacent to the county highway garage.
The asphalt plant is totally automated with a rated production capacity
of 110 tons per hour, and operates on natural gas. The plant has an onsite laboratory with the necessary equipment and workforce to test and
ensure the quality of the hot-mix asphalt.
David Weems, Greene County highway superintendent, contacted
the County Technical Assistance Service to conduct an asphalt plant financial feasibility study. After the financial feasibility study was prepared and submitted to the asphalt plant financial feasibility committee,
a public hearing on the study was held in Greeneville. After the public
hearing, the majority of the committee voted to send the study to the
Greene Co. CLB recommending that the study was complete and accurate and all costs were included. The CLB then voted by a 2/3 vote
to give approval for the appropriation to enable Weems to purchase an
asphalt plant to produce hot mix.
“Currently our production cost is $46.93 per ton,” said Weems.
“The Greeneville Public Works August price is $62.80 per ton mix.
The Greene County Highway Department has produced approximately
150,000 tons of asphalt since production began on May 29, 2012. When
comparing our production cost to the city’s bid price of $62.80 the county saved $2,380,500. This savings has allowed the county to pave an
additional 44 miles of road. The asphalt plant has been a great asset in
improving the quality of our county roads.”
Lawrence County
Donnie Joe Brown, chief administrative officer of the Lawrence
County Highway Department, has initiated an innovative new system in
Lawrence County for the collection and management of transportation
infrastructure information.
After reviewing the vast amounts of specific utility data that one
of the local utility providers had accumulated through their Geographic
Information System (GIS), he realized what a valuable tool this data
application would be for the county highway department’s transportation system. He embarked on a departmental GIS data collection and
mapping system tied to specific road and bridge locations, with staffers
Logan Dooley and Patsy Lee leading the way. This mapping system allowed layers of specific information to be tied to an identified road or
bridge by latitude and longitude.
The Lawrence County informational mapping system is still in
the start-up phase but currently all roads, bridges, culverts and traffic
control signs are in the county highway data base. Adding utility lines
installed in county’s rights-of-way is a future application for their GIS
System. The county’s information system has already provided invaluable assistance in the filing for federal disaster assistance from a recent
storm event.
Knox County
Tom Salter and Henry “Buddy” Loy are created with creating a remote video monitoring project at Knox County Recycling & Household
Waste Centers. Recognized in an article published in Tennessee Public
Works magazine and The Municipal magazine.
State law requires every county to operate at least one municipal
solid waste and recycling drop-off facility (convenience center). The operation of those facilities falls under the Knox county Solid Waste Department, a division of Engineering & Public Works, headed by Dwight
Van de Vate. The decision to implement remote video monitoring of
these facilities was to improve constituent service, protect employee
interests and to discourage incidents of theft and misconduct by both
employees and center users.
“The initiative has been very successful and brought significant
value to Knox county,” said Van de Vate.
Jeff Huffman, right, receives a “County Success Story” award for Tipton County, presented by TCSA Executive Director David Connor.
Tom Salter, left, and Dwight Van de Vate, center, receives a “County
Success Story” award presented by TCSA’s David Connor.
Latest Instructure Inventory Report
Released, Shows 3.5% Rise In Need
Tennessee needs at least $38.8
billion of public infrastructure improvements during the five-year
period of 2012-2017, according to a
new report by the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR). The need for
public infrastructure improvements,
as reported by state and local officials, is up $1.3 billion (3.5 percent)
compared with the year before.
Costs for current infrastructure
needs fall into six general categories:
• Transportation and Utilities:
$21.8 billion
• Education: $7.7 billion
• Health, Safety, and Welfare:
$5.9 billion
• Recreation and Culture: $1.7
billion
• Economic Development: $1.3
billion
• General Government: $555
million
One of the reasons for the overall increase in the need for public
infrastructure was the increase in
the estimated cost for transportation improvements, which increased
by $917 million (4.4 percent) to
$21.5 billion. At 55 percent of the
estimated costs for all infrastructure
improvements, transportation, part
of the Transportation and Utilities
category, dwarfs other types of infrastructure needs. The net increase
in transportation costs would have
been much larger if not for $1.5 billion in projects that were completed
and $1.3 billion for projects that
decreased in cost or were canceled
or postponed. New transportation
projects in the inventory totaled $1.2
billion; and hundreds of projects already in the inventory increased by
Health
to crowded community jails and to
generate $1,038,717 in new revenue.
Local governments report that
providing easy access to health services at work sites not only supports
employee wellness, but also reduces
employee absenteeism and health
care costs. With the percentage of
employee compensation that goes to
health benefits rising over the past
10 years, many local governments
have made significant changes to
their health benefits.
“Local government programs
that contain costs and improve employee health are among the most
important strategies,” noted Elizabeth Kellar, president/CEO, Center
for State and Local Government
Excellence. “Wellness and disease
management programs are offered
by a majority of local governments
and are valued by employees.”
IPS is in the early stages of
planning a forum, to be held in East
Tennessee, to discuss this study.
Download the full report atwww.ips.tennessee.edu/content/
health-care-costs-drive-local-governments-shift-strategies.
Continued from Page 1
grams, on-site clinics, dependent
eligibility audits, and regular review
and rebidding of health care vendor
contracts have achieved significant
savings. Asheville, North Carolina,
reports it has saved $4 for every $1
invested in chronic disease management.
• Corpus Christi, Texas, reduced health care costs by $1.84
million by conducting a dependent
eligibility audit and establishing an
on-site wellness clinic.
• Greater access to comprehensive medical care and related
support services for offenders resulted in lower reincarceration rates and
total inmate population in Hampden
County, Massachusetts.
• Diverting offenders with
extreme behavior problems into
mental health services opened up
capacity at the Buncombe County,
North Carolina, Detention Facility,
making it possible to rent the facility
$2.4 billion.
In comparison, the other categories are relatively small. Education is
the second largest ($7.7 billion) and
increased $406 million (5.6 percent)
mainly because the cost of improvements needed at the state’s public
college and university campuses increased $327 million (8.8 percent) to
$4 billion.
The estimated cost of additions and new public K-12 schools
has been on a downward trend since
2007, and there has been a shift from
adding new space to improving or
replacing existing space and schools.
The shift from adding new space to
improving existing space is partly
the result of the slowing growth of
enrollment that began in 2007, coinciding with the economic downturn,
and remains low to this day. Health,
Safety, and Welfare, the third largest
category, decreased $58 million (1
percent) to $5.9 billion. This decline
resulted primarily from decreases
in the need for improved water and
wastewater infrastructure and public
health facilities. Water and wastewater accounts for the largest portion
of the Health, Safety, and Welfare
category at $3.9 billion; it decreased
by $104 million (2.6 percent) from
last year.
