Commission approves hiring former finance director

‘I believe Jeff Marlow will not be retired until September 26‘– Chairman Johnny Bruce

By Charlotte Underwood

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- A budget amendment was approved by county commissioners on Monday evening to hire former County Finance director Jeff Marlow in a temporary year-long position to write guidelines and policies for the county’s Hotel/Motel tax collection, along with several other county finance projects that Marlow has been “involved in from the beginning.”

The hiring of Marlow for the temporary position passed with 10 yes votes, and three county commissioners voting no.  This included Commissioner Beverly Hall, Commissioner Chris Paul and Commissioner Dewayne Baird. Commissioners Scott Stanfield and Dewayne Gibson were absent.

Budget amendment 9-8 states “the need exists for a temporary position to facilitate efficient completion of various county projects currently underway and to promote continued effective decision making by the county commission regarding future projects considered and/or implemented through August 31^st, 2026, and to develop policies and procedures for the collection of hotel/motel tax derived from short-term rentals not administered through short-term rental marketplaces (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, etc.) which are remitted directly to the Tennessee Department of Revenue and then forwarded to the county clerk pursuant to the provisions of Public Chapter 787 that became effective January 1, 2021.” The amendment also says that “there is a need for managerial assistance of the General Debt Service Fund in the County Mayor’s Office and that these two functions will be collectively configured a 32 hour/4 day per week position with approximately 12 hours per week relating to debt service management assistance and 20 hours per week relating to county projects. Former Director of Finance Jeff Marlow has agreed to serve in this capacity through December 31^st, 2026, at a salary of approximately $2,650 per month for debt service management assistance and $4,350 per month for project management assistance.” The salary for Marlow equals $84,000. The budget amendment is for $45,000, with the remainder of the money coming from the county mayor’s office and the county clerk’s office budgets.

This amendment was approved by the County’s Delinquent Tax Committee at its September 3^rd meeting and also approved by the county’s budget and finance committee, which met September 8th.

The amendment was part of a package of amendments 9-1-through 9-19. The first seven budget amendments 9-1 through 9-7 pertained to the school district, while the rest pertained to the county. Commissioner David Adkins made the motion at Monday’s meeting to pass the amendments, while Commissioner Rusty Orick seconded that motion. Commissioner Dewayne Baird asked if commissioners could vote on the amendments for the county individually.

Chairman Johnny Bruce asked Adkins if he was open to that suggestion.

“We debated them all last week Mr. Chairman, I don’t see the need for that,” Adkins said.

Baird said he felt the items should be voted on individually, especially the budget amendment pertaining to the temporary position hiring Jeff Marlow.

“Secondly, just for clarification, I was told that the income, that we are doing a budget amendment for $45,000, is that correct, but his salary is $84,000 … When I done the numbers, 32 hours a week, that’s 1,664 hours, so that’s $50.48 an hour we’re paying for this position, when our finance director is being paid $48.07 an hour, how is that? Does that make sense to anybody, why is this position paying more than our finance directors, that’s all I got,” Baird said.

Commissioner Chris Paul said Baird had summed it up for him as well.

“He pretty much covered the same thoughts I had, I don’t understand why we are in such a hurry without discussing with him (Eric Pearson) if his office can cover this. Also, it does not make sense to me why we would pay him more than we pay our new finance director and then, if there is things he can do now that he hasn’t done before, my question would be then why didn’t he do them before when he was the director for however many years. I think we should explore other options before we just pay out for a temporary position,” Paul said.

Commissioner Beverly Hall asked if Jeff Marlow officially retired from the county.

Chairman Johnny Bruce said, he believed he would not be retired until September 26th.

Current finance director Eric Pearson said he was not sure Marlow could be considered retired, especially if he was going to continue as a county employee.

Bruce asked to take the vote for the motion that was on the floor.

“So, we are bundling them all together like the big-time guys do, bundle them all together, that way one can get passed with the others,” Baird said.

Commissioner Adkins asked if he could address the question.

“All these budget amendments were discussed and voted on last week at the budget and finance committee and passed according to the commission’s policy and regulations and the state law that requires us to do those type of meetings, they were all voted on, they were all debated at that time, and they were all passed, there was no shadiness, as far as the bundling of the budget amendments, they were all talked about last week, they were all put forth at a public meeting and they were voted on and passed, that’s why I made the motion accordingly,” Adkins said.

Commissioner Rusty Orick said the recommendation had also come out of the delinquent tax committee.

“And David’s right, every time stuff goes through the budget and finance committee, it’s usually bundled and done as a whole. But all this on Jeff’s position, we actually had a delinquent tax meeting that was set for that purpose with the hotel/motel tax and there wasn’t anything shady done. Some of the members that were on that committee were not there and there were some fill-ins which the state allows us to do unless it’s statutory committee. Now, we have multiple options that we were facing, some of them with Caryville Jacksboro, some with ARP funding, some of them with projects, one of the biggest discussions was putting the burden on the new finance director and a lot of people are still under the impression that the finance director is a project manager, he’s not. Now Jeff Marlow took this on years ago before I came here and continued doing it for the county. The county is moving $45,000 to bring this position to life to take care of this hotel/motel tax and oversee the projects for a year… this is not a permanent job by no means, it is for one year, and to get this money, for me as a commissioner, we have to look at the end result, which is bringing revenue in to this county and bringing revenue is, if it’s to hire a person and do a budget amendment for $45,000 to bring half a million dollar in revenue in, yes, I will support it,” Orick said.

Budget Amendments 9-1 through 9-19 were approved with 10 yes and three no votes. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-09/16/2025-6AM)