Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero was quoted in the News Sentinel saying that she wants to have the city employees trained on the open meeting laws aka Sunshine Law. Charles Swanson, the City Law Director opined that communication (emails in this situation) between two or more individuals serving on the same committee that will vote on the contract is a violation.

Why has Swanson not intervened on Rogero, for over three years the Mayor has presided over city council meetings. Rogero is always the tie breaking vote of city council. Any conversation that Rogero has with council members seems logical that with Swanson’s opinion, she is an intermediary in determining how the other voting members will vote thus revealing if she will have to vote in the event of a tie.

Of course, how often do ties occur? Rarely, the reason could be that the intermediary is talking to council members to sway whether she will have to cast the tie breaking vote. As a tie breaking vote, she is a voting member of council as she presides over council.