The need for public infrastructure improvements and the ability to
meet them continue to vary across
Tennessee. Those counties with
the largest populations, population
growth, and tax bases need the most
infrastructure and are consistently
able to build the most. Local governments reported $15.5 billion in local
infrastructure needs, and Shelby and
Davidson, the 1st and 2nd most populous counties in the state, need the
most, nearly one third ($4.6 billion).
They also completed the most
and had the largest tax bases in the
state. However, even though the
most populous counties need and
complete more infrastructure, an
examination of infrastructure improvements per capita indicates that
population alone does not explain
the differences. Available financial
resources, including sales and property tax bases and residents’ income,
are strong predictors of how much
infrastructure is needed and how
much gets completed.
Local officials are confident in
obtaining funding for only $11.6
billion of the $31 billion identified
as local needs. These figures do not
include needs at existing schools or
those in state agencies’ capital budget requests. Most of this funding,
$11.3 billion, is for improvements
that are fully funded; another $362
million is for improvements that are
partially funded. That leaves another
$19.3 billion of improvements for
which funding is not yet available.
Earlier this month, Governor
Haslam announced more than $28
million in community development
grants, which will help pay for some
of the infrastructure needs in seventy
cities and counties across the state
and help those communities attract
investments and jobs. The grants
ranged from $88,000 to $525,000,
with local governments matching
some of the total.
These grants covered a widerange of projects from waterline extensions in Bradley County to sewer
system improvements in Oliver
Springs. They also helped fund fire
protection, housing rehabilitation,
ambulance services, and drainage
improvements.
The inventory is the only source
of statewide information on the condition of public school buildings and
what it would take to get them all in
good or better condition. According
to local school officials, 93 percent
of local public schools are now in
good or excellent condition. However, they estimate the cost to put
the remaining 7 percent in good or
better condition at $487 million.
The full report is available on
TACIR’s web site at www.tn.gov/
tacir/infrastructure.html. For more
information, contact Dave Keiser,
project manager, at david.keiser@
tn.gov or (615) 253-4237.
Roane County
One of the primary goals of Roane County Executive Ron Woody’s
term has been to improve communication among the county executive’s
office, the county commission and the public. The executive’s office
instituted several new communication avenues in an effort to achieve
this goal.
• A monthly newsletter to the commission that features articles
of interest to commissioners, county employees and citizens. Articles
for the newsletter range from synopses of meetings, personnel articles
on employee benefits, articles from department heads detailing special
events within their departments to announcements of upcoming meeting
and events.
• Executive summaries prepared by department heads and staff
members under the supervision of the county executive. The summaries
highlight major issues of interest for the county and include updates on
ongoing projects.
• Decision making analyses and position papers to help assist in
making decisions and communicating recommendation to the commission and general public.
• Published articles and speeches in local newspapers to assist in
understanding decisions that the commission has made or shall discuss.
• Monthly formal reports to the commission to discuss issues
and items of interest. These reports are then reduced to writing and published within the minutes of the county commission.
• County website recently upgraded and used as a vehicle to increase transparency of government policies and procedures. Items posted on the website include all county commission agendas, minutes and
committee list, as well as the monthly newsletters, executive summaries,
formal reports, etc. mentioned already. The website also has a calendar
of all scheduled county meetings.
Tipton County
Expanded and enhanced library services for Tipton County residents became a reality in recent months. The Tipton County Public Library found its first permanent home in 1964. During that time, several
expansions were necessary to keep up with the demand a growing populace was placing on the facility. The recession of 2007-2008 pushed the
facility past its useful limit. During that time, families finances were
stretched thin and many had to let such amenities as home internet fall
by the wayside in an effort to make ends meet. Many of those same
people found themselves searching for jobs at the same time. Without
home internet services, many of those folks turned to the public library
for online access.
During that time the library served the county’s 60,000 plus residents with just 15 computers. Users were limited to a 1 hour per day
time limit, limited parking, and the facility was only open for business
between the hours of 9:30 and 5:30.
Tipton County Executive Jeff Huffman recognized the strain being
placed on the facility and sought to bring about a much needed expansion of available space and an enhancement to the services such a facility could provide. Huffman’s vision was a partnership with Dyersburg
State Community College using land adjacent to the current facility located in Tipton County to create a facility that would benefit county
residents and students attending Dyersburg State’s Tipton County campus -- the DSCC Learning Resource Center/Student Center and Tipton
County Public Library.
In February 2008, the Tennessee State Building Commission approved funding for the building on the campus of Dyersburg State Community College, Jimmy Naifeh Center at Tipton County. Shortly thereafter, the county and DSCC reached an agreement to proceed with the
$13.5 million dollar project. State funding for the project totaled $9.5
million, $1 million came from gifts and the DSCC plant funds, with the
remaining $3.5 million being appropriated by the Tipton County legislative body.
The project is proving to be a win/win for both the county and the
college. The county’s funds allowed the project to proceed quickly and
the county has gained an impressive state-of-the-art library offering 72
public computers, expanded business hours, meeting rooms, private
study rooms and many other amenities. Students at the college have
access to the 60,000 items in the library’s collection and college student
workers have time and expertise to help those in the community with
online job searches and applications. The project was a creative solution
for both the county and the college and should prove to be a valuable
resource to both for many years to come.
6
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
November - December 2014
Congress Passes Legislation That Could Impact
Blount County Loses Chickamauga Lock Construction, Replacement
3 Former Executives
OBITUARIES
Blount County has had three former county executives to pass
away within a six-month period in 2014.
Beverley Woodruff died March 8, 2014; Bill Crisp on August 22,
2014; and Clyde McMahan on September 24, 2014.
Woodruff served from September 1, 2002 – January 6, 2006. Bill
Crisp served from September 1, 1992-August 31, 2002, and Clyde
McMahan from 1974-1982.
Clyde McMahan was the first county judge to become a county
executive and Beverley Woodruff was the first county executive to
become a county mayor.
Included below are obituaries for the three.
Crisp
William A. “Bill” Crisp,
age 75 of Friendsville, passed
away Friday, August 22, 2014,
at Blount Memorial Hospital. He
was an active member of Middlesettlements United Methodist Church. He was preceded in
death by his parents, Virgil Crisp
and Martha Alice Crisp West.
Survivors include his beloved
wife of 56 years, Carolyn Crisp;
daughter and son-in-law, Staci
and Andy Lawhorn; grandchildren, Ty Hamilton Lawhorn and
Andi Love Lawhorn; brother and
sister-in-law, Wayne and Brenda Crisp; nieces, Terri Hamil,
Lynda Long, Vicky Gray, and
Kellie Mak; many great nieces
and nephews, and special friend,
Becca Daniels. A celebration of
Crisp’s life was held Monday,
August 25, 2014, Smith Trinity
Chapel with Rev. Ron Fisher officiating. Inurnment was Tuesday, August 26, 2014, at Middlesettlements Church Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be
made to Middlesettlements United Methodist Church, 2729 Middlesettlements Rd, Maryville,
TN 37801.
