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In their first untelevised study session called to review Charter revisions to be submitted to state legislators, a disagreement about changes erupted that led to Mayor Pro Tem Jenna Amacher leaving the meeting.

This study session came after the board spent some time during their December meeting making corrections to their Charter revision that they plan to have submitted at the end of the month.

The board was making their way through revisions, like ensuring that the language was completely changed so that the current municipal election date will be changed from August to November with the state and federal elections, along with some other small changes or clarification about language.

There was some confusion over whether or not the board could legally change the school board election from August to November.

Andy Farrar, Administrator of Elections for Coffee County, said “You don’t have anything in your charter that sets school board elections, so you just need to do that separately by private act.”

Several board members were confused about this statement.

“What’s the reason to not put it in [the charter]?” asked Alderman Daniel Berry.

“Our attorney just said we needed to see the documents that establish the school board and how it says they’re to be sent,” said Municipal Technical Assistance Service (MTAS) Consultant, Honna Rogers.

City Attorney Stephen Worsham said that he believed the board had authority to implement the change in city code. Amacher agreed with Worsham, as did Berry, who requested that they include language in the charter revision that would enable them to change the election date. There was some discussion regarding extending school board members’ terms and making elections even-yeared only. During this discussion, Farrar interrupted.

“I’m sorry, you cannot change when those school elections happen because those are now called by the parties. So the parties call for the primary election to be held in March or May and the election to be held in August,” he said.

“I don’t think you understand what our intent is,” said Amacher. “Our intent is to do away with the extra election cycle in August and move all of our municipal elections to November.”

 “You cannot do that anymore because the city of Tullahoma does not call for the school board election anymore since it’s now partisan,” Farrar responded. “So you’re going to have a March or May primary, you’re gonna have an August school board election, then you’re gonna have a November Board of Mayor and Aldermen election. So you’re going from used to be one election to three elections in even years.”

This was met with some confusion from Amacher and Berry. Then Farrar said that the parties hold the primaries in August.

“We don’t care when they hold the primary,” said Berry. “We care about their general election.”

At this point, Farrar said that was a question to be answered by an attorney. The conversation ended with the board asking for clarification from MTAS’ attorneys regarding who can set the school board general election.

The board had a list of corrections that were made or going to be made by Rogers, but tension grew between members of the board as the revisions continued, and the board began discussing the city judge section of the charter. There were quite a few small corrections and deletions made to the charter, but when they were specifically looking at a section regarding contempt of court which was worded somewhat out of date, argument sparked.

“It proves that we didn’t look at this very closely,” said Amacher. “If my name is going on it, then I want it perfect.”

“It’s not going to be perfect,” Knowis stated.

“I want it to be as close as possible,” responded Amacher. “And if it’s like ‘I don’t care about that,’ when we know that it’s outdated to me, that says we didn’t do our due diligence.”

This comment drew some disagreement amongst the board.

“That’s your opinion,” said Alderman Derick Mann. “See that’s why we’re afraid to say anything–”

“because we don’t want to get into all this. It’s better just to say fine, take it out,” added Berry.

“Okay, could I finish a sentence before you guys jump on me?” Amacher asked.

“Oh believe me,” said Berry, “You will.”

Amacher said “Okay, that’s fine. I’m gonna throw it right back at you, apparently we have two know-it-alls. So you have a law degree and you have a law degree,” she said to Berry and Mann, “but I could have brought it up to the one who actually does have a law degree. They’re talking about contempt of court, are they not?”

Worsham affirmed that the charter wording was talking about contempt of court.

“So, if we were going to bring it up to today’s terminology, we could say the provision of contempt of court include, etc.” said Amacher.

“Well that’s true,” said Worsham, “but I don’t think it makes any difference.”

There was some more exchange about small changes like “indecorous language” that Amacher wanted to change when Alderman Jerry Mathis interrupted.

“I thought we went over this the other night,” he said. Argument broke out between members again before Amacher said “Well, we skipped over this because we said the city judge was going to revise it and so this is the revised version.”

“We skipped over this because we went around and nobody had any questions on it,” said Berry. “That’s the reason we skipped over it, because we were all supposed to take it home, look at it and then when we came to the board meeting, we were supposed to say–”

“Well obviously none of us saw this,” interrupted Alderman Bobbie Wilson.

“Don’t say none of us because I’m okay with it,” said Berry. Mann added that he, too, was okay with leaving the language as it was.

Amacher brought up a previous correction regarding street gaming and public drunkenness. “We were just talking about how that was so outdated–”

“No, you were talking about that,” interrupted Berry. “We just sat here and didn’t say anything because fine, if you want to take it out, take it out. I was okay with it.”

“It’s fine to read through it multiple times and make sure we miss anything,” said Amacher.

“Just saying, we did it at home,” Berry replied.

“We did too!” Amacher responded. “So how about you quit making the assumption that we didn’t. It’s when you read something for the 30th time you might catch something you didn’t before.”

“That’s why you proofread it over and over and over sometimes,” added Wilson.

There was a pause before Berry said he was okay with taking the outdated language out.

Knowis brought order and said they would take a poll regarding the changes. “Keep it or delete it,” was the poll Knowis said before going around the room. He asked Mathis first, who said they should just keep the language. At this time, Amacher could be seen standing up and putting her pen and notes in her bag.

“You guys got your November crap, I guess y’all are done. So I guess I’m going to exit. Do whatever you want,” she said. As she got up, she addressed The News to “put it on the record that once these two (pointing at Mann and Berry) get their November election change, they don’t care about anything else.”

“Oh, so you tell them what to do too?” asked Mann.

“Yeah, oh, I’m sure they’re going to write it so,” she responded. At this point, she was halfway through the meeting room nearing the exit.

“Hey, I’m good,” said Amacher. “Y’all have a great evening. If I’m going to be disrespected, I’m going to leave.”

Then Amacher walked out of the room. There was a short recess after, before the board continued reviewing for another 20 minutes, and then adjourning shortly after.