Trimble Board, former mayor discuss attorney billing, judge appointment

During December's meeting, Mayor James Davis told the board that Trimble was charged for Stark talking to city attorney Dean Dedmon about the city's charter. The conversation was on the issue of the appointment of city judges.

Stark was on the agenda and addressed the board about the billing.

He said he was surprised to see in the State Gazette, after last month's meeting, that he had run up a legal bill totaling over $400 and the city of Trimble had to pay it.

"I know nobody on the board was fooled by that," said Stark. "But there may be some people who read the State Gazette who were. They might think that you were actually paying my legal bills."

Stark told the board the mayor is the only person that can authorize the city attorney to do legal work. He then said he contacted the mayor earlier this year to discuss a possible mistake he may have made in appointing a new city judge.

"The mayor made an error and I called him immediately and privately and pointed out that error to him," said Stark. He hoped Davis would correct it in 30 days, but he did not according to Stark.

When Davis was elected last year, he appointed Judge Jason Hudson to the position of city judge. After some concerns, the board voted unanimously to approve Hudson's appointment, replacing the previous Trimble city judge, Molly Williams.

Stark said he contacted the University of Tennessee's Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) and they looked at the charter and said the board hires the city judge and fires the city judge. However in this case the board never fired Williams. MTAS provides technical assistance to cities and towns across the state, their governing bodies, mayors, city managers, city recorders, and city department heads, free of charge.

Stark said Davis has created a lot of legal bills over the judge appointment and firing of former police chief Donna Faulkner.

He then made the statement that as a citizen, Trimble has not paid any attorney bills that had anything to do with him.

Stark said Dedmon called him one time after Davis told him to call and explain why the city charter about judge appointments was good the way it stood. He said Dedmon called a second time and left a message on his voicemail, suggesting Stark call him back, which he said he never did.

"Any bills that have my name on them are strictly the responsibility of the attorney and the mayor and they can determine who's at fault about that," said Stark.

Alderman Raymond Ballard asked why the city attorney didn't send Stark a bill.

"Why would he send me a bill?" asked Stark. "I can't authorize him to do any work."

Stark then said while he was mayor they only had $300 in legal bills and suggested Davis report to the board how much he has spent as mayor.

Davis said it is public record and if they wanted to see it, all they had to do was ask.

Ballard then said that Stark and some members on the board have been after Davis since he took office.

Stark told Ballard he simply contacted Davis about the mistake he made and didn't notify anybody until he refused to do anything about it.

"Raymond, if the former city judge had wanted that job, you would really have some legal fees," said Stark.

"Jim says one thing, the billing says something else," said Davis. "It shows he went to the lawyer's office down there. It's all there, ya'll look at."

Stark said he did go there to see Lewis Jenkins, but it was about another matter.

Alderman Stephen Parker said they needed to look into Dedmon's billing practices or get a new lawyer.

Davis said anytime Dedmon picks up the phone to talk to someone they are charged.

"What I'm saying is, if he's going to contact me first and ask me a question, and I answer his question, and then he charges us $250 for that question that I answered, that he initiated, then something is wrong with that system," said Parker.

Davis said it wouldn't happen anymore.

Ballard made the motion to look into a new attorney, which didn't go to a vote.

Stafford asked who signed the check to pay the bill that had Stark's charges.

Davis said it could have been his signature or several other city employees.

Davis recently said attorney billing from Dedmon's office shows three instances where Stark is listed on the bill on Jan. 9, 13 and 14 of 2009. Davis said on Jan. 9 the city was charged $187.50 to "research the city charter regarding judge issue for Jim Stark." On Jan. 13, the city was billed $125 for two telephone conferences with Jim Stark and one telephone conference with Davis. On Jan. 14, the city was charged for another telephone conference with Jim Stark and one with Davis.

"All of this expense is on account of him (Stark) disagreeing with the charter," said Davis.

He said he has researched the case of judge appointments extensively and could not find anything that says a judge is hired for an indefinite amount of time.

"Either the judge is appointed or reappointed as a new board comes on," said Davis.

Trimble resident Kay Faulkner was at the meeting and said that Trimble residents needed to come together and work for the good of the city.