McMahan
Clyde McMahan passed
away September 24, 2014,
“Mr. Mac,” who was born in
Sevier County, but chose Blount
County as his home, left this earth
at the age of 95 after years of
dedication to his church, service
to young people, and involvement in Blount County. His educational background at Pitman
Center in Sevier County, LMU
in Harrogate, and The University
of Tennessee in Knoxville, plus
military experience in the army
medical corp prepared him for a
life dedicated to helping others.
He served as an educator with the
county system for more than 20
years. He first taught and coached
at Friendsville High School and
then became principal at Walland
High School. In 1974, he took his
leadership and compassion into
the office of county judge. He
was the last county judge and the
first county executive (currently
county mayor).
He was preceded in death by
his wife Lillian, his parents Giles
and Ollie McMahan, his brothers
Clay, Claude, and Glen, as well
as his sister Ruby. “Mr. Mac” is
survived by daughter Charlotte,
nephews Larry and Steve Watson, Glen Jr. and Paul McMahan,
Jimmy McMahan, and his niece
JoAnn Wagner, as well as their
respective spouses, sister-in-law
Vivian McMahan, and grandnieces and nephews.
A celebration of his life was
held Monday, September 29,
2014, at Smith Trinity Chapel
with Rev. Dr. Robert Dalton officiating. Interment followed at
Grandview Cemetery.
Woodruff
Beverley Pierce Woodruff,
60, of Maryville passed away on
March 8, 2014, at home after living with Parkinson’s disease for
over 18 years.
She is preceded in death by
grandparents, Claude and Jean
Houston Bailey and George O.
and Naomi Pierce; father Kenneth ‘’Buddy’’ Pierce; brother
Rodney Pierce; father-in-law
Charles Woodruff, and uncle
George Pierce.
She is survived by her mother, Jean Pierce; loving husband
of 36 years, Phillip Woodruff;
brothers Mike and Mark Pierce;
daughters, Jama Hurst and Leah
Woodruff; step-son, Phillip
Young; grandchildren, Kiley Jo,
Dalton, and Marley Young, and
Gavin Hurst.
The family on March 11,
2014, celebrated her life in a
service at McCammon-Ammons Click Funeral Home in
Maryville.
Memorials can be sent
to Blount County Schools Elementary Text Book Fund and
Blount Memorial Hospice Mercy
Fund, c/o BMH Foundation in
Maryville.
Former Cheatham Road
Chief Mac Wilson Passes
Malcolm “Mac” Anderson Wilson, age 81, of Pleasant View, died
Monday, November 17, 2014 at NHC in Springfield, Tennessee. Funeral services were conducted Wednesday, November 19, in the chapel of Austin & Bell Funeral Home in Pleasant View with Bro. Barry
Simpson and Bro. Dave Thomas officiating.
Burial followed in EverRest of Cheatham with Bryce Ellis, H.T.
Wilson, Keith Townley, Ronnie Davidson, Bob Binkley, and Allen Tuten serving as pallbearers.
Wilson was born March 29, 1933, in Cheatham County, TN, to
the late Turner and Una Brown Wilson. He was employed with Tennessee Department of Transportation for 22 years and served as the
Cheatham County Road Superintendent for nine years. Upon retiring
from the county he and his partners formed BL&W Development. He
was a veteran of the U.S. Army and member of Heads Free Will Baptist Church.
In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his brothers,
F.E. and Robert Wilson.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years Eddie Mae “Charlie” Wilson; son, Andy (Stacie) Wilson of Orange Beach, Alabama; daughter,
Lisa (Jamie) Ellis of Springfield, Tennessee; brother, Ray Wilson of
Pleasant View; grandson, Bryce Ellis of Springfield; and granddaughter, Emma Grace Wilson of Orange Beach, Alabama.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions
may be made to Heads Free Will Baptist Church Building Fund.
Passage of legislation by the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives could allow construction
to replace Chickamauga Lock to resume as early as 2016, according to
Sen. Lamar Alexander.
The legislation would provide
about $260 million for inland waterways projects across the country
over the next 10 years.
The fee increase is paid for entirely by commercial barge companies, which they requested, and does
not affect recreational boaters who
will continue to have free passage
through the locks.
“Passage of this legislation
would mean Congress has accepted
the offer by commercial barge owners to pay more to replace Chickamauga Lock, and that construction
could resume as early as 2016,” said
Alexander, who is the top Republican on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, which oversees funding for
the lock.
“Replacing
Chickamauga
Lock keeps good jobs flowing into
Chattanooga and East Tennessee
– including at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, nuclear facilities and
manufacturing plants – makes it
easier for recreational boaters to
go through the lock at no cost, and
keeps 150,000 trucks from clogging
up I-75,” said Alexander.
The legislation would authorize a 9-cent increase in the user fee
commercial barge owners pay to
use U.S. river locks and navigation
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann. “Earlier this year, we passed legislation
to reform the main funding mechanism for the lock. This was an essential fix to the underlying problem,
but there is more work to be done.
Today, we moved one step closer to
completing our goal with the passage of the barge fuel fee increase.
This fee will add approximately $40
million in annual funding to the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which
could allow construction to start as
early as 2016. The legislation passed
today will ensure that East Tennessee has the waterways infrastructure necessary to build a world class
economy.”
“Hopefully, this much needed
funding will speed up the new Chickamauga Lock construction,” said
U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. “Our
Nation’s inland waterways need critical repairs, and I am pleased that we
have found a solution supported by
all interests,” said Duncan. “According to a study by the Iowa Department of Transportation, one barge
takes 58 large semi-trailer trucks of
the road, and one 15-barge tow takes
870 large semi-trailer trucks off the
road. We must keep our waterways
fully operational. Congressman
Fleischmann and Senator Alexander
have been great champions of this
cause as well, and I am so thankful
for all of their hard work to get this
passed.”
Alexander said that the House’s
action is the third of three major
steps in his long-term plan to replace
Dickson County Sheriff’s Office Computers
Held Hostage Recently By ‘Ransomware’
Jeff McCliss could do without
all the attention he’s received over
the past few weeks. The Dickson
County, Tenn. Sheriff’s Office IT
manager has put a county face on
the cybersecurity threat posed by
“ransomware” — software that can
infect a computer network and hold
its data hostage for money.
That’s what happened on Oct.
14 when an employee clicked on
a seemingly harmless online ad. It
launched malware (short for malicious software) known as CryptoWall 2.0, which encrypted more
than 70,000 of the law enforcement
agency’s report management files —
detectives’ case files, witness statements — and hackers demanded
$500 in ransom for the encryption
key to unlock the files. The money is
typically requested in the electronic
currency bitcoin, which is virtually impossible to trace back to the
payee.
