Eagleville City Investigation Continues

The probe into the possible altering of a page of the city of Eagleville’s personnel policy manual concerning payment of sick leave could go on for at least a couple of months, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said on Friday.

"But there is no telling because you do not know what you will find out when you start investigating," spokeswoman Kristin Helm said. "The question is will it grow or will you not find anything, so it just depends on what the agents find once they get in there and start to look around."

Rutherford County District Attorney Bill Whitesell contacted the TBI on Jan. 28 and requested that the agency initiate an investigation into the alleged changing of the personnel policy ordinance.

"So that is what we are looking into now," she said. "When our investigation is complete, we will turn our investigation file over to District Attorney Whitesell who will then decide whether or not to present it to a grand jury."

The issue about what the personnel policy says about sick leave pay arose after Mayor Nolan Barham paid former city recorder Michelle Bennett $1,945.17 for what appeared to be unused sick pay when she left her job on Oct. 31.

The official personnel policy manual adopted in December 2006 says the city "shall not" pay for unused sick leave when an employee leaves the job.

At some unknown date, Barham said he provided former City Attorney Travis Lampley a copy of the personnel policy. When questions continued about the $1,945.17 payment, Barham asked Lampley to look into the matter.

In a Dec. 13 email to Councilman Greg Buchanan, Lampley quoted the policy as saying that "upon termination or resignation, any unused sick leave ‘shall not’ be cashed in for compensation." Lampley said that if Bennett was paid for unused sick leave "this would have been in error."

A copy of the suspected altered page of the manual, which said any unused sick leave "shall" be cashed in for compensation, surfaced publicly Jan. 14 when the mayor sent a copy of it in response to a Dec. 7 open records request from the Eagleville Times about the payment.

In the mayor’s Jan. 14 letter to the newspaper, he confirmed that the $1,945.17 was for sick pay and added a note saying "see enclosure." Enclosed with the letter was a copy of the conflicting page saying any unused sick leave "shall" be cashed in for compensation upon termination or resignation.

A search of the city computer’s activity at the last council meeting indicates the sick pay page was last modified Dec. 17 at 8:06 p.m. In the modified file, the word "not" was missing.

Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill took the concerns about the possible alteration of the document to the district attorney after he learned about the conflicting page.

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