Commissioners Meet In Special Session

Building codes, 3 Star 5 Year Plan and the November ballot were all items on the agenda for a special called meeting of the Board of Commissioners.

All commissioners, Mark Barker, Nathan Nichols, Karen Ashford , Todd Hollandsworth, Joe Wimberly, Rebeccah H. Parton, Kevin Mooneyham, Greg Mitchell, Bob Stoetzel and Kevin George were present as was board chairman, Mike Gannon.

The commissioners were asked to approve the Resolution 2010-6 to affirm Compliance with Federal Title VI Regulations. Title VI states; Both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 provide that “no person in the United States, on the ground of race, color or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal assistance; and whereas the Tennessee Attorney General opined in Opinion No. 92.47 that state and local governments are required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in Administering federally funded programs”. In other words the Commission had to confirm that Cannon County is abiding by the law and of course they always have supported Title VI. This is also one stipulation that has to be done to be a Three Star Community. Roll was called and everyone voted “aye” to confirm this resolution.

Commissioners approved the Three Star Five Year Strategic Plan. This plan was put together by Neal Applebaum with the input of the commissioners on a strategic plan to accomplish the county’s goal to continue in the Three Star Program. This plan calls for progressive changes being made over the 5 year period to obtain a certain level of improvements to stay on course for our county to be able to take advantage of the state’s financial assistance for bettering our community to make it more desirable for people to come to Cannon County.

Resolution 2010-7. “Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 67-5-603 (d) permits the county legislative body, in a county included in the FEMA declaration, to approve the applicability of that section so that the property owners within the county affected by the flood of 2010 may make application to the assessor of property for prorated property assessment in accordance with the provisions of Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 67-5-603(d)” this approval gives the right to those affected to come to the Property Assessor to file for relief. The resolution needed to be passed before September 1, 2010. All commissioners voted “Aye”

The Commission needed to set a date for a referendum to legalize the manufacture of intoxicating liquor within Cannon County. In this matter it was not the place of the Commission to avoid this question (either say yes or no). This was not the Commissions’ place to say whether or not the manufacturing of intoxicating liquors should be made in Cannon County. The only job for the Commission was to set the date for a referendum to be held so the citizens of Cannon County could make the decision to allow this plant to be built or not. The requirements to hold the election had been met and the election administration checked all the signatures and the vote will now go to the people in the November election. The commission did not want to set a separate date to have the election because it would cost the county an additional $10,000.00 to 15,000,00 dollars to hold the election sometime in early 2011. Roll was called and the vote was 9 for setting the date and 1 pass. Second district commissioner Karen Ashford passed. The referendum will be held on November 2, 2010.

Consideration of new building codes. Resolution 2010-8 calls for a vote to opt out of the statewide building code standards for one family and two family dwellings in Cannon County.

“Whereas, Public Chapter 529 of the Public Acts of 2009, Known as the Tennessee Clean Energy Future Act of 2009” amends T.C.A. 68-120-101 to apply statewide building code standards to one-family and two-family dwellings:
This action caused a lot of discussion between the commissioners. Fifth District Commissioner Bob Stoetzel asked for the state’s requirement to be to be enumerated and Chairman Gannon said that he didn’t know exactly what was involved. Fourth District Commissioner Parton had done the research on this bill and she said that the grant for the energy efficiency worked that was going to be done on the courthouse was tied to this resolution. She also alluded to how this would help the home owners who are building new houses to have certified builders instead of non-certified, which means that everyone would have to build by the same rules and could not take shortcuts. Second Commissioner Todd Hollandsworth said that the vast majority of the voters who called him were not in favor of having to follow the state’s rule on the building code. He said he was for opting out. Third District Commissioner Kevin George was also against it, because there are too many rules and “people are governed enough already”.

After several minutes of discussion where each commissioners was talking at the same time Commissioner Bob Stoetzel announced that he would stop his part of the discussion saying , “I am done now”. After Gannon clarified that “we could join in at another time (every year in October)” Commissioner Stoetzel made a motion to vote. He even made the motion to opt out. The roll was called and there were 8 (for the opt out) and two Parton and Mooneyham voted against it. The resolution passed.

Chairman Mike Gannon informed the commission that if we didn’t opt out of this resolution to follow the code of the State of Tennessee we would automatically be included in the new law.

At the end of the meeting Chairman Gannon presented plaques of appreciation to the four commissioners that will not be back on the board after September 1. He thanked them for their community involvement. They were Fourth District Commissioner Rebeccah Parton with eight years of service, Third District Commissioner Greg Mitchell also with eight years, Karen Ashford, second district, eight years and Nathan Nichols of the First District with four years. The other commissioners applauded their outgoing comrades.