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At the beginning of the Mon, Aug. 28 meeting, Alderman Daniel Berry made a motion to add an item to the agenda regarding Tullahoma Human Resources Director Casta Brice’s almost six-month-long paid administrative leave following her discovery of Alderman Jenna Amacher inspecting Human Resources documents being disposed of in a City Hall lockbox back on Feb. 1.

Berry attempted to make a motion that either the Interim City Administrator, Kenneth Pearson, or the Board of Mayor and Aldermen take steps to “bring resolution” to the Brice case.

Amacher interrupted Berry, and indicated that she would only be willing to discuss the way in which to bring about resolution to the situation, but not make any resolution that night.

When Berry made the motion to discuss resolution, Amacher revoked her second, which she initially intended to give as long as there was only discussion. Alderman Derick Mann, in turn, seconded the motion.

The motion was passed by four votes from Berry, Mann, Mayor Ray Knowis and Alderman Bobbie Wilson. Amacher, Alderman Kurt Glick and Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Mathis voted “nay.”

The added agenda item came to discussion towards the end of the meeting, and opened with Berry stating “So, there are some matters that we cannot discuss, because they were done in executive session,” he said, “but we have the outstanding issue of Ms. Brice being on leave, and my thought there, after speaking with others not on this board, the original [plan] was to give the city administrator to say ‘this leave needs to come to an end,’ we need to resolve [the matter] ourselves.”

He suggested they set a date that Brice would return to work by, and he made a further motion to discuss how to go about that.

After several moments of silence, Amacher said “I can’t help it.”

“What I don’t appreciate right now,” she said, “is being put in this position considering the landmines that I feel like have been set before this board. Those landmines were started by the actions of this very employee, and this is just the truth. Past that, we have a district attorney involved, we have potential pending criminal liability, we have ongoing investigations and anything that several of us on this board say, it’s like somebody’s hunting to grab us by the toe, and I don’t like that. I don’t think it’s appropriate, I don’t like any of this, and we don’t know how to act, because no matter what we say or what we do, there is some sort of repercussion or consequence hanging around the corner and it’s like we’re being watched so we will say or do something wrong, and that angers me.”

She said that the situation was only suited for executive session and said that Brice’s situation could not be resolved until an internal investigation was done, which still has not started since BoMA does not have access to the original documents that Amacher was found surveying by Brice, as they have been collected as evidence by District Attorney Craig Northcott.

Amacher continued, saying “I don’t like that this employee went on to receive an award while wearing a City of Tullahoma badge while she was on administrative leave, and a pending criminal investigation, I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

Later in the meeting, City Attorney Stephen Worsham clarified that, according to Northcott, “thus far, he has seen nothing that has indicated criminal activity on [Brice’s] part.”

Amacher exclaimed that certain people on the board had their hands tied because she felt that “if we say anything, we’re gonna A) either get sued or B) the DA’s gonna slap another charge on one of us.”

“This is just wrong,” she added, “and I hope the district attorney is watching this tonight, and he understands that I blame him more than I blame anyone right now.”

She reiterated the wish to have any further discussion regarding Brice in executive session.

Alderman Bobbie Wilson then spoke, saying “Our documents were taken by District Attorney Northcott, and have been since handed to another district attorney, and these are our city documents, so I’m not really sure why” the board is not allowed access to those documents.

Berry responded “this wasn’t to put anyone on the spot, it’s no disrespect to anybody not sitting up here,” he said, “but we have been paying somebody I don’t know exactly how much, but we either need to say ‘Come back’ or we resolve it the other way by saying ‘Don’t.’”

“It’s been months,” he continued, “almost seven months since” she was placed on leave.

“Either way,” he said, “this has got to come to an end. We need to come to a resolution. Whichever way we do, I will support.”

Knowis asked Worsham to come forward and offer some legal insight into the matter.

Worsham explained to BoMA “these matters are the subject of a criminal investigation and a criminal case that’s pending,” he said, “as you all know. I’ve briefed you with emails that I have received from the Attorney General about this, so you’ve been made fully aware of it. We didn’t discuss that fact in the executive session, but we did discuss all of this fully. We don’t need to have another executive session to take action in this matter. The district attorney will not relinquish these documents to us as long as the investigation is ongoing, and as long as the criminal case is pending. He’s cited two cases which I have reviewed, I think he’s true and right. I think we have no choice but to take no action or to take action that we think is appropriate at this time.”

