JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Coffee County Legislative Committee discussed possible changes to County Commission procedural rules concerning documents posted with a particular agenda during its regular meeting July 1.

One of the changes implemented when the late County Mayor Judd Matheny took office was to include the month’s committee meetings’ agendas in the County Commission meeting agenda.

Interim County Mayor Dennis Hunt upon taking office reviewed the county resolutions related to procedural rules and found that they did not account for the inclusion of committee minutes.

Legislative Chairman Joseph Hodge said that the he has been approached by several commissioners who want the minutes returned to the agenda packet.

“When it appears in an agenda packet, it’s made public because that’s published online,” Hodge said. “But those packets are also available (to the public) on a table in the meeting. They made a really good accountability for all the activity for government.”

Video from all county meetings is available to stream on the county website and provides a reference for county commissioners concerning meetings that they cannot attend. Once approved, meeting minutes are posted on the website.

“But if you need to get to some information very quickly instead of sitting down and watching an hour or so of committee meetings…you can get concisely that information,” Hodge said.

Hodge said the only desire of the Legislative Committee is to communicate in a “clear, transparent and accountable” way.

Commissioner Frank Watkins said he would like to have the information available to him prior to the meeting because it allows him to be more informed about the vote.

The Policies and Procedures Committee approved amendments to the policy during its June 17 meeting. That document was not available on July 1 for the Legislative Committee to approve and forward to the full Coffee County Commission.

Hodge presented a draft of the policy amendments to the committee for discussion. No action was taken at the meeting on the matter.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.