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Thursday, June 2, 2016

Animosity apparent in relations between some council members. Accusations and shoulders thrown.

The Crossville city council's budget work session had a few moments of friction between some council members but the real issue came after the meeting was over when according to statements, one council member allegedly bumped another council member as they were leaving city hall.

The incident involved council member Pete Souza and Jesse Kerley. Kerley stated that Mr. Souza was speaking angrily to Jerry Kerley, Kerley's father and Crossville director of water resources.   Councilman Kerley said he informed Mr. Souza to stop. According to  Councilman Kerley, Mr. Souza then bumped councilman Kerley with his shoulder as he was going out the door.

Howard Burnette of the Crossville Recall group was reportedly in the parking lot at the time of the interaction and others are believed to have seen the incident as well. The city hall's video camera's may have captured the incident and Councilman Kerley reported the incident to Crossville Police Chief Rod Shoap right after it happened.

Several times during the meeting discussion Mr. Souza and Mr. Kerley traded glares with each other. In addition, during the discussion of the downtown sidewalk project, Mr. Kerley and Mayor James Mayberry had brief angry words over Kerley's accusation of benefit to Mr. Mayberry from the sidewalks.

Animosity continues to surround the council over Mr. Souza's involvement with the recall movement against Council members Danny Wyatt and Pamala Harris and the split votes over firing the previous city manager.

During the budget work session, the council cut all funding by 10 percent to the non-profits while adding a number of project back into the budget that took the budget from $557,041 in the red up to just over $1 million in the red. Funds to cover the deficit will come from the city's rainy day fund that holds over $10 million.


More details on the budget changes to come.

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