“Anything that you could scan
in, take a picture of or attach to a report electronically was in our report
management system,” McCliss said,
“and it encrypted all of those files.
And it encrypted all of the backups
for those files.”
And therein lay the problem:
Had there been an uninfected back
up of the files, McCliss said, they
could have ignored the demand. Because there wasn’t — and acting on
the advice of the Tennessee Bureau
of Investigation and the FBI — the
county had no recourse but to pay
the ransom.
“We basically got the message
that although no one would actually
recommend that we pay this ransom, there’s really not going to be
any other way to recover those files
that’s known of now,” he said. “We
made a business assessment of what
it would take to replicate those files
and found that even the ones that we
could replicate, rescan in … would
be a very small portion of what was
lost. And it would cost way more in
man hours just to do a partial backup
on it, so we made the business decision to pay to get our encryption
key.”
Dickson County isn’t the only
local government to have been affected. Twenty-six states and nine
local governments have been hit by
extortion malware this year, according to the Multi-State Information
Sharing and Analysis Center (MSISAC). The city of Detroit and Sacramento County, Calif. are among
them.
“CryptoWall malware is distributed through spam emails, malicious advertisements on legitimate
websites, and as fake updates for
applications such as Adobe Reader,
Adobe Flash, and Java,” according
to a Center for Internet Security Cyber Alert issued Oct. 8.
It is just one form of extortion
malware — an earlier version called
CryptoLocker has been cracked by
experts. Researchers at the Counter
Threat Unit of Dell computers’ subsidiary SecureWorks say CryptoWall
has been around for about a year but
became well known in the first quarter of 2014. The CTU considers it to
be “the largest and most destructive
ransomware” threat on the Internet
today and a growing problem.
In August, the CTU reported
that between mid-March and Aug.
24, nearly 625,000 systems worldwide were infected with CryptoWall,
encrypting more than 5 billion files,
more than 40 percent of which were
in the United States. It was at a Cyber Summit in Detroit in November
that Mayor Mike Duggan acknowledged for the first time publicly that
the city’s database had been held
ransom back in April, but that the
city did not pay the $800,000 that
was demanded because the data was
not used or needed by the city.
For Dickson County’s McCliss,
it took almost a week to set up an
electronic currency — also known
as crypto currency — bitcoin account. Had he missed the seven-day
deadline to pay, the ransom would
have doubled to $1,000 if not paid
within two weeks of the demand, he
said.
Since news of the malware incident broke, McCliss said he has
received “no fewer than 10 calls
per day” from other agencies, and
even an individual, seeking advice.
He recounted a call from “a nice old
lady” in Florida, who supplements
her income by preparing tax returns.
Ransomware locked up seven years
of tax data on her clients.
“I hate that when somebody is
researching [CryptoWall] my name
comes up,” he lamented. “But if I
can maybe share with the public
some of the stuff that we’ve done
to prevent it from happening in the
future, maybe I can make something
good out of it.”
Presidents
University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history and political
science, Bradley served from 19892002 as an adjunct professor for the
university. He is a graduate of the
University of Tennessee County Officials Certificate Training Program,
an educational opportunity offered
by the County Technical Assistance
Service. He and his wife, Stephanie Couts Bradley, married in May
2011.
and committees, including that at
Joe Johnson Mental Health Center,
Room in the Inn, WTCI, CARTA,
the Cancer Society, Kidney Foundation and the Chancellor’s Roundtable at The University of Tennessee
Chattanooga. He is also an active
member of Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church, where he is an
officer.
Continued from Page 1
Gibson County Director of Public
works Carl Stoppenhagen, president
of TCHOA. In addition to presiding over their associations, Bradley,
Mackey and Stoppenhagen will all
serve on the TCSA board of directors, representing their organizations.
Jim Smith
A former president of TCHOA
from 2006-07, Smith has been active
with the associations since being
named highway superintendent in
1998. He had served as first and second vice president for TCSA during
the past two years and he had served
as president and secretary/treasurer
for TCHOA’s Region I.
An Army veteran, Smith was
a consulting engineer for 17 years
before joining the Fayette County
highway department in 1994 as department engineer. He is now in his
fifth term as superintendent.
He and his wife, Kathy, have
been married 42 years and have two
children and seven grandchildren.
Look For Registration
& Agenda
Information In early
January
channels – which the barge owners
themselves have called for – increasing the fee to 29 cents per gallon of
fuel used. It passed as part of the
ABLE Act, a broader piece of legislation that removes federal disincentives to work for individuals with
disabilities.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the commercial
barge user fee increase will generate
about $260 million over the next 10
years for the Inland Waterways Trust
Fund, a fund that provides half the
money for projects like Chickamauga Lock, with the other half coming
from the U.S. Treasury. How much
money Chickamauga Lock will
receive depends upon how much
funding is requested by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers next year
and the congressional appropriations process, but Alexander said the
fee increase would enable the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to resume
construction as early as 2016.
“This common sense solution
is an important step toward returning to a structure where our nation’s transportation system is fully
funded by those who use it,” said
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. “I appreciate
Senator Alexander, Congressman
Fleischman and Congressman Duncan’s leadership on this issue, and
I’m pleased this measure will help
needed construction at Chickamauga Lock move forward.”
“Since my first day in office, I
have been fighting to secure funding
for the Chickamauga Lock,” said
Howard Bradley
Howard Bradley, now in his
fourth term as county mayor of
Robertson County, has been named
ACM president, the statewide organization representing all 95 county
mayors and executives. Mayor
Bradley recently won reelection to
a position he has held since 2002,
having first served as a Robertson
County magistrate on the quarterly
court and then a county commissioner after the title changed. He served
for 22 years, until 1994, teaching at
Springfield High School during that
time. Prior to his election as county mayor, he taught 26 years in the
school system.
A graduate of Austin Peay State
Warren Mackey
Hamilton County native
Warren Mackey, a county commissioner recently reelected to his post
for another term, will be serving as
president of TCCA for the next year,
having served as president-elect for
the past year under Tommy Vallejos.
A professor of history at
Chattanooga State Community College, Mackey received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from
Tennessee State University and his
doctorate from Middle Tennessee
State University.
Active in the community Mackey has served on a number of boards
Carl Stoppenhagen
Gibson County Director of
Public Works Carl Stoppenhagen
was first appointed to that position
in 1993.
Very active since that time with
TCHOA and TCSA, he is a former
TCSA president, having also served
as first and second vice presidents for
that organization.
Prior to joining the county,
Stoppenhagen worked as an engineer
with the Tennessee Department of
Transportation as well as 10 years
in the private sector with Rogers
Group Inc. and Dement Construction
Company.
