Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin TaylorLet’s get this straight: A state full of attorneys and county commissioners in 95 counties have somehow misread or never read Tennessee law prescribing commissioner pay for the last 40 years — since 1975.
And now that failure might cost taxpayers in Hamilton County alone an additional $4 million in back pay for former and current county commissioners — none of whom initially would own up, by the way, to needing or wanting a raise despite the fact that all but one of incumbent commissioners co-signed a letter asking our Tennessee legislative delegation to remove a 1999 amendment tying commission pay raises to raises for the county mayor.
Something doesn’t quite smell like roses here.
Hamilton County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said he’s writing state lawmakers to ask the Tennessee attorney general to settle a question about what part of state law sets commissioners salaries here — the 1975 law, or the one most every other county has followed since 1978.
Taylor was asked to write the letter by Commissioner Greg Beck — the man who first brought up sending a letter to the delegation asking it to remove the mayor-commission pay link. It seems now that Beck is all about getting 11 years of back pay. He would receive $48,827.
The author of the 1975 law, former Knoxville Mayor and Tennessee state Sen. Victor Ashe, said his bill was meant for three commissioners who were running an entire county government, and it was never intended to last beyond the late 1970s when county governments across the state were revamped by constitutional convention. But the law didn’t go away.
The locally specific 1999 amendment was a shrewd move by our then-county commissioners who wanted a raise but didn’t want to vote one for themselves.
Is this new effort perhaps another shrewd move by some commissioners who want a raise and don’t want to vote themselves one?