Cumberland County Commission Meeting
The September 2024 meeting of the Cumberland County Commission was held tonight with all in attendance except Commissioner David Gibson. This was the first meeting for Commissioner Wiley Potter since his recent election. Welcome Commissioner Potter!
The Woody Convenience Center at 6598 Highway 127 North has been paved. Getting this center moved and opened during the road construction has been quite a task, but it is basically complete at this point. The road that leads to the center is not on county property, but TDOT has graded and smoothed it to help. They are going to put the base coat of pavement on it during the next several weeks (it will be a while), and then the finish coat of pavement will be put down toward the end of the project. Until then, it may be a little bumpy but that is outside of the county’s control.
The new business for the evening was to elect officers, set Commission committees and to reappoint Philip Burnett as the County Attorney. I was unanimously elected Chairman, Terry Lowe was elected Chairman Pro-Tem in an 11-6 vote, and Nancy Hyder was elected Parliamentarian unanimously. The committee assignments and the reappointment of Philip Burnett were both unanimous. My office is working on getting the committee assignments updated on the county website. It may take a day or so, but they will be updated soon.
The Cumberland County Assessor of Property’s Office will be discontinuing the current personnel policies in use for all personnel falling under the direction of the office, and adopting the current version of the Personnel Policy/Employee Handbook. This change will become effective September 16, 2024. I want to thank Assessor of Property Kelli Buchannon for looking over these policies and moving the department to the county general policies. It certainly can make the job of the county attorney and HR Director much easier with fewer sets of policies to deal with as more elected officials and departments adopt the county wide policies. I believe it is best for everyone, from the taxpayer to the employee, if all offices adopt these standard policies that give consistency and parity. Hopefully this trend will continue for the remaining couple of offices.
Resolutions
The following resolutions were considered by the Cumberland County Commission. The sponsor of the resolution is in parenthesis.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-1 – TO APPOINT MEMBERS TO THE ETHICS COMMITTEE (FOSTER). Deborah Holbrook, Chris King, George Harrison, Valorie Cox, and Josh Selby were appointed to the Ethics Committee via unanimous vote of the commission.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-2 – TO REAPPOINT MEMBER TO THE TRI-COUNTY INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF CUMBERLAND, MORGAN, AND ROANE COUNTIES (FOSTER). Sonya Rimmer, in a 17-0 vote, was reappointed as a member of the Tri-county IDB.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-3 – TO APPOINT MEMBER TO THE CUMBERLAND COUNTY REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION (FOSTER). Nathan Brock was appointed to the Regional Planning Commissioner with a term to expire August 31, 2028. The vote was unanimous.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-4 – TO REAPPOINT THE POSITION OF COUNTY ATTORNEY (FOSTER). Philip Burnett was reappointed as the County Attorney through October 31, 2026 in a 17-0 vote.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-5 – TO ADOPT THE PROVISIONS OF TENNESSEE CODE SECTION 54-10-216 FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING A PROCEDURE FOR THE OPENING AND/OR CHANGING OF PUBLIC ROADS (WILSON). The Cumberland County Regional Planning Commission recommended these provisions be adopted by the full Cumberland County Commission in order for the Commission to continue to have the ability to change roads. A two-thirds majority was required to pass the resolution, which was successful. The vote was 15-1-1 in favor, with Commissioner Davis voting against and Commissioner Seiber abstaining.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-6 – TO ESTABLISH AN UPDATED OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH PROGRAM PLAN, DEVISE RULES AND REGULATIONS, AND TO PROVIDE FOR A SAFETY DIRECTOR AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH PROGRAM PLAN (FOSTER). This was an update to a policy that simply changed the point of contact from the EMA Director, to the HR Director, and was approved unanimously.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-7 – TO RESCIND RESOLUTION 09-14-2023-6 (SHERRILL). This resolution was set to repeal an earlier resolution that required the Road Superintendent to file a plan in order to receive $2 million in additional funds for the roads, but the resolution was replaced by the road plan that was submitted by the Road Superintendent this afternoon and was approved 17-0.
RESOLUTION 09-2024-8 – GENERAL FUND, BUDGET AMENDMENT, ELECTION COMMISSION (LOWE). This resolution approved a 100 percent grant in the amount of $35,833 for the Election Commission to use to purchase security carts. The resolution was approved unanimously.
Financial Update
The Cumberland County Codes Department issued 31 building permits, 28 general mechanical permits, and 27 general plumbing permits in August 2024. A total of $38,147 in fees were collected.
Financial data for the new year is beginning to come in. The EMS department collected $570,923 this month for a year-to-date total of $758,958 which is $8,962 above projections. To make the annual budget of $4.5 million, monthly collections need to average $375,000.
The first month of sales tax collections for the BOE for this fiscal year came in at $1,459,059 which was $45,387 above projections. Property tax notices were mailed today so those figures will start to come in next month. Hotel/Motel tax collections are $139,307 which is 11.13 percent of the annual $1,251,275. After one month of revenue, prisoner boarding collections are $44,526 of a $386,952 annual budget.
Thank you for being part of the solution and for the opportunity to serve as your County Mayor. If you are interested in hearing my thoughts and views on news, events, and activities in Cumberland County, please subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
Thank you.
Allen Foster
Cumberland County Mayorhttp://allenfoster.com
allenfoster.com 