He is a graduate of Tennessee
Technological University.
Mark Your Calendars
National Association of Counties Legislative Conference
Feb. 21-25, 2015
Washington, D.C.
COAT-TCSA County Government Day
March 10-11, 2015
Metro Nashville-Davidson County
REGISTRATION COMING JANUARY 2015
TCSA Post-Legislative Conference
June 2-3, 2015
Location To Be Announced
National Association of Counties Annual Conference
July 10-13, 2015
Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), NC
TCSA 62nd Annual Fall Conference & Trade Show
Oct. 21-23, 2015
Rutherford County (Murfreesboro)
Chickamauga Lock – a several-year
project that is expected to cost more
than half a billion dollars to complete. The first two were passed into
law as part of the Water Resources
Reform and Development Act of
2014, including:
• First step: a change in the
cost share for Olmstead Lock in
Ohio from 50 percent of the Inland
Waterways Trust Fund to 15 percent, to enable more existing money
to be used for other projects, such as
Chickamauga Lock.
• Second step: the prioritization of Chickamauga Lock as No. 4
in the federal government’s priority
list for inland waterways projects.
• Third step: the enactment
of the user fee increase commercial
barge owners pay to use U.S. river
locks and navigation.
Alexander originally proposed
all three changes to Chickamauga
Lock funding – the fee increase, the
change to Olmsted Lock and the prioritization of Chickamauga Lock –
as part of his American Waterworks
Act in 2012.
CTAS
Training
Calendar
Winter 2015
Classes
For additional information, contact CTAS by calling
(615) 532-3555 or through the
CTAS website at www.ctas.
tennessee.edu/public/web/
ctas.nsf/Training?readform.
Managing Your
Office Efficiently
Learn how to make your
office more effective and productive. Topics will include
working for higher efficiency,
getting the right fit, SMART
plans, personal and mutual
accountability, creating an
integrated team, minimizing distractions, and reducing
conflict. Category B/Elective
credit provided. Instructor:
Dan Elkins.
Class locations:
All classes 8:30 am - 12:30
pm unless otherwise noted.
• Jan. 6: Johnson City,
Carnegie Hotel, 1216 W. State
of Franklin Rd.
• Jan. 7: Knoxville, UT
Conference Center Building,
600 Henley St., 4th Floor
• Jan. 13: Jackson, TDOT
Regional Office, 300 Benchmark Place
• Jan. 15: Franklin, Embassy Suites, 820 Crescent
Centre Drive
Incident Command
Workshop
When disaster strikes
your community, it is imperative that the local officials be
able to understand the basis,
as well as the federal requirements, of the National Incident
Management System (NIMS).
This course will introduce key
leaders from cities and counties to this concept to not only
assist with the mitigation of
the disaster, but also prepare
for the recovery phase of the
operations which includes the
complete reimbursement procedures of the federal government. Category A/Elective
credit provided. Instructors:
Kevin Lauer and Mac Purdy.
Class locations:
All classes 8:30 am - 12:30
pm unless otherwise noted.
• Jan. 13: Murfreesboro,
Doubletree Hotel, 850 Old
Fort Parkway
• Jan. 21: Johnson City,
Carnegie Hotel, 1216 W. State
of Franklin Road
• Jan. 22: Knoxville, UT
Conference Center, 600 Henley Street, 4th Floor
• Jan. 27: Jackson, TDOT
Regional Office, 300 Benchmark Place
Legal Issues for County
Clerks, Registers of Deeds,
and Trustees
Three separate classes
will be taught simultaneously
and will cover numerous issues specific to the office of
the County Clerk, Register of
Deeds, and Trustee. Category
A/Core credit provided. Instructors: Libby McCroskey
(County Clerks), Kristy Brown
(Registers of Deeds) and Steve
Austin (Trustees).
Class location:
All classes 8:30 am - 12:30
pm unless otherwise noted.
• Jan. 30: Franklin, Embassy Suites, 820 Crescent
Centre Drive
NOTICE
Dates and times are subject to change.
November - December 2014
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
County Associations Celebrate With Annual Conference
7
8
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
November - December 2014
Does your county need
money for its local projects?
Dickson County,
by working through the
TMBF fixed rate loan
program and two local
banks, issued a refunding
bond which will save the
County $700,000 over the
seven year term of the
new issue.
The Tennessee County
Services Loan Program
offers:
• low rates,
• lowest costs, and
• best service.
(615) 255-1561
We’re making great
counties even better.
One loan at a time.
Dickson County Mayor Bob Rial, seated in center, signs loan documents during a recent
closing. Seated from left are Bankd of Dickson President Donald Richardson, Mayor
Rial, and First Federal Bank CFO Joe Corlew. Standing from left are Tennessee County
Services (TCSA) Loan Program Representative Steve Walker, Dickson County Clerk
Luanne Greer, TCSA Loan Program Representative Linda Mooningham and Bank of
Dickson CFO Mike Powell.
November - December 2014
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
9
Did you know?
You have access to a powerful tool to help your employees
save towards their retirement goals. The Tennessee County
Services Association has partnered with the Tennessee
Treasury Department to offer you the Tennessee Deferred
Compensation Program (Program).
This voluntary retirement savings Program is now available to
employees of any local government entity in Tennessee. Some
benefits include:
Access to both governmental 457(b) and 401(k) plans
Roth contributions available in the 401(k)
No cost to the local government to join the Program
Participants can choose from a variety of quality
investment options and additional services
For more information about this Program:
Visit the Treasury website at www.treasury.tn.gov/dc.
Call the Plan Administrator at (615) 532-2347.
The Program offers the experience and expertise of a
dedicated staff, an independent investment consultant, an
oversight committee, and an industry-respected record keeper,
Great-West Retirement Services®, a division of Great-West
FinancialSM. Given the extraordinary events taking place in our
economy, the need for this level of professional oversight is
extremely important.
A Tennessee County Services Association Endorsed Program
A Tennessee County Services Association
Sponsored Program
Established 1981 to serve Tennessee
Counties and County Agencies
Located at 26 Century Blvd, Nashville, TN 37214
P.O. Box 305107, Nashville, TN 37230-5107
The Local Government Property and
Casualty Fund (est. 1985) and The Local
Government Workers’ Compensation
Fund (est. 1981)
Designed exclusively for Tennessee
counties and county agencies, these
Funds exist for the sole purpose of
providing flexible programs that fit
Tennessee county government needs.
