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Wlaf1450ETHRA owes Campbell County $150,000 in back rent, according to county officials
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- At Monday’s County Commission workshop, commissioners discussed the East Tennessee Resource Agency (ETHRA) saying the entity owed the county backpay on rent for leasing a county building, which ETHRA vacated in November. There was also the question as to whether or not the county could rent the space out since the lease was possibly still active. The building is the Career Center, next to the Health Department, shared with the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism office.
After about 20 minutes of discussion, the commission decided to add it to the agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting to have a vote to “accept ETHRA’s letter stating it had vacated the building, as well as to ask for back pay owed to the county and to ask for an official termination of the lease agreement.”
County Commissioner Beverly Hall brought the topic up on Monday evening, asking county attorney Joe Coker if he had “the opportunity to research the rent that ETHRA owes the county.”
Coker said he had not found any documentation “that when the rent was changed, that any action was taken by the commission”. He said the county clerk and the finance department were still looking. The change in rent dates back to 2013. Coker said his understanding was that on the lease, ETHRA was paying a certain amount each month and then when one of the agencies moved out, they reduced the rent, but there was apparently no action taken by the commission that approved the reduction of the rent.
“Now then you have a second issue of whether or not they gave notice that they were moving out, they were supposed to give prior notice and they did not,” Coker said.
The issue is muddied by the fact that according to Coker, the county has assumed occupation of part of the building and is using it.
“So, there would have to be a certain value assigned to that and it’s just something that this commission can’t decide how it is owed. Ultimately, if you can’t reach some agreement with them on that, it would be a matter that a court would have to say, here is what is owed,” Coker said. He said a real estate agent would be able to put a value on it.
“If the commission wants to take some action on it, I guess you could vote to send a letter to them to make some demand for payment on it,” Coker said.
Commissioner Zach Marlow said, “They (ETHRA) needed to be called out on it, because that is not good business practice.” According to Marlow, it is around $150,000 in back rent owed to the county, not counting utilities.
Marlow said negotiation on the lease under the lease agreement should have taken place in November or ETHRA would be charged for another term, but that the letter the county received was “dated December 1 and postmarked December 17th, “meaning ETHRA did not negotiate in time.”
Coker said the purpose of the prior notice clause was to avoid situations like this.
Marlow said he was concerned it was still an active lease and that the county could not lease it until the lease agreement with ETHRA was dissolved.
Coker said the county could get a letter from ETHRA that dissolved the lease, but that would not absolve ETHRA of having to pay the rent owed.
Commissioner Scott Stanfield said in his opinion, it was not official “until the letter of lease termination was in hand.”
Commissioner Rusty Orick asked to have it put on the agenda for Tuesday to accept the letter from ETHRA that said they had moved out and did not intend to come back, to ask them for an official termination of the lease agreement/abandonment of the contract, as well as ask for back pay on rent from 2013.
“We’re trying to get blood out of a turnip, I am sure, because we are trying to negotiate a new lease with the state, just different departments, but still, it would be worth a try and then hopefully we will get the letter from them stating they have abandoned the contract, so, it will be legal terms, but also requesting back pay,” Orick said. He asked the county attorney if that would be a proper way of handling it.
“What you have is a breach of the lease in two ways, you have breach of payment and you have abandonment of possession, so you have two different things here, so if you sent them a letter of termination, you know, saying we take the position that you have breached the lease, and you have abandoned the possession and you are not coming back, give them some short period of time to respond to it, if they claim they still have some right to possession, I don’t think they are going to, but for the benefit of the record, you would want to do that,” Coker said. This will be voted on next Tuesday at the county commission meeting, which is set for 6pm at the county courthouse. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-02/10/2026-6AM)