DUANE SHERRILLEditor

A special called meeting of the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen was held Thursday evening with the board green-lighting the search for human resource firms to assist the city.

The approval by the board, with the exception of Busch Thoma, who voted against the plan, was basically a rehash of the vote taken in their last meeting. However, it was maintained by members of the public that they had violated Roberts Rules of Order in that prior meeting. City Attorney Brittany Hoskins said she didn’t really think a new vote was necessary.

“It’s really a minor error,” said City Attorney Hoskins concerning questions as to whether the city board had correctly abided by Robert’s Rules of Order when they had passed a similar measure authorizing the hunt for HR firms in their last meeting.

She noted the law governing such municipal votes is mainly concerned that those voting on the measure understand what they are voting for.

“I think it is very clear you understood what you were voting on.”

The motion was then amended slightly from its prior version by Alderman Kurt Glick who wished to add the wording that included that the HR firm would receive employee complaints and grievances as a “final step in the process” and to give advice on non-disciplinary HR functions.

One of the important parts of hiring an outside HR firm, Glick pointed out, is to allow employees who have grievances to take it beyond the city administrator and have the outside firm listen to their issues. However, he noted that the employee policy that the city hopes to pass soon, would allow grievances to be solved in-house before they are farmed out to the outside firm–a farming that would be an expense to the city. He clarified the outside HR firm would not be making the final decision.

“They would give the board of mayor and aldermen their decision and they can act on that recommendation any way they want to,” Glick noted.

Alderman Bobbie Wilson agrees that grievances should be handled in-house first.

“This could get costly quick,” she said of consulting an outside firm over employee complaints.

As for the hiring process itself, Glick clarified that once a request for proposal is put out, firms that offered their services could be put under an interview process before the board of mayor and aldermen. Hoskins interjected that such an interview process would have to be open to the public so not to violate the Sunshine Law.

While the board voted to allow the purchasing department to put out the RFP for an outside HR firm, the board will still need to pass the updated personnel policy later to incorporate the HR firm into the wording of the policy.