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Wlaf1450
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- County Commissioners approved a motion on Tuesday evening, asking for the East Tennessee Resource Agency (ETHRA) to provide $150,000 back pay in rent that county officials feel is owed to the county from EHRA’s lease of the career center building. The motion was also to “accept ETHRA’s letter stating it had vacated the building, “effective November 30th, 2025.”
At last Monday’s County Commission workshop, the topic was brought up by Commissioner Beverly Hall that ETHRA owed the county backpay on rent for leasing the county building. There was also the question as to whether or not the county could rent the space out since the lease was still active and whether or not ETHRA had violated the lease agreement by not submitting correct notification on time for a lease negotiation.
A letter of response from ETHRA’s Executive Director Gary W. Holiway “regarding the allegations of $150,000 in Back Rent” was read into record at Tuesday’s meeting by Commission Chairman Johnny Bruce. The letter had been sent to County Mayor Jack Lynch and addressed to Lynch and the commission. According to Lynch, he had just received the letter via email shortly before Tuesday’s meeting.
Holiway’s letter lists three points of documentation and urged the county to review the documentation “before pursing legal action against ETHRA.”
Documentation listed included:
1. Rent payment history, which shows Campbell County accepted ETHRA’s rent payment of $2,850 for 144 months/12 years without objection, notice of adjustment, or demand for additional sums. Note: $2,850 was the adjusted rent agreed to by the parties in November 2013, after the TN Department of Labor and Workforce Development vacated 2,008 square feet of the building.
2. December 9, 2014 letter from the Chamber of Commerce, sent with the knowledge and acquiescence of Campbell County Mayor E.L. Morton, demonstrating he parties’ mutual intent and understanding that the 2009 “lease agreement between Campbell County and ETHRA has matured and ended effective Nov. 30, 2014.” Note: ETHRA received no subsequent rent adjustment after the Chamber ceased reimbursing ETHRA, and began, presumably, paying the County directly for its occupancy starting in December, 2014. EHRA additionally has internal notes and emails showing that the Agency reached out to the County multiple times over several years (2017-2020), requesting a written lease agreement be executed. Although the County was not responsive to these requests, the existence of such documentation further demonstrates that the mutual understanding of the parties was that they did not have a current valid lease agreement in effect.
3. Utility bill history, which shows amounts paid by ETHRA for the buildings’ utility expenses, with no apparent offsets provided for County or Chamber occupied space.
County Commissioner Rusty Orick said that he didn’t think the county would be able to recoup any funds.
“In light of what the letter says, an agreement was worked out in 2013, now I don’t see we are going to be able to go after the funding, It’s telling us that they had an agreement from 2013, which we didn’t know it, the commission didn’t know it … does anyone feel we need to go any further and request the funds,” Orick asked.
Commissioner Beverly Hall said that from what she heard about the county leasing buildings, they “never got paid and needed to stop leasing buildings.”
“Put that on the record,” Hall said.
Commissioner Zach Marlow said it was brought to his attention in 2023 and that to his knowledge, no action was ever taken by the commission, past or present.
“So, this idea that any one person or official can act on behalf of this body, that is just not the case, so I would still argue that there is money owed … that is bad business on their part,” Marlow said, adding that he didn’t want to criticize ETHRA, but the situation was “bad all the way around.”
Commissioners once again asked County Attorney Joe Coker to weigh in on the issue.
“Let me say, first of all, when we discussed this last week, we didn’t have copies of some of these documents and this is the first time I have seen this letter tonight, I want to bring your attention to this lease,” Coker said, adding that he had sent copies of everything he had found regarding the lease and had also sent copies to the County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS) and had asked for advice on it from the agency’s legal advisor.
Coker went over the original lease agreement from the January 1, 2009, document and that was between ETHRA and Campbell County Tennessee. He said the rent was calculated at $6.50 per square foot based on “occupied space” for a total of $3,937.79 per month.” It was a yearly lease, with the renegotiation period for the lease in November of each year.
Coker read the legal response from CTAS regarding the issue.
“I sent these documents to CTAS and asked their opinion about it, including what the statute of limitations would be and if there would be any money that would be owed … the legal consultant for CTAS said based on the information, it sounds like the county never objected to receiving the full amount of rent since 2013, if that is the case, it is very unlikely that a court will award the county all that back rent. As you know, the statute of limitations is six years, so I don’t think the county could get anything beyond six years if the county filed a claim for the money today. There is also an argument that could be made that since the county continued to accept the lesser amount for more than ten years, that a new rental agreement was formed. The county could try to ask ETHRA for the money, but I don’t think a court would award much, if any money back to the county, since the county never objected to receiving a lesser amount,” Coker said, reading the response from the CTAS legal advisor.
Orick said that he wanted the commission to make sure “going forward” that everything is spelled out in any lease agreements the county does with the state or anyone in the future.
“Going forward with this before we start doing a contract with DCS, the verbiage needs to be worked out on the lease contract that it must come before the chairman of the commission and be voted on by the commission,” Orick said, adding that it was a “communication breakdown back in 2013″ that had caused this problem.
He also asked Coker if he would be able to represent the county on the issue. Coker said that yes, he could.
“Like we talked about last week, you may not get anything if you do ask, but you definitely won’t get anything if you don’t ask,” Coker said. He suggested that the letter should come from the county mayor though as one “official to another.”
County Commissioner David Adkins asked to “what end” was this being done, saying that he could not support a filing of a lawsuit after the advice from CTAS.
Orick clarified it would just be a letter requesting the payment rather than a lawsuit yet.
Coker again said he felt the letter should come from the mayor rather than a lawyer.
“It appears to me that they have already told us they aren’t going to pay, Adkins said.
“I guess when we meet next month, once we find out, I am sure they will send the same letter again and then, we will have to make a decision on whether or not we want to sue the state, I guess” Orick said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-02/18/2026-6AM)