The issue over whether people living outside the city can serve on the Eagleville council was further resolved last week after councilmen agreed to support what the current charter says about residency.

The current charter says that those who live outside the city but in the Eagleville precinct and who own property in the city can be a council member or mayor as well as those who live in the city limits.

After a workshop with City Attorney Adam Dodd, councilmen agreed Thursday night to have Dodd send a letter to the state and county election commissions stating that councilmen "stand by what the charter says."

The latest controversy over the residency issue arose after June 10 when Mayor Nolan Barham sent council members and the county election commission a letter from municipal consultant Don Darden that cited an opinion that residency is required.

Since then, Beth Henry-Robertson, the state assistant coordinator of elections, has requested a letter from City Attorney Adam Dodd stating what the councilmen’s opinion is on who is eligible to run.

"The issue had been raised, and she is asking the city for a position on this charter," Dodd said.

Dodd told councilman at the workshop that he disagreed with the conclusion of Darden, who is a consultant with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS).

"I would only really feel comfortable in asserting that the residency provision in the charter is valid and is constitutional," he said.

Darden, who is not a lawyer, cited state law TCA 8-48-101 as the authority that residency is required. That law says that "any office in the state is vacated by ceasing to be a resident of the state or of the district, circuit or county for which the incumbent was elected or appointed." He added that MTAS attorneys agree that the county, as used in this section, means both cities and counties.

Dodd said the use of this state law in the residency question is a "big stretch" because the statute has to do with vacancies in office and not eligibility to run for office.

He said he agreed that the law applies to cities but said he would argue that the law means that, however the district is drawn up to make the person eligible in the first place, that if a person moves from that district then that is a vacant office at that point.

"It doesn’t have to do with initial eligibility but has to do with when somebody moves out of the district from which they originally qualified," he said.

Applying the statute as Darden indicated would require that "you make a lot of leaps to get to a point where the city would take the position that the charter provision is invalid, is against state law and is unconstitutional," Dodd said.

Darden said in his letter, which was requested by Barham, that MTAS attorney Josh Jones had "opined on Feb. 21, 2008, that residency is required."

Jones, however, said in an email to the Eagleville Times that he had never composed an opinion for Eagleville specifically on the question of residency. He did say in the email that the state law about vacancies is applicable.

"Mr. Darden quoted, I believe, from an earlier opinion I wrote for Alexandria, Tenn.," Jones said.

Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill noted that, unlike Eagleville’s, Alexandria’s charter does not say where a person has to live except they have to live in the state. In fact, Alexandria at one time had a councilman that lived in another county.

"That is the reason (Jones) gave the Alexandria opinion that way, and then Mr. Darden took the liberty of applying that opinion to us," Hill said. "It is two different things, and it doesn’t apply to us."

Darden helped the city of Eagleville with the recent proposed revision of the city charter, which failed to pass in the state Legislature. The rewrite would have required that city councilmen and the mayor to be residents of the city limits, but since the proposal failed in May the current charter is still in effect.

During the first charter rewrite workshop, Darden told Eagleville councilmen emphatically that state law "prohibits someone from serving on the council who lives outside the city limits." He later said the issue is not settled but requiring residency is the best practice. Jones also agreed in an email that "this is not a settled issue of law."

Dodd outlined options the city now has in addressing Beth Henry-Robertson’s request.

"I can write her a letter that says we respectfully disagree with Don Darden about the statute applying and that whoever is qualified to run in the election be qualified based on the plain language of the charter," he said.

A second option would be to file a suit in chancery court and say there has been a question about the validity of the residency provision and to ask the chancellor to decide what it means.

If the council sought a decision from a chancellor, then the city would probably need to take a position on what it means, Dodd said.

"I would really only feel comfortable frankly asserting it is a valid provision in the charter and is constitutional," he said.

Dodd indicated one reason the state election commission wants an opinion from the city about its own charter in respect to state law is that the commission wants someone else to be responsible for the opinion.

If the city states its opinion and the election is contested and whoever contests the election wins, then the city would be responsible for the cost of a new election, he said.

The election commission is not going to take MTAS’ opinion for the opinion of the city of Eagleville, Dodd said.

"They are going to go off of what I tell them the city’s opinion is as how to interpret our own charter," he said. "Until we tell them different, they are interpreting the charter to mean what it says."

Rutherford County Election Commissioners have already confirmed that they plan to continue letting people living outside the city but in the Eagleville precinct who own property in the city run for office as the charter allows.

William (Wes) Fitzgerald and Sam Tune, who are potential candidates who live outside the city, have already picked up qualifying petitions from the election commission and are in the process of obtaining signatures.

Tune and Fitzgerald have questioned whether the mayor or someone else is trying to keep them or other candidates living outside the city from running.

Hill also questioned why the residency issue has come up again, saying it was "hashed out two years ago."

Barham said he had requested the letter from Darden that started the last debate because Darden had expressed an opinion on residency during the charter talks and he wanted it in writing.

Barham said his intention was "just to get the information out."

When David Turner ran for mayor against Barham two years ago, the same controversy arose about whether a nonresident property owner could hold office in Eagleville. The outcome of the issue in 2006 was that the Eagleville city charter prevailed.