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An agenda item to discuss the return of city Human Resources (HR) Director Casta Brice was removed at the beginning of the May 8 meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BoMA).

Brice has been placed on paid administrative leave for 87 days as of Monday, since Alderman Jenna Amacher discovered documents set aside for disposal in a HR closet in City Hall in February.

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.

In April, Brice received the Richard L. Stokes Personnel Achievement Award at the annual Tennessee Personnel Management Association (TPMA) conference which is a state chapter of an international association for public sector human resource professionals. The award acknowledged Brice for her 25-year Distinguished Human Resources Management Career.

When motioning for the item to discuss her reinstatement to be removed, Amacher cited a packed agenda and potential long meeting as the reason, when asked by Alderman Daniel Berry.

“You jam-packed this agenda, honey,” she quipped to Berry. “For right now, I do not think that this conversation is appropriate.”

Berry was responsible for recommending two items to the night’s agenda, while Amacher recommended four.

“I’m a little bothered by the effort that went into, prior to this meeting, by Kurt [Glick] and others, to have this agenda item removed,” Berry said. “We reached out to MTAS, and they gave an answer that this motion is perfectly acceptable. Even after that, attempts were still made to reach out to other agencies to have this item removed. It’s been days today since she has been put on, as these two [referring to Glick and Amacher] quoted, ‘paid vacation.’ This is a real person that’s sitting out there.”

He went on to cite the original motion to place Brice on leave, which required an accompanying investigation into the events of February, stating that the board has had “multiple opportunities to do an investigation” and have “postponed that investigation indefinitely.”

Berry then quoted an audio recording of a conversation between Glick and Amacher, which said:

“I tell you what, that’s just the first – this could be the big excuse for saying we need another investigation into HR,” Glick said in the publicly-available recording. “She just gave us our excuse.”

Amacher and Glick disputed this remark, saying it was out of the scope of the discussion.

“It’s a farce that she is even on leave right now, and it’s a farce that we continue,” Berry concluded. “What I was trying to do with this item, and the urgency behind this item, was to give this board the opportunity to do the right thing. At a minimum what we’re going to do is get members of this board again not doing the right thing. It’s just sick.”

Amacher disputed Berry’s remarks, stating that the reinstatement of Brice was dependent upon the conclusion of “the criminal investigation.” The investigation she referred to is an investigation being conducted by District Attorney Craig Northcott; however, it has never been publicly stated to be an investigation into the conduct of Brice, as the alderman’s statement could be interpreted.

“Insinuating that there is a criminal investigation into Ms. Brice is incorrect, and it should not be allowed,” Berry stated.

Amacher began laying out a hypothetical situation to explain Brice’s leave to her fellow board members, saying that allowing “say, a teacher” to return to her position during an investigation before determining if “corrective action” needs to be taken is inappropriate.

“I would say that this agenda item is simply untimely, until those certain things take place, that we don’t have control over,” she said. “I’m very sorry to Ms. Brice that this hasn’t taken place yet.”

Berry reaffirmed his position that stating a criminal investigation is taking place should be clearly stated from an implication that Brice is being criminally investigated.

“To the germaness of this: my understanding is the criminal investigation is into members of the board,” he stated, which Amacher vehemently refuted.

Mayor Ray Knowis reminded the board that the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) had determined the motion to reinstate Brice was acceptable, before calling for a vote.

The board voted to remove the item 5-2, with Knowis and Berry against.