These funds provide a consistent and
stable market for the insurance needs of
general county government, highway
departments, schools and other county
services. Providing coverage for:
• Workers’ Compensation
• Property
• General Liability
• Law Enforcement
• Automobile
• Public Officials Coverage
• Crime
• And other related property and
casualty needs
Bob Wormsley
President/CEO
615/872-3513
[email protected]
David Seivers
Chief Operating Officer
615/872-6148
[email protected]
Bob Fielding
Vice President
615/872-3535
[email protected]
Becky Brock
Director of Member Services
615/872-3554
[email protected]
Mark Fogarty
Senior Loss Control Rep.
615/872-3534
[email protected]
Rich Cieler
Senior Loss Control Rep.
615/872-3511
[email protected]
LGIP places significant emphasis on safety
and provides the tools needed to prevent or
reduce claims. Our professional Loss Control
representatives tailor comprehensive risk
management programs to the needs of each
member.
• We understand county government
insurance needs
• We develop solutions for county
governments with the best
markets, price and terms
• We deliver quality client service in a
timely manner
• We get claims paid quickly
And we do it with INTEGRITY
For more information cotact us.
Toll free: 866/651-4124
Direct: 615/872-3554
www.lgip.us
When You See Us,
Don’t Think of
Insurance.
But When You
Shirley McGhee
Underwriter
615/872-3508
[email protected]
Think of Insurance,
See Us.
10
TENNESSEE COUNTY NEWS / www.tncounties.org
November - December 2014
HERB BYRD
Dr. Byrd Leading CTAS’ Parent Organization As Interim
By JUDITH TACKETT
When you ask about Dr. Herb
Byrd’s roots, you will learn that
he spent most of his life in East
Tennessee. He left to attend Harding
College in Searcy, AR, for two years.
There he met his wife and they
returned to Knoxville where Byrd
finished his bachelor’s degree in
animal science, his master’s degree
in reproductive physiology, and
his doctorate degree in educational
leadership from The University of
Tennessee.
His career was mostly spent with
the UT Extension program where
he started as a 4-H agent in Monroe
County. He then became the county
director for Adult Agriculture &
Resource Development in McMinn
County.
“I have worked a lot in looking
at county issues,” Byrd said. “Most
of my career, even after coming back
to campus, has been in a role similar
to that.”
Byrd returned to the UT
Extension’s state office in 1998 after
two years working as vice president
with Lads to Leaders, Inc., focusing
on teaching leadership skills to youth.
“I came back and worked in
Human Resources for Extension,”
he said. Later on he became the
chief human resources officer for the
Institute of Agriculture and served in
that role until he accepted his current
position as the interim vice president
of the Institute for Public Service
(IPS).
The IPS is a statewide institution
that provides expertise for local
communities. IPS organizations
that serve local governments, law
enforcement,
and industry
leaders with
their expertise
include the
Center for
Industrial
Services (CIS)
under the
leadership of
Paul Jennings,
the County
Te c h n i c a l
Assistance
Byrd
S e r v i c e
(CTAS) led by Robin Roberts,
the Law Enforcement Innovation
Center (LEIC) under Don Green,
the Municipal Technical Advisory
Service (MTAS) headed by Jim
Thomas, and the Naifeh Center for
Effective Leadership led by Gary
Peevely.
Byrd, who oversees these
organizations, keeps the core mission
of IPS front and center. That mission
is to connect people and solutions to
improve efficiency and performance
of government and businesses
and increase the prosperity and
competitiveness of Tennessee.
TCN: You’re known for your
leadership abilities and guidance
of a number of organizations. How
did you gain that expertise and
experience?
HB: It is interesting sometimes
how things develop. As a young
person growing up I was active in
my 4-H club and served in leadership
roles there. Later on in high school
I was involved in a number of
organizations. I was an officer in
the Key Club there and involved in
leading some of our service work
through that group (a key club is a
student-led organization that teaches
leadership to high school students
through service to others). So, as far
back as I remember, I had an interest
in leading groups, particularly when
there was a service component
involved.
Later on when I started my
career, working for the University
has been a great fit. As a 4-H agent
for instance and then some of my
other service work for youth service
organizations, I have worked to help
young people grow and develop their
own leadership qualities.
One of our challenges working
in agriculture was to figure out how
to change practices, some of which
were based on long-standing views.
We worked with families that wanted
to improve the profitability and
sustainability of their farm. So we
were entrenched in local communities
and counties to help make a difference
there. I remember in McMinn County
we had a small group of community
leaders that I was fortunate to be
a part of. We called ourselves the
Community Strategies Group. Our
main emphasis was to look at some of
the needs in the communities in that
county and work to make a difference
in things that were happening there.
Working with that group to do those
kinds of things was very rewarding.
As far as gaining experience, I’ve
been a casual student of leadership
for many, many years and have had
that interest. Then, when I worked
on my doctorate I became a formal
student of leadership and spent a great
deal of time looking at leadership
particularly in higher education. I
focused on how to make a difference
through leadership – where good
leaders succeeded and why and where
leadership failed and some of the
reasons for that.
I’ve had an opportunity to do
a lot of things that have grown my
leadership abilities at the university.
For example, when I came back
in 1998, I joined the staff of UT’s
Leadership Institute, which is an
every-other-year leadership program
for upper-level administrators in
Herb Byrd and wife, Resa, pose with those they call their “GRANDchildren,” left to right, Saydee Cole, Kate
Reeves, Alexis Byrd, Sawyer Cole, Nolan Reeves, all important parts of their lives.
higher education across the state.
That has been a great experience that
provided me with the opportunity
to serve and exercise leadership in
theory and practice.
In addition, I had the good
fortune to do leadership training
for the president of the University
and staff at different times over the
years. That’s been very rewarding.
Over the years, I’ve been involved
a lot in diversity leadership within
the University. Doing that I have
worked individually and on teams
to address diversity issues and have
done a lot of diversity training for
upper level administrators, even for
administrators in the U.S. Department
of Agriculture in different venues. As
part of this leadership involvement, I
have been able to work on different
strategic planning projects in the
Institute of Ag and also a couple of
times with UT system-wide strategic
plans.
So there have been a number
of opportunities like that where I
have both helped to develop those
leadership skills and abilities as well
as to exercise them. I’m grateful for
all those opportunities that have come
along and have had a number of those
over the years.
TCN: Talk about leadership…
What’s your leadership style?
HB: There is a man named Max
DePree who was the CEO of Herman
Miller. He probably summarizes in
his book “Leadership is an Art” what
I think leadership should be as well
as anybody. I certainly subscribe to
what he says, and he says it this way,
“The first task of a leader is to define
reality, the last is to say thank you,
and in between he must be a servant
and a debtor.”
I guess that captures what
leadership is for me in a short
statement. I think a leader has to work
to set direction and set the foundation
that you’re working from as well
as look down the road at where we
need to be and where we’re going.
