June 29, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Fireworks erupted during Monday night’s monthly county commission meeting over a text message by a commissioner to another soliciting a vote allegedly in violation of the state’s Sunshine or Open Meeting Law to bring back Steve Bates as the county’s fiscal agent and financial advisor. A position that was defunded by the commission almost a year ago.
Seventh District Commissioner Bruce Malone claims that “Votes were solicited for Bates (by a commissioner) and a poll of commissioners was taken Monday illegally (prior to the Monday night meeting). That commissioner who did it should resign. He violated the Sunshine Law,” said Malone.
Fifth District Commissioner and budget committee member Jerry Adcock said no one polled him.
“I had a couple of phone calls today and no one even asked me my opinion about things and they didn’t ask me how I was going to vote. I might have volunteered it but nobody asked me to vote either way. I don’t know what went on with anybody else,” he said.
A roll call taken later during the meeting to refund the position and rehire Bates fell one vote short of passage losing 7-4. (eight votes needed for passage). One member, abstained and two commissioners were absent.
After the vote First District Commissioner Julie Young expounded on Malone’s revelation saying she became alarmed after learning that a fellow commissioner and budget committee member (Scott Little) had sent another commissioner (Jenny Trapp) a text message trying to solicit her vote to join seven others committed to voting for the refunding of the position to rehire Bates. That, she said is illegal and a violation of the Tennessee Sunshine or Open Meetings Law.
Young, who left her seat to address the commission from the podium, then read from her mobile phone the text message shared to her.
“It reads Jenny I need one more vote on funding the financial director. Me (being Scott Little), Sabrina (Farler), Jeff (Barnes), Anita (Puckett), Matt (Adcock), Beth (Pafford), and Susannah (Daughtry) are all “yes” votes. Shaee (Flatt) is on vacation. Janice (Stewart) is sick. Myron (Rhody), Bruce (Malone), and Julie (Young) are “no” and who knows what the hell Jerry (Adcock) will do. Shaee and Janice were “yes” votes but they won’t be there. Can we count on your vote? Otherwise it won’t pass tonight”, said Young in reading from the text message.
Young further stated that she had forwarded her finding to the state for “further investigation” and called for the resignations of the commissioner or commissioners involved.
According to Young, a member of the county commission contacted Bates and learned that he would return for $20,000 a year, an increase of $5,000 from what the county had previously paid him.
Although he didn’t respond to Young’s comments during the meeting, Commissioner Little told WJLE after the meeting that he did nothing wrong or illegal.
For several years Bates had worked for the county as fiscal agent/financial advisor, a contracted service. He was brought in during the administration of former County Mayor Mike Foster and stayed on under County Mayor Tim Stribling. His purpose was to give financial direction to the county mayor and members of the budget committee in the preparation of the annual spending plans and they relied on the computer software Bates used to format the budgets because it was easy for them to follow showing actual and proposed budget numbers for the current and following year as well as audited financial performance numbers from the two previous years.
A year ago Bates fell out of favor with some members of the commission and although his annual salary of $15,000 had been included in the 2020-21 budget and adopted last July, the commission approved a budget amendment at the same meeting offered by Commissioner Young to remove the $15,000 line item from the budget. The vote was 8-6.
Young said the county could save that $15,000 dollars paid to Bates each year by securing the services of the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) who could do the same budget preparation work free of charge.
Since Bates’ departure and with the deadline for passage of the 2021-22 budget looming August 31, members of the budget committee have been at a loss trying to get a handle on crunching the numbers without having the benefit of Bates’ knowledge about the budget and the software format he used to prepare it.
Although the budget committee has turned to CTAS County Government Consultant Ben Rodgers for guidance, they haven’t been able to make much progress on the new budget so far.
Commissioner Young, who is a member of the budget committee, said anyone on the committee unwilling to put in the work should step down and “Let someone else who is willing to do the work do it”.
“As a member of the budget committee its time we go line by line, cent by cent with CTAS side by side this year doing the budget with the program that we pay for in the mayor’s office and using CTAS free employees to do the budget that all other counties have this year. Lets work together for the betterment of our citizens”, said Commissioner Young.
Before the text revelation Monday night by Malone and Young, Second District Commissioner Farler moved that the funding for Bates’ position be restored with a $5,000 increase in pay to $20,000 for the year and that he be rehired. Sixth district member Jeff Barnes offered a second to the motion.
“We have had four budget meetings already as we prepare for our budget that needs to be done by August 31 and in the last budget meeting on June 17 I asked about a financial person to help us with our budget. At this time I am making a motion under 51100 County Commission line 325 Fiscal Agent Charges in our budget that we add $20,000 to employ Mr. Bates as financial advisor for DeKalb County. He is knowledgable about DeKalb County and can help us move forward,” said Commissioner Farler.
“I want to know about the scope of the service Mr. Bates provides at a fee as opposed to the service we could get elsewhere at no charge. Is his format more digestable. Is it his advice” asked Third District Commissioner Susannah Cripps Daughtry.
“Mr. Bates is a fiscal agent, financial advisor and he has been doing this for the county many years. I feel like he gives good advice and has more advanced software than what CTAS has to offer. Mr. Bates came to our meetings and did the entire budget and put in audited figures. Mr. Rogers does a great job and he is a CTAS representative but he is not a fiscal agent. We are also one of the few counties around without a finance or budget office. Smith County has a budget office and director with three people. White County has a financial office. Warren County has one and Cannon County has centralized accounting,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling.
Commissioner Malone then questioned Stribling about Bates’ credentials as a financial advisor other than his being qualified to sell bonds. “Who says he is a financial advisor other than him”, asked Malone.
“I don’t know what qualifications he has to be a financial advisor,” answered Stribling.
Commissioner Jerry Adcock defended Bates.
“I have been on the budget committee for eight years and every night right now we are scratching our heads. We don’t know where the money is going or coming from. When he (Bates) was here he would tell us where every penny was going. We knew what was going on when he was here,” said Commissioner Adcock.
After Young called for the commissioner responsible for the text message to admit to breaking the Sunshine Law, Commissioner Little called for the question (vote on the motion to rehire Bates) and County Mayor Stribling directed the roll call vote be taken.
Commissioners voting for restoring funding and rehiring Bates were Sabrina Farler, Janice Fish-Stewart, Scott Little, Anita Puckett, Jerry Adcock, Jeff Barnes, and Matt Adcock. Commissioners Julie Young, Jenny Trapp, Beth Pafford, and Bruce Malone voted no. Commissioner Susannah Cripps Daughtry abstained and Commissioners Shaee Flatt and Myron Rhody were absent.