DUANE SHERRILLEditor

An executive session has been called for this Monday after city administrator Jason Quick threatened legal action against the city of Tullahoma claiming the mayor has created an atmosphere of intimidation and hostility toward him and other city employees.

“This executive session involves an email the city administrator sent indicating he might be considering legal action against,” Mayor Lynn Sebourn announced during the recent meeting of the board of mayor and alderman.

An executive session is held behind closed doors, usually to consult with legal counsel. The public and press are not allowed to attend.

“Obviously Mr. Quick should not be present for that portion of the discussion,” the mayor noted, adding the board would have to vote to exclude Quick from the private session. Quick was present in the room when the vote was taken. The board voted not to exclude him.

Later in the meeting, Quick addressed the email that the mayor referred to, noting those were not the first emails the city board or city legal team has received.

“I apologize to the city of Tullahoma that this is happening but at the same time I just don’t think that things that are occurring behind the scenes are correct and accurate and I think the city of Tullahoma should know that,” he said. “I have sent three emails to our city attorneys. One has to do with contract violations. The others have to do with the actions of our current mayor and the way he has created an environment of hostility, intimidation and threats towards me and how that has impacted every city department and has put all of our employees on edge because they are not sure what their status is.”

He added that the contract violations he brought up are the least of his concerns. “I’m more concerned about my city employees, those that I stand behind, and ensuring they feel safe in the work they do and they feel committed to staying on board and not out looking for another job because they are afraid of an outsourcing.”

One aspect of the tension comes from a plan to hire an outside law firm to assess the city administrator’s job performance. The firm would be paid $20,000. There was also talk of outsourcing much of the city’s Human Resources department.

Alderman Matthew Bird admitted he may be the reason for the plan to hire an outside law firm.

“With some of the concerns that have been brought to the board, MTAS’ recommendation was to reach out to Travelers, our insurance company. They recommended a specific lawyer that has helped in instances like this before.”

City Attorney Brittany Hoskins pointed out the attorney in question recently did a similar assessment for Franklin. She noted that the attorney could also help them make sure their HR policies are appropriate.

As for the letters sent to the city by Quick, Hoskins said the city administrator has indicated he believes the city has violated his contract by not performing the evaluation.

“It would be hard for the seven of you, mostly who just have contact with him during board meetings, to conduct an evaluation,” Hoskins said. “It is appropriate for you to hire an outside, neutral party to come in and do the evaluation to assist you.”

“Mr. Quick said he would welcome an evaluation,” said City Attorney Stephen Worsham, noting such an evaluation would likely include a survey of city employees.

Alderman Jerry Mathis is against hiring outside attorneys or HR specialists.

“I am totally against this,” he said. “We are elected by the city of Tullahoma. We are elected to do our job. I have been on this board for 14 years and all of this time we have been able to evaluate our administrator and our staff without any problem whatsoever.”

He questioned why someone would need to be brought in to do what the board has done for years.

“For us to bring a group in here and have to pay them to evaluate our city administrator is way out of line and I will not vote that in at all,” he said.

Attorney Hoskins clarified that the city’s legal team was tasked to look into outsourcing HR and IT and to also look into getting performance reviews for employees who are required to have them by their contracts.

“Those are big ticket items and are going to take a little time,” she revealed of the HR and IT portions, adding they were tasked to make the evaluation of the city administrator timelier.

At that point, a back-and-forth happened between Mayor Sebourn and Alderman Glick as the alderman spoke up in the midst of Hoskins’ explanation.

“The whole thing is out of order,” Glick responded to the mayor pounding his gavel and telling him he was out of order.

“Please refrain from talking until you are recognized,” the mayor countered, allowing the city attorney to finish her statement.

“I have never been in favor of getting help evaluating the city administrator,” Glick said when he was recognized to speak. “I don’t think I need help with the one employee and possibly two other employees that this board would evaluate. I feel very comfortable doing that myself as I was elected to do. Is that why we are increasing taxes? To evaluate the city administrator? I don’t think that’s a good use of funds.”

In the end the city board voted 4-2 against the motion concerning getting an outside firm to evaluate the city administrator.