Appeals court rules against Ramsey, county in blind vendor action

Outgoing Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey was wrong when he refused to allow a state program for the blind to take control of the vending facilities at Silverdale Detention Center four years ago, according to a Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling.

"The county's argument is without merit," Court of Appeals Judge Andy D. Bennett wrote in his decision released Thursday. "In operating its workhouse, a county must comply with the blind vendor provisions."

Tennessee law requires that the state's program for the blind be given a priority in operating and managing the county commissary.

In November 2006, when the Tennessee Department of Human Services tried to enforce that law and take over the commissary and vending machines at the Silverdale workhouse facility and the county's M.L. King Human Services Building on Oak Street, Ramsey said no. He contended that would infringe on the county's contract with Corrections Corporation of America, the workhouse operator.

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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