C

After an official ethics complaint was filed with the city against members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BoMA), the board denied all claims had any legitimate reason to further investigate.

The ethics complaint was filed with the offices of Mayor Ray Knowis and City Attorney Stephen Worsham, who is the Ethics Officer for the Tullahoma City Board. Additionally, the complaint was published in The Tullahoma News on April 26, having been sent by complainant Rupa Blackwell, former alderman, after the April 24 BoMA meeting.

Multiple citizens were cited as complainants on the signature page of the ethics complaint letter, including: Justin and Rupa Blackwell, Tim and Susan Campbell, Marian Galbraith, and Ryan and Shane Woodward.

The responsibility of the board in response to this filed complaint was to determine whether any of the complaints had merit for further investigation, which required an accompanying discussion for further detail from the board members involved.

City Attorney Stephen Worsham suggested in an email to the Board on May 1 that the discussion of the complaint take place in an open meeting and that none of the three aldermen who were accused of ethical violations, Aldermen Jenna Amacher, Kurt Glick and Bobbie Wilson, should participate as voting members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on the respective allegations against them, to determine whether or not the provisions of § 1-710 (2) (a) apply to warrant further investigation.

The complaints concerned: the alleged inappropriate usage of city funds for a rental car; misuse of city services and equipment in legal matters; voting on agenda items that were related to ongoing litigation against the city, by members that could benefit from the outcome of the litigation; using authority of the office of alderman to secure privileges; and other related concerns.

“It is with heavy hearts that we file this formal ethics complaint regarding our city’s board,” the letter read. “There are, unfortunately, very few rules that guide local elected officials, and we are guessing that it is rare for formal complaints to be filed due to these limited regulations. That being said, members of our city’s board have clearly violated the ethics requirements laid out in our city’s ordinance number 1349.”

The ordinance references the ethics guidelines by which the city operates, which are derived from Tennessee Code Annotated sections from state laws. The code can be found on the city website; however, the specific provisions that the complaint referenced the disclosure of personal interest by officials in voting and non-voting matters, as well as the use (or misuse) of municipal time, facilities and authority of office.

The framers of the letter noted the ethics complaint is one of the first steps in correcting ethics concerns with the board of mayor and aldermen, noting they wish to start a “paper trail” with the complaint.

The board discussed the details of each complaint, with the aldermen involved in each separate complaint abstaining from voting. Alderman Derick Mann posed questions to the involved aldermen, asking whether they admitted to any wrongdoing for each item. The aldermen denied any wrongdoing for each of the complaints.

Alderman Daniel Berry requested that the board postpone voting on two of the complaints against Amacher, stating that he was waiting for documentation to be provided after a submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, but the board moved ahead with their vote.

All complaints were dismissed without instruction for further investigation, and a second, unrelated letter of official ethics complaint was filed by George Butler Wilson, M.D., against Berry the night of May 8, prior to the BoMA meeting.

The second complaint was sent to Worsham, as well as being sent directly to The Tullahoma News.