The Coffee County Policy and Procedures Committee reviewed edits to the county policy on record destruction, tampering and fabrication and agreed county employees must re-sign an acknowledgement form to be placed in their personnel files to reflect recent Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) revisions.

During discussion a committee member said the front-page language currently labels the conduct as a class A misdemeanor under the county policy but that the TCA language was revised in February 2019 and requires a separate employee acknowledgement. The committee agreed the county must correct its form and obtain re-signed acknowledgements from current employees to place in personnel files.

Committee members debated process and whether to route the corrected language through the legislative committee. A member volunteered to carry the item to the legislative committee so language could be reviewed; another committee speaker said it would be appropriate to note in the legislative committee agenda that policy procedures had reviewed the change and had no substantive objection.

Committee members emphasized this action is an administrative compliance step implementing state law rather than creation of a new criminal penalty by the county. The committee approved sending the corrected form and policy language forward for review and inclusion in county personnel files; staff were directed to prepare the acknowledgement form for signature by all county employees.