That definition of reality that De
Pree refers to is important and I think
the way you lead your organization
should set the tone for that. But I
also think that it is important that a
leader encourages and recognizes the
things that are going well and realizes
that there is no one individual who
can do all the things that we need to
do by him- or herself. Anytime we
accomplish things it is rarely the work
of one person, and we need to be sure
to be grateful for the opportunities
and the folks who have helped along
the way. That’s why saying thank you
is very critical. Especially in higher
education where we are in a service
role. Even though I don’t think it
would be any different in industry
– and of course Max De Pree was in
industry when he said that.
When De Pree talks about being
a servant and a debtor, he speaks to
the notion that we are here to serve
and we are here to make a difference
and to use the talents and abilities that
we have. When we’re in a stance of
being indebted, it really motivates us
to make a difference and pay back.
It adds an urgency that I think is
important for leaders to have.
Our leadership at IPS is very
much about people and relationships.
I think the leader should make sure
that the right folks are on board and
that they know what that reality is that
has been defined, and then provide
the support and the resources that are
needed to move forward. I don’t think
the leader should be the one standing
over someone else, at least not in the
business we’re in, and driving the
whole process. I believe we have
the right people in place at IPS and
our organizations. They know what
we’re about and they have the support
and resources they need so they can
move forward. I also think from a
leadership perspective, a leader can
provide benchmarks and make sure
we are collecting the right data to
measure our progress toward the
goals that we have set and use them
to hold him- or herself accountable
as well as those making that journey
with them. So I guess those are
some of the things I consider to be
important in leadership.
TCN: You have been named
interim of an Institute with a
lengthy history of providing
public service to governments and
businesses statewide. Talk about
the role of IPS over the past several
decades.
HB: The history goes all the way
back to 1949. With the beginning of
MTAS, we have had a number of
years that we have served the state.
The Institute for Public Service was
formally established in 1971. We
are moving right along and before
long we are coming up on 50 years
of service to the state. I think it is
really important to recognize the rich
history that we have, the issues that
brought us to be, and the mission that
has developed for us over the years.
I really believe in the purpose of
the University, especially the landgrant mission. Anyone who has heard
me speak has heard me talk about
being a part of a land-grant university
and how that makes us different than
other higher-ed institutions. We have
a number of very highly regarded
institutions across the state, but
where the University of Tennessee is
different is in that land-grant mission.
The thing that makes us different
is that outreach part in our mission
where we’re supposed to take the
knowledge base and the research of
the land-grant college and university
and put that into practice where folks
live and work every day across the
state. The outreach mission is truly
the focus of IPS. We’re here to help
improve the lives of Tennesseans.
We do that by working with county
governments, city governments, law
enforcement individuals, and through
business and industry.
We take that mission very
seriously and have a rich history to
look back on, but we also see great
need in the future. It is going to be
very important that we’re on top
of things looking forward because
things seem to get more complicated
instead of less. So I think the things
that we do and the partnerships that
we have are going to be even more
critical in the future.
TCN: Can you talk a bit about
your role now with IPS? What’s
keeping you busy these days?
HB: I have enjoyed very much
being here with the Institute for
Public Service. By now I have met
with almost every employee in our
organization. I have either done that
in a group meeting or in dropping by
our offices across the state. I have
also been very busy meeting with our
stakeholder groups and have tried to
meet with all of those I can catch. So
that’s kept us pretty busy so far.
Moving forward, one thing we’re
going to be looking at is how we can
strengthen our service orientation and
our customer focus. We are losing our
development officer and so one thing
we are going to be doing is looking
how we can fill that function within
our organization. So all of us will be
going through some development
training, and then we’ll put together
a development strategic plan because
it is important that we consider
having as diverse a funding stream
as possible. We are evaluating some
of the things we do and continue to
look at our strategic plan that’s in
place. Also, we are trying to get an
employee representation group in
place and hope that that group will
be able to advise me after the first of
the year and give us a feel for where
we are internally. I’ve been trying
to meet with all the advisory groups
we have for each of our agencies.
So things have been really hopping.
We are making progress and seeing
results from some of the things we are
doing and working on putting other
things in place in the very near future.
TCN: I understand there is a
comprehensive review of IPS. Tell
us about this process, if you can.
HB: The University has hired an
outside consultant who has quite a
number of years of human resources
and organizational development
experience. He is taking a look at
our processes, how the institute is
structured, and how we compare
with other university-based public
service organizations. So we have
that assessment underway. We are
also doing an assessment of how we
are structured financially and how we
serve our funding mandates. We’re
looking at how we manage grants
and contracts, and we’re looking at
putting together a financial model that
ensures our sustainability in the future
moving forward. I guess the way I
describe it is that we’re putting into
place for our own organization a lot of
the best practices that we recommend
to counties. We just try to practice
what we preach and make sure we
are the organization that our folks
across the state, who depend on us,
need moving forward in the future.
TCN: Our understanding
is that UT is comparing other
organizations like IPS and its
agencies with similar entities
nationally. What are you seeing at
this point? What can you say about
IPS right now when you compare
it to other organizations?
HB: I guess several aspects in
that are important. One thing I say
right off the bat and folks have heard
me saying that across the state, I
don’t think you have to be sick to get
better. Comparing ourselves to other
organizations will help us recognize
where our greatest strengths are and
where we are the model for others.
It will also give us information we
can use to improve what we do and
to better serve counties and other
entities across the state in the different
agencies in the Institute for Public
Service.
We don’t have any results back
yet. Our consultant is visiting with
10 other organizations much like
ours. One thing we know is that
while a lot of states do most of the
things that we do, there is a little bit
of difference in how they accomplish
their mission compared to how we
do it in Tennessee. It is a rare for a
state to have all the different agencies
within one group as we do here in
Tennessee. I think that may be one
of our strengths. We are able to
better capitalize on our resources by
having that coordination and working
together in those ways. So I’m very
curious to see the ways we are like
other states and the ways that we are
doing a better job than others as well
as some things that we can learn from
them that we can improve. We hope
to have the results, if not by the end
of the year, then shortly after the first
of the year.
TCN: How does an organization
like IPS and its agencies – CTAS,
MTAS, CIS, LEIC and the Naifeh
Center – stay relevant to the
university and the state? What
makes an IPS successful?
HB: First of all, IPS and its
agencies are very important to
the University and along with UT
Extension we perform the outreach
part of the University’s mission to
educate, discover, and reach out to
the people in Tennessee. With our
five agencies we touch Tennesseans
through our work with cities, counties,
industries, the general assembly, and
law enforcement. Actually with the
expertise we offer, especially in the
law enforcement arena, we are active
throughout the country and in several
foreign countries.
We have access to some of the
top educators and researchers in the
UT system and we call on them to
help us meet our mission and help
us stay relevant to the needs that we
seek to address within the state. We
will continue to work with faculty
from all UT campuses across the
state. The UT system provides a
strong foundation for the work that
we do, and we’ll continue to use that
research base, along with feedback
on need and performance from our
customers to stay relevant.
