Image: McMinn County Courthouse Image Credit: Brent Moore / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
On March 24th, McMinn County resident Larry Eaton filed a formal complaint against the City of Athens local government alleging violations of Tennessee Code and fraud.
The first alleged violation of Tennessee Code in the formal complaint states that the Athens City Council had specially-called meetings on the August 10th and October 18th to address certain charges levied against C. Seth Sumner, City Manager.
On December 6th, 2021 Eaton filed a Public Records Request Form requesting the minutes from the previously mentioned meetings. However, the records request was denied by Leslie McKee, records custodian for the city, due to the minutes of the meetings never having been prepared.
Minutes of all previous and following meetings were available but the specially-called meetings were not. Tennessee Code requires that “the minutes of a meeting of any such governmental body shall be promptly and fully recorded, shall be open to public inspection, and shall include, but not be limited to, a record of persons present, all motions, proposals and resolutions offered, the results of any votes taken, and a record of individual votes in the event of a roll call.”
The complaint states that the “failure to promptly promulgate and approve minutes of the called meetings in question is a violation of Tenn. Code Ann. 8-44-101.”
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The second violation of Tennessee Code in the formal complaint states that C. Seth Sumner artificially hiked the cost of delivering documents requested by Eaton in two public records requests by “redacting” the documents himself, rather than delegating the task to a City employee on a lower-pay scale.
According to the complaint, Eaton was slapped with a $741.20 redacting fee for the first public records request and a $209.69 fee for the second.
The “Schedule of Reasonable Charges” is outlined by the Tennessee Comptroller and states, “A records custodian shall utilize the most cost-efficient method of producing requested records. Accordingly, a records custodian should strive to utilize current employees at the lowest practicable hourly wage to fulfill public records requests for copies.”
The complaint states that the above-mentioned actions are in violation of Tennessee Code 10-7-501.
Further, the billing statement provided by the City to Eaton indicated specific times that Sumner worked on fulfilling Eaton’s public records requests.
However, a subsequent public records request submitted by Eaton showed that the times specified in the billing statement that Sumner was working on his request were actually being used on other activities unrelated to fulfilling said requests.
In addition, the complaint claims that the public records requests fulfilled for Eaton undergo a specific processing that most others do not undergo, including a watermark being added that is not a part of the process when others request documents.
The third portion of the complaint alleges that Sumner’s actions in charging Eaton for work that Sumner claims he performed on Eaton’s behalf constitutes fraud, intentional misrepresentation, and/or negligent misrepresentation.
The complaint states that “By indicating that he worked on Eaton’s requests for a specific period of time for specific intervals, Sumner intentionally misrepresented a material fact. Sumner made these representations with the full knowledge of the falsity of the representations….Eaton suffered unnecessary financial harm due to this misrepresentation.”
Eaton told the Tennessee Conservative that he hopes no other person will be treated the way he has when asking questions of their local government and that he hopes this case and publication of this article will apprise Tennesseans of their rights.
We reached out to Athens City Manager, C. Seth Sumner, for comment and he replied, “As the complaint is now a matter of court, I believe it is in the people of Athens’ best interest to allow the facts to be exposed and stand on their own merit. I look forward to this issue being resolved in the near future.”
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
