If MOU isn’t signed by Tuesday, it could put the insurance of 750 school employees at risk

By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- Whether or not the county finance director Jeff Marlow should sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) from the state’s Benefits of Administration as the school system’s fiscal officer has created a potential insurance issue for Campbell County School employees.
The school board, along with its lawyer Dale Cantrell and County Attorney Joe Coker discussed the issue for nearly two hours at Tuesday’s BOE meeting.

If the MOU isn’t signed by next Tuesday, it could put the insurance of 750 school employees at risk, according to school officials.
The issue seems to stem from a “change in how the Benefits Administration in Nashville defines what a fiscal officer is” resulting in Marlow not wanting to sign the MOU, according to County Attorney Joe Coker.
During Tuesday’s meeting, BOE members approved Director Fields to request for a time extension from the state on having the MOU signed. Fields said she hoped to have an answer on that extension request by Wednesday. BOE members also approved for board chair Jeffrey Miller and Fields to reach out to the state and Marlow to see if Marlow could/would sign it with his regular title of County Finance Director on the MOU, rather than as the school system’s fiscal officer.
According to Cantrell, Finance Director Jeff Marlow has always signed the agreement each year, and in “his opinion should be the one to sign it” as he is the school’s fiscal officer under the 1981 Financial Management Act.
The ’81 act is “designed for small counties to not have finance directors for each department. The ’81 act lumps all fiscal authority into one entity, your county finance director then he serves as the fiscal officer for multiple departments,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell said unless something had changed, he felt that Marlow was who should sign.
“Marlow as your County Finance Director has always signed any memorandum of understanding that is related your all’s health insurance since I have been here in 2002,” Cantrell said.
The school board, school director, Cantrell and “other county officials” received an “email from Miss Lee, who is the director of this program at the state level. It was a detailed email she provided past MOUs signed by the finance director, emails where that indicated that it was his responsibility, I was asked to review it and I agree with everything with what the state said,” Cantrell said. He said he “was at a loss” and that “he felt the state had answered the question.”
“I’m not grasping what has changed, what’s the problem with signing the document to keep your employees insured,” Cantrell said.

“We’re talking about a dotted line for some one to put their name on it to be documented. The consequences of not signing that dotted line is our employees of this school system may lose the services of their health care next Friday or 30 days after, and that is unacceptable. People don’t deserve to be treated this way and to have to worry about this,” said BOE chair Jeffrey Miller. He asked Cantrell to get with Coker on a solution.
“The solution is to have Jeff sign the document” Cantrell said.
County Attorney Joe Coker weighed in on the issue.
“Everybody here realizes how important this is and that it needs to be resolved as soon as possible. It is not just as simple as it looks on the surface. Dale said he doesn’t understand what has changed, what, from Mr. Marlow’s point of view, from what he has conveyed to me, the Benefits Administration in Nashville has changed the way they view what a fiscal officer is …What Mr. Marlow has said in his emails that he has sent, is that up until now he had viewed his role in this as clerical, where he would process and write checks, but he didn’t have anything to do with the management part of it, which is what Benefits Administration is saying now,” Coker said.

Coker said he asked the state to clarify the issue because in the memorandum, there was no definition for fiscal officer.
“The emails that Miss Lee sent don’t address that issue, basically what they have said is you have done it this way before so do it this way again, but they have never acknowledged what we asked them, or what statutory authority of that gives him the power to do it and the duty to do it. We got an opinion from CTAS. For those of you who may not know who they are, they are the County Technical Advisory Service has four or five lawyers in Nashville that advise counties on legal matters and they are experts in the field and they are resources I and other county attorneys use… they looked at it, and they said they felt like there was a misunderstanding within Benefits Administration as to what the authority was under the 1981 Act and we had asked what is the statutory authority relying on and they just don’t have anything and we haven’t received a legal response,” Coker said. He said he had received that letter from CTAS March 25th.
Director Fields said she had received a response on April 2 from Maryanne Durski, director of the state’s department of education finance department stating ‘we have all agreed here and at CTAS that Mr. Marlow is indeed the finance officer for the school system. Bryan Burklin from the comptroller’s office has a good relationship and has offered to call him tomorrow morning to talk with him,’ Fields read from the letter.
She also said someone had contacted Senator Ken Yager and made him aware of the issue.
Coker said he was unaware of that or if Burklin had spoken with Marlow.
School board member Brandon Johnson suggested meeting with Marlow, along with the county’s finance committee and commissioners to work something out. He also asked Coker if he knew when something had changed at the state level for Marlow to not want to sign the MOU.
Coker said to his knowledge, Marlow had just found out several weeks ago.
County Mayor Jack Lynch was briefly asked to weigh in and he said he had just found out about it last night and that in his opinion it was a “legal issue.”
Director Fields said she felt it needed to be handled the proper way so that the school system was not opened up for litigation or liability in any way and that she felt the state had already made its stance known.
Cantrell made multiple suggestions including the BOE hire a finance officer for the school system, basically as a last resort, to act as fiscal officer and sign the MOU.
He made it clear that what he could provide was “suggestions and not solutions.”
“If we do that, we are circumventing the situation. Everyone at state has made it clear they view Mr. Marlow as our fiscal officer and I have a hard time going against the guidance the state has provided,” Director Fields said.

Cantrell did say he was concerned with the strong stance the state had taken indicating in emails that Jeff Marlow is considered the school system’s fiscal officer.
Randy Heatherly made motion the BOE grant the director the ability to hire a fiscal officer such as a certified personal accountant for the “sole purpose of viewing and signing this insurance document only.”
“The burden of responsibility lies on the board to do our part to make sure these guys don’t lose their insurance,” Heatherly said.
This was approved, but BOE members asked that any action be “held off” until the meeting reconvenes.
Also approved was for Director Fields to request an extension from the state on having the MOU signed. BOE members also voted to have Director Fields and Board Chairman Miller reach out to Executive Director of the state’s Benefits Administration Laurie Lee to see if changing the title from fiscal officer to finance director will work. The BOE also approved to authorize the board chair Miller and County Mayor Lynch to reach out to Jeff Marlow to “see if he would be comfortable in signing in his capacity of finance director.”
The meeting was recessed until Thursday at 5:30. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-04/09/2025-6AM)
Seems that the MOU clearly states it is an agreement between professional employees (teachers) and the Board of Education. What other ‘officers’ are required to sign?