Worsham told BoMA that Northcott has not found Brice to have been implicated in any criminal activity “thus far,” but added “he said ‘thus far,’ which means the investigation is still ongoing, and I have no way of knowing anything more than I just related to you now.”

“Here’s my take away,” said Amacher, “number one, the fact that we allowed the district attorney to take our documents I take issue with.”

She said she asked Northcott in the meeting he attended “how did you get those documents?” and he stated, “‘well you called us,’ but the Board of Mayor and Alderman never did such, we never voted on such, and I actually would argue that those documents were illegally obtained.”

She cited his lack of search warrant and being under objection to be her reasons for claiming the documents were illegally obtained.

She went on to suggest that BoMA petition the judge overseeing Glick’s pending criminal charges of official misconduct, and she made a motion to do so.

Worsham responded, “There’s a matter called the chain of custody, of items that are the objects of a criminal investigation. The courts will not require the authorities to relinquish control of something that might be evidence in a pending criminal case. We can’t make a motion, we’ll have to file a suit. By the time that suit is heard, y’all might not be in office anymore.”

He added that he thought such a suit “would be a waste of the taxpayer’s money to require anyone to file such a suit. I’m not a criminal lawyer, I have the authority under my contract to retain the services of another lawyer and I would do that, because I don’t think that I’m the appropriate person to do that in the first place.”

He reasserted that the filing of such a suit would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.

After Wilson spoke about the possible return of the documents and the possibility of them being redacted, Amacher added “I don’t understand why we can’t just file a motion to petition the court for the return of property to its rightful owner.”

“A motion is not a petition, Ms. Amacher,” said Worsham, “don’t you know the difference? It’s not, and you know that. This is not the appropriate way to do it.”

“You don’t need these documents to determine whether or not you want this lady to return to work, you don’t need these documents to determine whether or not she violated any of our internal policies–those are totally different from the criminal [investigation].”

He went on to say that BoMA was free to do what Amacher proposed, “That’s alright. I’m not going to debate the matter with her this evening, thank you.”

“What matters to me,” said Berry, “is resolving this. We can’t continue.”

Amacher then made a motion to petition for the returning of the documents seized by Northcott in the investigation, and place Brice on unpaid leave. Wilson seconded to discuss.

“I think that it’s impossible for us to make a decision, when we haven’t done the investigation,” said Wilson. She stated that she didn’t know if it would be possible to ask Brice back to work after what happened.

Glick took his turn to speak after Berry and Knowis responded to Wilson that they already discussed in executive session what would and wouldn’t be appropriate.

“I am speaking tonight under the advice of counsel,” he said, “[my attorney] said it’s perfectly fine for me to speak tonight on any of these issues and to vote.”

He amended Amacher’s motion only to state that Brice should stay on paid leave.

“I do not think we can go forward and make a decision,” said Glick, “when we don’t know any more than we knew on day one, so I think the investigation has to proceed.”

Amacher accepted his amendment, and Wilson seconded again. Berry amended again, specifying that if BoMA receives the documents, they proceed with the investigation, and if the petition is denied, they make a final decision regarding Brice.

Worsham said “These items do need to be redacted, and they may be redacted by the attorney general. But you may proceed, and I hope that I can find an attorney who’s willing to represent the city in a matter such as this.”

Amacher responded that the city doesn’t need anyone else to redact city files for them, they can do it themselves.

At this, Worsham walked swiftly to the podium and said “Y’all probably don’t need me here tonight, but I’m trying to give you advice but it looks like you don’t want to follow it.” He clarified that certain personal information on the HR documents had to be redacted as per Tennessee law. He added that the petition “might be a problem, and might take a while.”

“Do it as you may,” he said, “but in the meantime you are allowing this lady to just be in limbo, and I think we need to move forward on this.”

The motion made by Amacher and seconded by Wilson passed with Knowis and Mann voting in opposition.

The News reached out to Brice for comment, and did not receive a response by press time.