Image Credit: Republican Women of Williamson County / Facebook & Williamson County Television / YouTube
The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
Tonight, at the Williamson County Commission meeting, the remaining D10 County Commissioner Meghan Guffey will nominate the former Williamson County GOP Chair, Cheryl Brown, with virtually no public notice for constituents to raise their concerns, comments or nominate their own choice.
The agenda, that is posted here, on page 2, indicates that during the agenda item that deals with nominations for the various county bodies that have a vacancy, the resignation of former D10 County Commissioner David Landrum and a nomination will be put forth for Cheryl Brown.
There are state laws that address the procedure on how to fill a vacancy when it occurs.
According to code, “Before the county legislative body votes or considers any motion or resolution regarding the office to be filled, the chair shall allow registered voters of the county an opportunity to submit names to the county legislative body for consideration. The names may be submitted in writing to the chair prior to the meeting or may be submitted in person at the meeting. For a name to be considered, a member of the county legislative body must subsequently nominate the person.”
The law does go on to state that another way the seat can be filled is to have the legislative body nominate a person for the job.
However, this being placed in the law subsequent to the public getting adequate notice and having an opportunity to nominate their own candidate, infers that should the public be adequately notified and do not act, then the legislative deciding body can step in and make a nomination.
The law does not specifically define “adequate public notice” except to state that it usually entails publishing in a local newspaper and that the amount of time should be appropriate for the circumstances.
The law allows for any open seat to have 120 days for the entire process, so the question becomes, what is the rush? And why no usual forms of public notice have been executed if this nomination being presented.
No other information on the nomination has been found outside of the agenda posted on the Williamson County Government website.
The Williamson County Commission has nominated and sworn in for immediate action a new commissioner on the spot in the past.
Back in May of 2021, current D10 County Commissioner Meghan Guffee (incidentally the county commissioner who is nominating Brown) was appointed as the successor for then resigning D10 CC Robbie Beal.
According to the report at the time, “After earning approval from the county commission Monday at the board’s May meeting, she was sworn in and immediately took her seat as a new commissioner.”
The public seemingly was never given an opportunity to put forth their own candidate after what should have been a period of “adequate public notice”.
Guffee was nominated by then remaining D10 Commissioner David Landrum. It is Landrum’s seat that Guffee is now looking to fill with Brown.
Additionally, Brown is already receiving congratulatory remarks from members and leadership of Republican Women of Williamson County, where the statement suggests that the public is not included or even has any right to be.
RWWC President Debbie Ballard states:
“CONGRATULATIONS to RWWC member and friend Cheryl Brown who will be appointed as a Williamson County Commissioner for District 10 on Monday July 8th at 7pm at the Williamson Administrative Building 1320 W Main st in Franklin.”
Once the revelation of Brown’s nomination spread throughout Williamson County’s political landscape, the issue that has risen from critics of the decision was that Brown’s tenure as GOP chair has beeen characterized as somewhat dubious.
The Tennessee Conservative News provided extensive coverage of the events that led up to what has been called “the largest reorganization effort in state history” by GOP state chair Scott Golden, when in April of last year, over 600 of Williamson County’s bona fide republican members of the party, converged on The Factory in Franklin Tennessee to vote for new representation in the party’s executive committee.
Up to that point, the largest number of members to show up at an open convention for the same purpose hovered around 200.
The primary issue that lead to this complete overhaul of the party leadership, according to reports, is the way the money that was taken in from donations and membership dues during Browns tenure, was handled.
Namely, according to WCRP bylaws, (ratified in 2019), Article V, Section 7, Paragraph C defines the Treasurer’s responsibilities and indicates any expense over $2,000 must be approved by the entire Executive Committee. The intent was to exercise due diligence in expending donor funds.
Reports indicate that Brown during her tenure was able to direct any and all funds that did not meet that $2,000 threshold with impunity and all that would then be required was the signature of another member of the committee who was hand-picked by Brown.
Members of the party have been critical of this practice and use of funds by an organization that relies on donations from the public.
According to WCRP’s PAC Report, Brown used funds to pay for private security, and the occasional use of a paid driver.
Between 2020 and March 2022, the party paid Pale Horse Security, a private security company owned by Aaron Spradlin*, $5800 for security services, the bulk of which was for the convention in 2023, however, the rest was for personal security use.
*Spradlin has been sued successfully for what was determined to be deceptive practices by a civil court, when his company engaged in procurement of PPE during the Governor’s 80-million dollar no-bid spending spree.
The PAC report shows checks written out to individuals with no explanation or affiliation, the items purchased, or services rendered.
Brown also procured insurance for its officers at 10 times the typical annual cost, at $8,600.00.
There have been no allegations of illegality on the part of Brown, but critics have questioned Brown’s judgement and viewed many of the decisions made under her leadership as “unethical” even if not technically a violation.
It is decisions such as these that are causing critics to raise alarm bells with the nomination of Brown to fill the vacated D10 seat on the county commission.
