Commissioners discuss resolutions for legal matters after multi-million dollar lawsuit

Commissioner Zach Marlow, center, is carrying a resolution at next week’s meeting asking for better communication from the county’s insurance pool regarding legal matters. Also pictured at left is Commissioner Rusty Orick and Commissioner Scott Stanfield, right.

By Charlotte Underwood 

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- Commissioners discussed several rules and ethics committee issues on Monday evening at its workshop, including a resolution that requests the county’s insurance company to notify the county of “pertinent legal matters” and asking for “better communication.”

This issue arose as a result of the county’s $6 million dollar judgement to plaintiff Nathan Ling. At last month’s meeting, Commissioners approved a budget amendment for over $4 million to pay the judgment.

Commission Zach Marlow said he planned to carry a resolution requesting “timely transmittal of information of pertinent legal matters to the county commission.

“This passed the rules and ethics committee, I know Joe (County Attorney Joe Coker) has checked in on it and there are still a few things we are still looking into as far as attorney-client privilege, but bottom line is, I think we all know we just paid a $4 million dollar judgment. I heard about the trial starting on the news that night and I would have thought that our insurance company would have notified us if we faced a potential $25 million-dollar legal judgement so this requests from here on out that they at least notify us of court dates and pertinent matters. That would have been very helpful in this. When we are trying to limit the risk, I don’t know why our insurance company didn’t want to share information with us. Local Government Insurance Pool, to me that is unacceptable. Something’s got to give, because the status quo failed on this matter. The county mayor should not hear about it from a county commissioner who just heard about it on the news, that’s just wrong; they need to better communicate with us,” Marlow said.

The resolution request is being sent to the Tennessee Local Government Insurance Pool.

“This is a request … I don’t think we can make them do it, but it does say in the resolution that this request is in addition to, not in substitution to any other policies or procedures that are in effect,” Marlow said.

The other rules and ethics committee issue that Marlow brought up for discussion and which will be voted on next week is to get the county commissioner’s new administrative assistant access to the court’s PACER online system (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) service, so that way the commission can monitor the court docket if they “need to”. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-09/10/2024-6AM)

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