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Following the events of Feb. 1, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to place Tullahoma HR Director Casta Brice on paid administrative leave, effective immediately.

The leave was dependent upon the approval of an investigation into the document disposal procedures at the municipal building, which was approved 5-2, with Mayor Ray Knowis and Alderman Jerry Mathis against.

“In my opinion, it would be doing the city extreme harm in that it would stifle a lot of activity that the city HR director is responsible for,” said Knowis. “She’s a very diligent employee who has considered her position with utmost integrity, and placing her on administrative leave would be doing the city irreparable harm.”

This decision came on the heels of the Feb. 1 discovery of documents being stored in a closet at City Hall for disposal, at the hands of Alderman Jenna Amacher. According to city officials, the documents were being stored in an HR file closet, in a box with a lock.

Amacher made a statement to The News following the discovery, in which she stated the box was unlocked upon her discovery, which was guided by information by a “whistleblower,” who she first revealed to be city recorder Rosemary Golden in a Facebook Live video and later confirmed at the board meeting.

According to former city administrator Jennifer Moody, the documents were set to be destroyed, as they contained personal and legal information, such as personal health information, attorney-client privileged information and other types of confidential information kept in employee personnel files.

On the night of Feb. 1, Brice discovered Amacher in the closet with the documents and requested she leave, before retrieving Moody upon Amacher’s refusal, according to the alderman’s statement.

The decision to place Brice on administrative leave was stated to be based upon a pending investigation into whether city department heads were following the procedures for document disposal as laid out in Tullahoma Municipal Code 1-210. There was no timeline set for the investigation or Brice’s potential return to her position.

“If we do this, then what we’re saying is: she’s guilty of something,” said Mathis. “Now, I don’t see that in any way, that she’s guilty of anything. Did we have documents that were left out or we don’t know where they went? The times that I’ve dealt with her, she’s always conducted herself very professionally, and she’s done a great job here. I just don’t agree with it at all.”

Alderman Kurt Glick refuted this, stating that the leave would allow the investigation to determine whether Brice was guilty of anything.

“What are we investigating her for?” asked Alderman Daniel Berry. “What are we accusing her of doing incorrectly that prompts an investigation? To investigate somebody, you have to have a cause; you don’t just randomly pick somebody out and investigate them. Let’s be clear: no documents were shredded. All documents are still intact. I think this is ridiculous.”

He referenced an argument made by Amacher earlier in the meeting that the interim city administrator, Fire Chief Kenneth Pearson, does not have the same authority as a city administrator. This argument would delegitimize the motion to suspend Brice, as the language states the board would instruct the interim city administrator to place her on leave.

“We agree with the rules when we want, and we don’t when we don’t,” he supposed. “This is ridiculous.”

Amacher stated the intention of the investigation as determining whether documents in the bin for disposal were related to ongoing litigation involving the city and its staff, referencing the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In her statement to The News following the discovery, Amacher admitted that the documents in the box appeared to be legal and personnel files, as well as referencing conversations between her and Glick, related to his lawsuit against the city of Tullahoma for age discrimination.

“This is paid administrative leave,” she stated at the board meeting. “This is not ‘we’re kicking you out the door; don’t come back.’ Maybe the documents were fine to be shredded, but let’s determine that. The other thing is: we had PII information on the documents in an unlocked closet, in an unlocked shredder bin. That in itself is a violation of the MTAS policy and of state and federal law. That is enough to put somebody on administrative leave pending an investigation. If we don’t do that, we’re essentially saying the rules apply to everybody but a select few.”

Alderman Derick Mann expressed his agreement with the statements made by Alderman Daniel Berry, requesting clarity in the motions suggested by Amacher.

“In this item, we’re saying to instruct the city administrator, interim, to place someone on leave, and then we go down a few items and also instruct that during the interim, all hires, promotions, demotions and terminations have to be approved by us,” he said. “I feel like we’re not on the same page with all of this. I know we’re having a discussion now, but this is a very limited discussion. It’s troubling. I feel like this all deserves more time than what we’re going to give it tonight.”

Knowis requested that city attorney Stephen Worsham provide his legal opinion on the matter, specifically on Brice’s process of appealing a decision made by the board.

“There are provisions in our personnel regulations relative to grievances being filed against city employees,” Worsham confirmed. We will not deprive her of due process. I will be investigating exactly how that should be done. If the board is the body that makes the decision, then I think she would have recourse in the chancery court or the federal court.”

City finance director Sue Wilson questioned why the board was “singling out” Brice, as the disposal bins in question were readily available to all department heads.

“What makes all of this difficult is that the waters were muddied, because the original process for doing all this was not followed,” said Berry. “There are processes in place by the state of Tennessee, by the city of Tullahoma, that you follow when there are grievances. Where we’re at now is because of overreach. Let’s not forget that that unlocked door was behind locked doors. It wasn’t just open to the public for anyone to go in. We had somebody go into that room that should not have been in that room. The problem with all of this is that the waters were muddied. I don’t know whether something happened or not, but the problem is that right now we can’t.”

Berry recommended that the board consider finding a third party to review the events and determine fault without interference or oversight from the members involved.

“She’s not gonna come to this board and ask us to reconsider,” he said. “It’s going to be a lawsuit that we created, and there are cases when you’re acting outside of your duties and outside of the law, where you’re not covered by the city’s insurance and they’re coming for you personally. I don’t want to be in that position.”

“We will not be subjecting ourselves to liability on a paid administrative leave,” said Amacher. “There will be no damages. She’s getting a paid vacation, pending an investigation. I’m not an employee. I’m a duly-elected official who’s taken an oath, signed a code of ethics, and we have executive privilege. The pushback on that was very insubordinate by that staff member.”

The motion to place Brice on paid administrative leave passed 4-3, with Knowis, Mathis and Berry against.