Josh McCreary finally tendered his resignation as the County Attorney this week. He was granted sanctuary at NHC, where former Mayor Ernest Burgess is a board member.

McCreary has been crying to new Mayor Bill Ketron about how hot the kitchen has been, while the Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance regularly complained about him and the Legal Services Agreement his predecessor, James Cope, drew up, without any critique from the Commission.

I say, "Good riddance."

There's been so much rain here in Tennessee lately, I wouldn't be surprised if some skeletons float their way to the surface.

This would be a very good time to engage with a professional head-hunter, who specializes in sourcing municipal attorneys. Have them bring three qualified attorneys to the table, and make them fight for the job of protecting the taxpayers, first, instead of protecting themselves.

This approach would comply with all the usual bidding process, and avoid the appearance of collusion by the commission, any political parties or any officers who want to drag their buddies in to hide their skeletons.

Apparently, we also lost our County Risk Manager, Melissa Stinson-Street. 

God works in mysterious ways. I'm not even sure why she was employed, except, once again, perhaps to hide the damage caused to the employee benefits plan by herself, the mayor and the county attorney. 

Street was responsible for increasing the "deductible" by over 100 percent, in order to save $200,000 on the insurance premiums. That much would be eaten up in no time, with just a couple claims.

Yeah, I know it all sounds like mumbo-jumbo to most readers, probably to Street, too. 

In her defense, it wasn't really her job to understand the principles it was only her job to sit there and take the heat for it. She had no clue what she was doing, as far as this consultant could tell and the insurance companies are still laughing all the way to the bank. 

Rutherford County Employee Benefits Plan is one of the worst managed plans I have ever seen.

Street was also responsible for violating the Affordable Care Act when she fined employees over $200 if they chose not to participate in the Wellness plan. 

The law clearly states that you may REWARD employees, but you may NOT PUNISH them. She was deducting the fines straight out of their paychecks, and forcing them, without a warrant, to give blood to one of two labs. 

I'm not a lawyer, but this seems to be a 4th amendment violation (search and seizure), and a violation of the "Company Store" doctrine in Tennessee (forcing someone to buy from a specific store/lab).

County employees have been in fear of losing their jobs if they complained about any of this.

Commissioner Craig Harris wants to raid the benefits by abusing the power of his position to re-create the rules just to benefit himself.