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Saturday, February 4, 2017

Busy Tuesday for city council includes rehiring retirees, hiring new city manager, public records policy and more.

The Crossville city council has a very busy Tuesday night with a work session, a special called beer board and a special called meeting to discuss hiring a new city manager.

The meetings get underway February 7 at 5 PM with the work session and at 6 PM the special called beer board will deal with allegations of underage sales by three Crossville beer licensees and the special called council meeting to possibly move forward with hiring a new city manager after interviews that took place January 30 and 31.  The meetings will take place a city hall.



Other items on the work session agenda include the rehiring on a previous retiree and the effect on insurance and retirement benefits. Some questions have cropped up with the rehiring of David Beaty as regular police chief after he took the early retirement buyout from the position 2 years ago. The agenda item is listed as “discussion on rehire of retired employees in a full time status and the effects on the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System."  Beaty, along with a number of other city employees received a lump sum payment of 6 months of salary and continued health insurance at the time they left. It was not expected any of those employees would return to work for the city at the time they left.

Crossville Police Chief David Beaty

One question relates to the healthcare benefits received by the retirees that included a city paid insurance benefit until age 65 and Medicare eligibility. A 2015 spread sheet from the finance department shows that Beaty had been recieving medical, dental and vision insurance at a total cost of $521.11 a month.

 City attorney Will Ridley gave an opinion at the request of former interim city manager Steve Hill that rehired retirees would be eligible to receive the insurance benefit after they left the city's employment after being rehired. Ridley's opinion states that by adopting the retirement plan the city created a contractual obligation to provide the benefit. Ridley wrote, “It is my opinion that Mr. David Beaty will be entitled to continue to receive the bridge insurance at the time of his next separation from the city employment or until he becomes Medicare eligible.”

According to Human Resources Manager Leah Crockett, no other employee hired at the current time would be eligible to continue health insurance after separation. It is also unclear if a rehired retiree employee would keep the bridge insurance if they were fired for cause.

Council will discuss the proposed sale of part of the city's Chestnut Hill landfill property to a non-profit group for use as the proposed Shooting Sports Park. Should the sale of the property be approved by council at their February regular meeting, the sale would have to be advertised for 30 days under a provision of the city Charter. The project has been in the works for almost two years and a large part of the funding will come from TWRA.


With changes approved by the Tennessee General Assembly last year on public records law, the council will consider an update to the related ordinance and a new model policy for access to public records. According to the agenda information the new policy is not substantially different from the city's current policy and ordinance. The new policy requires a report annually to the Council regarding compliance and it requires review every two years. Other small changes including allowing for the use of a requestor provided storage device for electronic records, eliminating any charges that total less than $5.00, and changes in the form for requesting records.

Link to new public records policy (Link downloads a PDF file)

Operation of the city's new corporate hanger at Crossville Memorial Airport will also be up for discussion on the work session agenda including a fee schedule, utilities and other operational items. A final change order will also be discussed returning some $13,000 to the city. The hanger has now been turned over to the city's control.

Other items for discussion include:
  • geotechnical studies to be preformed on the proposed location to be used for the site development grant to construct a ready for construction pad;
  • outside city limits sewer connections;
  • appointment of council member Pamala Harris to the Lake Commission;
  • and a training for council members on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.  

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