John Coffelt, Editor

Communication Center Director Scott LeDuc officially resigned his position with Coffee County during the county 911 Board meeting Wednesday, June 19 effective immediately. He will however remain in his position as financial director of the Communication Center.

 LeDuc cited a toxic work environment as the reason for his resignation.

 “You get hired… this place was in disarray…you work your butt off and somehow with all the ground that we’ve made here, somebody’s unhappy with me,” LeDuc said during the meeting.

 LeDuc said that attacks and harassment by the Communication Committee has created a toxic work environment.

 “Unfortunately, I cannot work in that condition,” he said. “I refuse to work in that condition.”

 LeDuc complained that he was unfairly disciplined during a recent open meeting for allegedly driving his company vehicle somewhere not allowed.

“I don’t deserve that, especially in a public forum,” LeDuc said. “If someone has a question or a problem, or a fact, I have done every single thing they asked me to do and they continually, purposely change the rules.”

911 Board Chairman Tim Stubblefield said the meeting in question was a special called private meeting to discuss the matter. 911 Board Attorney Mike Mahan, who was just learning of that special called meeting, questioned the legality of holding it in private.

 Mahan noted that LeDuc in his role as financial director works for the 911 board. The board questioned if a new director, the Communication Commission and LeDuc could work peacefully together in the future.

 911 Board Member Mark William told LeDuc he was impressed with what he has accomplished.

 “I hate to know that was the way you were treated and that it got to the point where you feel like that was the what you feel you had to do,” William said.

 Missy DeFord, chairman of the Communication Center Commission, said following the meeting that, “As chairman of the board, he had over hired positions that weren’t in the budget and gave the board false information that was addressed by the budget director and other board members.”

She said that “our board has been super patient with him and all the issues that have went on,” also noting that the Communication Commission did not meet for its regular scheduled June 19 meeting due to a lack of quorum because of the Juneteenth holiday.  

 LeDuc was named the fulltime Coffee County 911 Communications Center Director in July 2021 by the Coffee County Consolidated Communications Committee. He was acting as interim following the February 2021 termination of then-director Diane Argraves at the time.

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.