The Biggest Meeting of the Year and YOU WERE NOT INVITED

The largest annual meeting of County and State officials took place in the first week of December to discuss the legislative priorities of Hamilton County in 2012.

At the meeting, County Mayor Coppinger, Mayor's Chief of Staff Mike Compton, County Sheriff Hammond, the Superintendent of the Hamilton County Schools Rick Smith and County Commissioners McClure, Henry, Boyd,  Fields, Skillern, Graham and Bankston as well as Hamilton County Assessor Bill Bennett, Circuit Court Clerk Paula Thompson,  Criminal Court Clerk Gwen Tidwell, Juvenile Court Clerk Gary Behler, Hamilton County Trustee Bill Hullander, and County Clerk Bill Knowles met with State Senators Bo Watson and Andy Berke as well as State Representatives Gerald McCormick, Richard Floyd, Tommie Brown, Joanne Favors, Vince Dean, and Jim Cobb.

The only people missing were.... the public. The constituents. The people that our elected officials are elected to represent. Our absence was understandable, since there was little to no attempt to seriously outreach to the public [Nooga.com journalist Beverly Carroll was not even aware of the meeting until the day of]. When I asked several County and State officials why the public was clearly left out in the cold, I received a variety of very weak and absurd responses: Why would the public want to be here? We do this every year. We're not deliberating after all. The documents are available online, what more do people need?

At the meeting the County presented a handout entitled "Hamilton County 2012 Legislative Priorities" and asked OUR state delegation to support VERY specific demands.

It boggles the mind that our elected leadership would think that the public would not have a vested interest in hearing what the County has set aside as THE major concerns and priorities to be addressed by OUR delegation to the General Assembly. Apparently these legislative proposals are important enough to be selected and presented to the state delegation along with reasons and arguments for a collective commitment to their enactment - but they are not important enough to make a serious case to the public at large, or for the public to be in any way involved.

I believe that the public DOES desire to know what is being done, what is being asked for, what is being prioritized in our name. That is why I recorded the entire meeting:
Part One

Part Two

Of additional interest is County Mayor Coppinger's response to my questions about the Tennessee County Commission Association's proposal to change the Open Meetings Act to effectively bar the public from deliberations on legislation that directly affects us. I had written before that County Mayor Coppinger and County Commissioner Mackey had openly discussed proposing that our state delegation endorse legislation to change the Open Meetings Act. Coppinger said "you misunderstood me, you need to go back and look at the minutes of that meeting ... I was not implying that the law needed to be changed."
I caught the exchange on video:

So I followed Coppinger's advice and went back and transcribed what he said. Here it is:

50 minute mark of County Commission meeting

November 16 2011 regular meeting, Chairman Larry Henry presiding…

Mayor Jim Coppinger: the only reason you are out of the loop is that you are not allowed. Again, I wish you were. You guys might want to ask your delegation to change that. There’s not a way to brief you, except through the person you send to represent you. And we’ve been doing that. Those of us who have been intimately involved through the Commissioner and the Chairman of that Committee, uh, Mitch McClure and I thank you for your participation Mr. McClure. [emphasis added]

County Commissioner Mackey: I don’t want to belabor this and I think the Mayor is right and I do hope that we encourage the state delegation to allow us to do the same things that they can do that they say that we can’t do, which is meet, uh, in a more private setting.

Also of note was Commissioner Tim Boyd's impromptu rants against the Hamilton County Educational Association and his personal endorsement of a proposal to change the Open Meetings Act so as to allow County Commissioners to meet in private.
This exchange was also caught on video:

Commissioner Boyd flat out said "we should have the ability to meet privately" and that "if two or three [Commissioners] want to get together and discuss some issues, I don't see a problem with that."


Tennessee Case Law (McElroy v. Strickland) has ruled that:

“Once the discussion goes beyond the purely procedural matters of when to conduct the meeting and delves into a discussion of the merits of substantive issues then the requirements of the act are invoked.”

Basically, anything beyond the place and time of the next meeting is deliberation according to the law, but that isn't what Commissioner Boyd thinks: "I don't consider it deliberation. I feel like we should be held to the same accountability as our state elected officials as far as me and any discussions that may go on."


Personally, I found a multitude of reasons for the public to be there. I'm sure many of you would have too, had you been invited.