As a member of the Williamson County Commission, Brown would be entrusted, along with the rest of the commission, with fiduciary responsibility of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
The other questions raised regarding Brown’s appointment have to do with an incident that occurred during an open meeting of the WCGOP, which as stated are open to the public.
On June 21st 2022, a call was placed to 911 by Kilynn Schueler, Brown’s assistant. In the call, Schuler explained that there is a problem and that the police are needed because “several people are demanding entrance to our meeting, and they won’t go away. I think our chairperson called to let y’all now a head of time”.
During the call, Schueler explained that they anticipated there would be an issue, that the public would essentially expect to be admitted to their public meeting, but their private security was not in place to keep the public out, so they needed Williamson County Sheriff’s department to assist.
The 911 operator asked if there was any violence, or if anyone was armed, and all Schuler could report was that the crowd “which was growing” wouldn’t listen to them when they were being made to leave. Once again, this was an open and public meeting.
There was never any violent or threatening behavior described by Schueler, just a refusal to leave a meeting that, based on organization bylaws is open to the public.
This, according to critics, is a concern because the county commission holds public meetings, and very often at these meetings, constituents come and make public comment that is often critical.
The Williamson County Commission meeting is being held tonight at the Main Administrative Complex at 7:00 pm, and all county constituents especially those who live in D10, are encouraged to attend and make public comment.
If you would like to make your opinion known ahead of tonight’s meeting, all Williamson County Commissioners can be reached at this email address: commissioners@williamsoncounty-tn.gov.
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is an escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers, she has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. An outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty, Kelly also has a YouTube channel @Tennessee_Truth_Teller and is planning on expanding out to other channels soon. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
8 Responses
Many thanks to Kelly Jackson for an important article.
Meghan Guffee needs to be defeated. What’s her relationship to Judge Guffee? She shouldn’t vote for the Judge’s unnecessary $100 million Juvenile Center.
I think there is a “good old boys” group that has too much control over Williamson County Government. I think the Mayor has created a political machine. They seem to only appoint people they can control and they fund groups that will vote for them, like Williamson Inc.
I think they would like Cheryl back in charge of the Williamson GOP.
Shame on RWWC President Debbie Ballard – isn’t she the one who wanted to stop new members from joining her group after Cheryl lost? If that’s true, she should be kicked out.
Indeed David, even now they are planning running their candidates for office during the next election of the Williamson GOP. You see, the establishment never goes away. After losing an election they immediately begin planning how to win the next one. That’s why we need the reactivation of Williamson Families or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Williamson Cty conservatives need a POLITICAL organization ASAP. No 501(c) something or other. A POLITICAL organization!
We do. And an effective one at that! Tennessee Stands. If you like I can get you connected. TS is responsible for the push back and the legislative successes we have had. They existed before WF and Moms For Liberty.
WC corruption runs DEEP. And it has been allowed to persist for DECADES. It’s gonna take more than 5 years of activism to undo that. And the more hands on deck, THE BETTER.
There was a critical op-ed about Cheryl Brown in the Tennessee Star around the time or before the last WCRP board elections. It was recently taken down by the Tennessee Star. That leaves Tennessee Conservative alone to carry on trying to get the truth out.
That says a lot about the TN Star but I’m not surprised. I think Williamson County is run by a political machine and they only appoint people they can control. We need people on the County Commission who want what’s best for Williamson County – not Rubber Stamps for the Mayor and special interests.
My concern is Property Taxes. In 2025, there will be a BIG Property Tax increase.
Since 2012, our population has grown by 35% to approximately 265,000. But during the same period, our debt has increased by 153%, while our revenues have only risen by 97%.
The County Debt is now $1.2 Billion. That’s $14,000 per household.
But if the County approves the proposed $325 million County Jails, the County Debt will increase to $1.5 Billion. The county has very low crime, but that would be the most expensive Adult Jail ever built in TN (even more than Nashville and Memphis). They want the Adult Jail to include “102 Mental Health Beds”. Why??? Rumor is so they can to take inmates from across TN and get paid by the State. They don’t explain – they just demand and try to use Scare Tactics.
What’s going on?
This is from Barb Sturgeon’s newsletter, which is excellent >
A motion to defer this interim nomination until September failed 8 Yes 13 No (Yes votes by Commissioners Richards, Torres, Graves, Stresser, Sturgeon, Hayes, M. Smith & Lawrence – these are the 8 we should support).
Cheryl Brown’s nomination passed 14 Yes 3 No 4 Abstain. No votes by Commissioners Richards, Sturgeon & Smith. Abstentions by Commissioners Torres, Lawrence, Hayes & Stresser.
The “Yes” Votes are part of the Political Machine. I will oppose them. My 2 are Webb and O’Neil, and both voted for her, which doesn’t surprise me. Beathard is running for a House Representative seat to replace Sam Whitson. That district is part of Franklin.
We don’t want Commissioners who are self-serving, put their own interests first, and are Rubber Stamps for the Mayor.