As far as what makes us
successful, the first thing is, we’re
successful because of our employees.
We do have some very high caliber
employees across the state who care
about their customers and who have
a strong customer focus. They are
always available and responsive and
are able to adapt to the needs that
are out there. That along with the
strong support of the university, the
knowledge and research base that we
have here, and the resources that we
can bring to bear to address issues are
the things that make us successful.
TCN: You seem to put a great
deal of emphasis on the customers –
internal and external – IPS and its
agencies serve every day. How do
you see keeping them engaged and
a part of the university’s future?
HB: We are really in a people
business. So we care about the
people, about the needs that they
have and the issues that they seek
to address. That is something that I
think we really need to keep at the
forefront of our minds. It should drive
what we do and how we do the things
that we’re involved with. So I think
that’s key.
In addition, IPS is very
much about partnerships and the
partnerships that we have with county
governments, city governments,
industries, and law enforcement
agencies. Those partnerships drive
what we do. We are often times
referred to as the front door of the
UT system, and sometimes we are
the only employees of the University
that folks interact with. So it is
important that we have
strong relationships
and partnerships as
we move forward.
When we talk
about a people
business, we
can’t really
serve external
partners well
if we are not
taking care
of our own
employees. We have to be responsive
within the organization to the needs
of our people resources and we have
to be aware of how we are serving
our employees. When we do that
well it helps us as we seek to serve
folks external to the University. That
people connection is really what is
critical. It is our mission and it makes
a difference for us internally as well
as externally.
TCN: You are interim at IPS
now. Are you interested in the
position on a more permanent
basis?
HB: A lot of people have asked
that question over the last few
months… We expect to announce
the position probably late spring – by
the end of March or in early April. I
will say that the Institute for Public
Service and the folks that we serve,
our state and county partners, deserve
the absolutely best person that we
can find for this role. Sometime early
in the spring I’ll take time to reflect
on where we are and where we are
going and I’ll make a decision what
direction I’ll take at that time. I’ve
enjoyed very much the time that I’ve
been here and if I decide that this is a
place where my talents and abilities
can be utilized to make a difference
for people, I’ll probably be interested.
And if I decide that somebody else
can do that better, then I won’t. So at
this point, it is a wide open question,
but it is something that I will consider.
TCN: This is a publication
for county officials, so this next
question is geared to them. What
advice would you give to agency
employees, say, at CTAS? How
about advice to their customers?
HB: First off, keep up the good
work. As I have travelled around the
state and have visited with different
groups, everyone tells me how
much they appreciate the work that
employees of CTAS do for them,
and how much the work that we
do makes a difference for them.
Hearing reports like this has been
the most pleasurable part of my job
so far. When people are telling you
that kind of thing, you don’t want
to get in the way of that good work.
I really appreciate the leadership of
CTAS and Robin Roberts in that
role at the present time. I’ve had the
good fortune to meet some who came
before him like Mike Garland, Bob
Wormsley, Rodney Carmical and Jim
Westbrook. I can certainly see after
visiting with them why CTAS is so
widely respected. We’re talking about
CTAS, but I would say the same thing
for all the other agencies within the
Institute for Public Service. Folks
are doing a great job and making a
difference for Tennesseans.
As far as the advice I would give
to people within CTAS beyond that,
I think we need to keep our focus on
the future while we’re addressing the
issues that walk in the door today.
We need to be anticipating the issues
that we see coming up down the road
because some of them are going to be
complicated and are going to require
some time and thought to address.
The quicker we can see what those
issues are and start working on them,
the better our solutions will be and the
greater a difference we will make for
folks across Tennessee.
Advice for our customers would
include some of those same kinds of
things. Moving forward it will be
important to keep our relationships
and communications between our
customers and our agencies strong. It
is going to require our best collective
thought to address upcoming issues.
But if we work together well as a
team, we can move forward together
and make the difference we want to
make. We want to be very proactive
and address issues before they are
a problem on the front end through
education and the consulting that
we do. When we can have those
partnerships and relationships where
we can get involved early on, I think
we make our best impact and we can
all feel good about the outcomes and
solutions that we find. Now we want
to be a resource and we want to help
any way we can. That’s what we are
about. I would encourage folks to call
on us early and often to continue to
make a difference for our state .
TCN: What are some of the
challenges that you see ahead for
the state and for IPS to address
with local governments?
HB: Just in the short time that
I have been in IPS and also some of
the things I have seen through the
Institute of Ag, we know that we
have some challenges in the state that
will take a lot of us to address. An
example would be affordability and
availability of health care and health
care costs. Rising health care costs is
an issue that we must find solutions
for because the trajectory we’re on
is not sustainable and people’s wellbeing is at stake. We really need to
find a solution to that for the benefit
for everyone.
And then, there are issues related
to education, education policy,
testing – all
those kinds of
things that are
happening in
the state. How
do we fund
the education
that we want
folks in our
state to receive
at all levels? Of
course, we have
a governor who
has put together a Rural Challenge and
has instituted the Tennessee Promise
to help develop that educational
workforce that we need in Tennessee.
There will be some growing pains
through that, but some great benefits
and opportunities as well.
In addition, we hear more and
more issues from counties about
sustainable practices in a lot of the
services that they provide. How do
we address the resources that we
need to make and keep services
sustainable? Some examples include
how we manage landfills or county
jails. There will be more pressure on
counties in the future on these and
other issues. The challenges seem to
get more and more complicated and
have more and more impact moving
forward. Our consultants are working
with folks all over the state at any
given time to find solutions to the
issues we face today and the ones we
will need to face in the future.
TCN: What is the role of
local governments in cross-sector
collaboration? Do you see more
opportunities arise for local
governments to collaborate with
for-profits and nonprofits?
HB: There are all kinds of
ways that we should be involved
in collaborations. Because of the
political system we have in place,
it is sometimes hard to keep the
momentum we established over time
due to elections and the turn-over we
have in county positions for instance.
Having strong coalitions and strong
joint programs among different
agencies in place can help to mitigate
some of that change and can help to
maintain some of that progress...So
that’s very critical.
Another consideration is that no
one individual has all the answers. No
one group, individual or entity has all
the resources that we need to bring to
bear in addressing all the issues that
we find across the state. Whenever
we can get others involved and
establish partnerships, we are able
to make very good progress. Some
of our counties across the state, for
instance, do not have the resources
they need to address certain problems
that they have. But by combining
some resources and by sharing
information and best-practices, we
can better move folks forward and
help with those issues. For instance
IPS, through CTAS and our other
agencies, really does a good job at
maximizing communication among
groups and forging partnerships that
benefit all parties involved.