Political controversy engulfs tiny Oak Hill

Oak Hill Mayor Tommy Alsup, speaking at a recent meeting, has been accused by the town’s former city manager of questionable financial dealings. Now city residents are asking for an investigation. File

For the past several months, the tiny residential town of Oak Hill has managed to compile all the key ingredients for a perfect political soap opera.

City leaders of this wealthy town, tucked away in south Davidson County, first found themselves in the news when they went to battle with the governor over construction of the so-called Bredesen bunker, a planned underground ballroom at the Executive Residence.

Oak Hill lost that fight, but the political wrangling introduced over the bunker battle now has taken up residence among the town’s 4,700 citizens and its three elected city commissioners.

The highlights of this political warfare include the revelation that former city manager Dr. William Kraus was a convicted felon.

It was later learned that Kraus potentially violated state law and the Oak Hill charter when he contributed to the re-election campaign of a city commissioner earlier this year. Kraus resigned when it was revealed he potentially violated the law, but now he claims he was forced out the door and has since rescinded his resignation.

Sucked into the controversy swirling around Kraus are allegations from Commissioner Chip Throckmorton of shady financial dealings by Oak Hill’s Mayor Tommy Alsup.

A group of about 100 Oak Hill citizens sent a petition on Aug. 1 to District Attorney General Torry Johnson requesting an investigation of Throckmorton’s allegations, which also include his contention that secret meetings have been held by Oak Hill city officials — a violation of “sunshine” [or open meeting] laws.

In the meantime, there have been contentious board of commissioner meetings, one where obscenities were allegedly shouted, culminating in Throckmorton leaving the building.

Lastly, amid the political wrangling, there now is a standing accusation that Throckmorton brought a gun to a board meeting.

Kraus resignation at center of controversy

A polarizing figure in the Oak Hill drama is Kraus, the former city manager.

Despite his felony conviction for fraud when he was a city manager in California, Kraus was by all accounts an effective public servant. Oak Hill has just four full-time employees in addition to its three elected officials.

The daily operation of the residential town falls primarily on the city manager and Kraus earned strong reviews from many citizens for being accessible and diligent in answering their problems with issues such as trash pickup, speeding on neighborhood roads and street sign maintenance.

Due to legal issues surrounding his resignation, Kraus has retained an attorney and wouldn’t comment to The City Paper. However, in a letter to Oak Hill residents dated July 28, Kraus described himself as “very, very upset,” and called for Mayor Alsup and newly elected commissioner Austin McMullen to resign.

Though Kraus won’t comment, using Alsup and city attorney Bob Notestein’s accounts surrounding Kraus’s resignation, the order of events appears to be the following:

During the election earlier this year, Kraus, as city manager, contributed $200 to the campaign of incumbent Tommy Jacobs. McMullen defeated Jacobs in the election and when Kraus’ donation was revealed, he was allegedly called into a meeting at Alsup’s home.

Kraus was shown a portion of Tennessee Code Annotated, which states that it is illegal for a city manager to contribute to a campaign of a city commissioner, who effectively operates as their boss.

As a result of the meeting, Kraus chose to resign. But days later, it was revealed there is a contradicting state law, which allows city employees to contribute to political campaigns. In 1998, Oak Hill’s city commissioners passed a resolution adopting the personnel law allowing campaign contributions, but Notestein said the town’s charter was not amended to reflect the change.

It was Notestein’s opinion that Kraus had violated the law and should resign. His opinion was supported by a legal ruling issued by Waller, Lansden, Dortch and Davis attorney Mark Peters, who concluded Oak Hill was required to remove Kraus from office.

But since Kraus resigned, the board of commissioners never voted on the issue, despite the fact his resignation was rescinded.

Throckmorton alleges that the meeting at Alsup’s home, and other potential meetings, violated sunshine laws.

“Eventually everybody is going to have to tell where they were, who they met with and did they deliberate on the issue,” Throckmorton said.

Alsup insists no sunshine laws were broken and said at a town hall meeting earlier this week that he welcomes an investigation of the matter. He said attorneys for the city and for Kraus will meet soon to discuss their differences and decide how to proceed.”

“There has never, never been any meeting in violation of any sunshine law,” Alsup said.

Lobbyist hired to deal with state, Metro

Following the fallout created when Kraus led the fight against the “bunker” being built at the governor’s mansion at the request of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Alsup said Oak Hill needed a professional lobbyist to improve the town’s relations with the state and Metro.

Without a vote by the board of commissioners, Alsup hired Rob Ikard to represent Oak Hill in its dealings with the state and Metro. Ikard was paid a total of $15,000 for his three months of work earlier this year.

Alsup claims the $15,000 was in line with a budget item calling for $60,000 for new city staff, although the budget did not explicitly provide for a state and Metro lobbyist.

An attorney by trade, Throckmorton claims the hiring of Ikard violated ultra vires acts by taking action without approval by the board of commissioners.

There’s also the issue of funds being provided to the public relations firm of Armour and Armour for consulting, which Throckmorton said was not approved by the board. The firm consulted on the public relations aspect of Kraus’s resignation, according to Alsup, and has been contracted by the city for at least six years.

Checks made out to Armour and Armour were sent off with just one signature, from Alsup, which is a violation of a city rule requiring two signatures on checks. He said although it’s a rule for checks to have two signatures, it’s not uncommon for one to slip through the cracks and contain just one signature.

In order to clear up any lingering accounting issues, Alsup has approved an “extensive financial audit” of the city’s bookkeeping. Despite how politically charged Oak Hill has become, the city is in sound financial standing, according to Alsup.

With a $1.3 million operating budget despite not collecting any property taxes (which go to Metro), Oak Hill is sitting on a surplus of $400,000.

Town tries to move on

If things couldn’t get any worse, perhaps the lowest point in the political wrangling is the accusation by Alsup that Throckmorton brandished a gun in intimidating fashion at a board meeting last year. Throckmorton denies that claim, stating that while he did have a gun, he merely removed it from its holster during the meeting after he became uncomfortable and did not point it at any one.

Throckmorton said he had no further comment on the gun incident because of potential legal ramifications.

But Throckmorton, the former town mayor, has offered a path for Oak Hill to move on from the political infighting. Throckmorton told The City Paper it was his belief that Oak Hill would be best served if the three standing city commissioners resigned and allowed voters to wipe the slate clean.

While Alsup and McMullen both balked at the notion of resigning, they agreed that it would be possible for Oak Hill to move on from its recent embarrassment.

Although the political wrangling has made for high drama — some might say dark comedy, too — the town’s newness has elected officials routinely putting emotional differences behind them.

“I’m interested in dealing with the issues facing Oak Hill and making it the best town it can be,” McMullen said.

Alsup agreed that moving on would be possible for Oak Hill in the coming months.

“I’m very disappointed we’ve had this discussion,” Alsup said. “At this point, we are moving on. I think there is a vocal minority of folks who make things upset and we’ll be able to get past this.”