Steidl Will Challenge Fiscal Review Committee Tonight

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Story Published: Feb 8, 2010 at 1:12 PM CST

Story Updated: Feb 8, 2010 at 1:12 PM CST

Item #5 of the Fiscal Review Agenda for tonight’s meeting reads,

“ Discuss memo from Debbie Steidl to discuss insurance policy for the election commission."


After the recent election in 2009, the election commission replaced Nancy Boman, then sitting as Putnam County’s Administrator of elections, with Debbie Steidl who now serves as the current Administrator of Elections.


The new Election commissioners took this action based on an old Tennessee Code that stated, “The County Election Commission shall appoint a new Administrator of Elections every two years.”


This code, however, is debatable due to a lot of changes in employment laws that have been passed since the original code was written.


Nancy Boman reportedly filed a lawsuit against Putnam County over the lack of due process in her job loss.


Based on historical precedent in Putnam County, the Election Commission looked to the County Commission for legal assistance in defending law suits.


But after receiving a legal opinion on the matter from the County Commission's attorney, the Putnam County Commission determined that it was not the County's responsibility to provide legal representation for the Putnam County Election Commission and declared that it was the State of Tennessee’s job to provide this representation and the costs thereof.


In December, the case was taken to the Tennessee State Supreme Court for a final determination, but the Tennessee State Supreme court rejected hearing the case.


So now the County Election Commission (who had already retained their own legal counsel) has returned to filing joint suits, both against the Putnam County Commissioners and against the State of Tennessee, to determine who actually is responsible to provide legal representation for the Putnam County Election Commission.


Currently the legal fees are reportedly nearing the $30,000 mark for Commissioners.


With that history, this evening at 5:00 in the upstairs County Commission Room, Debbie Steidl will ask several questions around the County Commissioner’s legal insurance policy.


The main questions are likely to be:


When and why did the Putnam County Commissioners stop carrying insurance (specifically errors and omissions insurance) for the Putnam County Election Commission?


This is apparently a recent decision on the part of the Commissioners as documentation apparently shows that as recently as 2006 and 2007 the Putnam County Commissioners allocated money to the Election Commission to make payments to the Wimberly, Lawson, Seale, Wright, & Daves law firm to defend suits filed against the election commission.

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