By Katie Northcott, News Director
For the second meeting in a row, the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) did not vote on a motion to reappoint George Farr and Brad Holt to the Tullahoma Airport Authority (TAA).
Alderman Kurt Glick made a motion to remove the appointments from the agenda at the BOMA’s March 9 meeting and led the opposition to the motion at the March 23 meeting. Glick said the reason he asked to have the item removed on March 9 was because Farr and Holt were on the TAA when various “mishaps” occurred at the airport, and Glick did not want to “judge too soon.”
Find reporting on the mishaps referenced by Glick here.
“I will have to vote ‘no’ on [the reappointments], and it’s no reflection on the members, but I’ll vote ‘no’ because there’s too many questions going on,” Glick said. “There was testimony from the airport chairman that she had no help from the other board members in taking care of the problems that were occurring.”
Glick said that according to city ordinances, the men could continue to serve on the TAA until the BOMA either accepted or denied their reappointment.
Alderman Bobbie Wilson cited concerns about the lack of up-to-date citizen participation forms for Farr and Holt. The forms provided at the meeting were the ones the men filled out prior to their original appointments. Farr was appointed in 2022, and Holt was appointed in 2024.
“In my opinion, anybody that’s considered for a board needs to have an updated citizens participation form,” Wilson said. “One reason for doing those is to make sure that there’s not any conflicts of interest and things of that nature.”
Matthew Bird, an alderman and BOMA liaison to the TAA, made the motion to reappoint Farr and Holt. An email dated February 26 shows that TAA Chairman Karla Smith formally requested that the two be reappointed.
“I’m not super comfortable with them floating in this unappointed but still allowed to serve, so I’d like to see them be reappointed,” Bird said. “We need to ensure that we still have enough members on the board so that we can still have meetings. I think if we were to get to the point of being down several members, it would be a little bit too risky.”
Bird said that Farr is currently serving as the TAA’s treasurer while Holt has a background in procedural policy that is valuable to the TAA.
City Attorney Stephen Worsham said that there was no limit to how long Farr and Holt could continue to serve in their roles without being officially reappointed.
“I do think that we have an obligation to appoint someone expeditiously, though,” Worsham said. “We don’t want people over in any position for a very long time, but there’s no limit on it.”
When asked if there were any other applicants to serve on the TAA, Bird said there were two other eligible applicants. He said he planned to nominate one of the two applicants to fill the third and final vacancy on the TAA at the next meeting of the BOMA.
Glick accused Bird of having a “secret meeting” with Smith to review TAA applicants. Bird responded that as the BOMA’s liaison to the TAA, he was allowed to have such discussions with Smith. Bird is a non-voting member of the TAA.
Mayor Lynn Sebourn interrupted Glick’s accusations.
“It’s not your role to chastise other members about how they choose to serve in their role,” Sebourn said.
Glick said he was just reminding Bird of his “responsibilities.” Sebourn said he thought Bird understood his responsibilities and asked Glick to return to the item up for discussion.
After discussion seemed to indicate that if the BOMA voted on the item, Farr and Holt would be denied reappointment, Bird withdrew his motion. Farr and Holt will continue to serve on the TAA until their reappointment is either approved or denied by BOMA.
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