DUANE SHERRILLEditor

After 133 days in limbo, the fate of City Human Resource Director Casta Brice finally came before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen this past week with the board voting to allow Tullahoma’s interim city administrator to decide whether or not to bring her back to work.

However, as of press-time this week, interim City Administrator Kenneth Pearson had “no comment” when asked what, if any, movement had been made to bring Brice back off of paid administrative leave.

Brice has been on paid administrative leave since February as an investigation is being conducted into the disposal of files at City Hall. The decision to place her on paid leave came on the heels of the Feb. 1 discovery of documents being stored in a closet at City Hall for disposal. The discovery was made by Alderman Jenna Amacher. According to city officials, the documents were being stored in an HR file closet, in a box with a lock. The documents, which numerous sources confirmed contained personnel files, including some related to the current case of Alderman Kurt Glick v. the City of Tullahoma, were suspected to be inappropriate for disposal, according to the board, per the city’s document retention policy. However, the document retention policy in question was not voted in as proper, official city policy until March 27, one month after Brice was placed on leave.

While the progress of any investigation of the document issue is unknown, the question of Brice’s status was put off until Alderman Daniel Berry brought it back after local businessman Jim Woodard spoke during public comments Monday night and urged the city to bring Brice back to work.

“I don’t know if she wants to come back or not,” Berry said in making a motion to allow Interim City Administrator Kenneth Pearson to make the decision whether or not to reinstate her. “But we are paying somebody to be on leave, we don’t know why or how long or if it’s even justified at this point.”

Berry noted that he doubts the board of mayor and alderman had the legal standing to place Brice on administrative leave.

“I don’t think we had the authority to do it,” Berry said. “It is a city administrator personnel issue so I think … we should give him the authority to make that decision.”

Alderman Derick Mann said the city needs to get back to where the city administrator handles all personnel matters.

“I move we direct City Administrator Kenny Pearson to take whatever actions he deems necessary regarding the status of Human Resources Director Casta Brice,” Mann said, noting BoMA would not be telling Pearson to go one way or the other on the Brice issue.

The motion to allow the interim city administrator to make the decision passed 6-0. Amacher was absent.