Editor

County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) has given County Commissioner Phillip Mabe a response to his letter claiming conflict of interest in the Sept. 27th county commission budget vote.

In his letter to CTAS, Mabe cited Tennessee Code Annotated 12-4-101, which states that any commissioner that is employed by the county must make the following declaration: "Because I am an employee of (name of governmental unit), I have a conflict of interest in the proposal about to be voted. However, I declare that my argument and my vote answer only to my conscience and to my obligation to my constituents and the citizens this body represents."

Mabe attempted to challenge the votes of five commissioners during the meeting on the basis of TCA 12-4-101, but his challenge was disallowed after County Attorney James Estep III ruled that as he understood it, the commissioners in question have made the declaration in prior meetings.

"The chairperson of a commission has the authority under Roberts Rules of Order and most other procedural rules of legislative bodies to determine points of order like your challenge," David Connor, CTAS Legal Consultant responded in his letter.

Unhappy with the ruling, Mabe said that CTAS essentially said that Roberts Rules of Order supercedes state law.

Connor also said that TCA 12-4-101 does apply to the Claiborne County Commission.

"If there are members of the Claiborne County Commission who were county employees prior to their election to the legislative body, those members should disclose their potential conflict of interest in matters before the legislative body by making the statement described in the statute above [TCA 12-4-101] at the time of the vote," he stated later in the letter.

As to the question of the legality of the budget, Connor said that "the county budget will therefore be presumed valid until a challenger successfully demonstrates to a court that it was adopted illegally."

During the November meeting of the commission, Mabe distributed copies of the letter from CTAS to fellow commissioners, but little was said about it.

Mabe said he personally would not challenge the budget in court, but if any citizen would like to challenge the budget - which called for a tax increase - he would be happy to provide all of the information that he has to them.

"To me, they railroaded the budget through and didn't follow the true budget process," said Mabe.

Mabe sent a letter to Estep dated Oct. 5th, requesting that he obtain a ruling from the Attorney General's Office about the issue of conflict of interest.

"I would like to know the appeals process where the county attorney gives an opinion contrary to Tennessee Code Annotated on any opinion given by the county attorney that comes before the court," Mabe also requested in the letter.

Mabe said that to date, he has had no response to his letter.

Estep was out of town on a court matter and unavailable for comment.