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The Board of Mayor and Aldermen hasn’t made any more progress in their selection of the next City Administrator than they had before their special meeting on Monday evening.

In a special called meeting by Mayor Ray Knowis for the purpose of ranking seven individuals selected from those who were assessed by the Citizens Committee through the use of the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) scoring rubric, the public was allowed to comment on the process before BoMA proceeded.

Several citizens spoke on behalf of former Tullahoma High School Principal Jason Quick, who is currently being sued by a former student for the three-day suspension he gave the student after the student spread memes with his face on them around the internet. They spoke because Quick did not make it into the group of seven that BoMA was meeting to rank, but also to advocate for his character and their support of him taking the position.

The first to speak was Jere Chessor, a resident of Tullahoma for 41 years.

“I come tonight to speak on behalf of Jason Quick. I’ve known Jason for 25 plus years. Jason is a man of integrity, a man of his word. He’s got great interpersonal skills and I think he’s a forward thinker, and that’s what Tullahoma needs,” said Chessor.

He also stressed that Quick is a native. Others that spoke on Quick’s behalf were John Miller, Jeffrey Johnson, Linda Johnson, Bertha Smith, Erica Murphy and John Olive. They each made high-praising speeches about Quick’s character, faith and his ability, along with his hometown heritage.

Other commentators critiqued the selection process, despite not advocating for any particular candidate.

Planning Commissioner Marvin Sellers said he appreciated BoMA seeking public input about the hiring of the city administrator position, but added “I have no problem with the committee ranking [applicants] through the process, but it should be the board who down selects from the list while considering the rankings.” He also added that the two applicants from Tullahoma (Quick and Kenneth Pearson) should be considered specifically.

Dr. George Wilson, Alderwoman Bobbie Wilson’s husband, also critiqued the selection process, as did Chairman of the Coffee County Republican Party, Greg Sandlin.

One man, alone in the midst of the calm crowd, advocated for the selection process.

Scott May Belser said “I’m here to advocate and lobby for the process that I thought this meeting was about. I didn’t realize we were going to advocate for an individual…The people that were on this committee, and by the way, I was the only citizen that went to one of these meetings, I feel like this type of lobbying would’ve been great [to do at the citizens committee].”

Belser critiqued other commentators, particularly Morning Burke, who said that “the city is not a corporation. It’s a place where we live.”

Belser said “Tullahoma is a corporation. At the end of the day, we are a business, we need to make money…There’s no personal feelings involved in it at all for me. We have leading citizens in our community looking at applications with a rational eye, totally devoid of personal feelings. That’s the type of decisions that I feel should be made by this board.”

It was determined at the end of an hour and a half that the aldermen were not content with the Citizens Committee selection process and refused to rank the proposed seven individuals. The meeting was therefore adjourned by the mayor. Discussion regarding the hiring will continue on Monday with a study session at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall, immediately followed by the regular BoMA meeting.