Local legislation approaches final approval

May 2—Two sets of local legislation from Reps. Corey Harbison and Randall Shedd — both Republicans representing portions of Cullman County — have advanced and wait final Senate approval.

Shedd said his two sponsored bills, HB457 and HB354, are intended to clean up a local law which went into effect last year to dissolve the Cullman County Community Development Commission.

Since its creation by a legislative act in 2009 until its abolishment last year, the CCCDC used 50 percent of state alcohol taxes and 3 percent of the Tennessee Valley Authority's in-lieu-of tax payments received by Cullman County to fund community projects focused on economic development, education, conservation and fire protection.

Prior to last year's HB224, each member of the Cullman County Legislative Delegation, comprised of Harbison, Shedd, Rep. Tim Wadsworth and Sen. Garlan Gudger, appointed one board member to the CCCDC Board as well as one collectively appointed member. HB224 dissolved the CCCDC and gave the delegates themselves the authority to distribute funds under the same set of requirements.

Shedd said HB457 amends language which required the portion of funds derived from alcohol taxes only be dispersed within the districts which they were collected which gave Gudger and Harbison almost exclusive control over the fund.

"The way that it is set up now is that revenue generated in those districts has to be spent only within those districts and we wanted to make a change to where it could be spent elsewhere, because sometimes you need infrastructure to actually get to those districts," Shedd said.

Although Shedd is listed as the lone sponsor for the bill, Harbison said it was filed with full support from the other members of the delegation.

"Basically the law says that [how the funds are spent] is up to mine and Garlan's discretion. When I found out about that I went to Randall and Tim and told them residents in their districts spend and work in these areas as well and that we are all in this together and that we needed to get this changed so that they could get their fair share of those funds as well," Harbison said.

Harbison said members have used the TVA portion of the funds for various projects over the last year such as, awarding grants to local fire departments and to make repairs to the White City and Brushy Pond community centers. He said due to the concerns from the Examiners of Public Accounts the alcohol tax funds had accumulated roughly $100,000.

These funds, he said, were used to assist the Cullman County Commission in repairing a sinkhole which appeared after a storm drain collapsed under County Road 222 near its intersection with I-65 earlier this year.

Harbison has sponsored his own trifecta of local bills, all of which deal with the Cullman County Sheriff's Office.

He said similar to HB457, HB369 also fulfills a request from the Examiners of Public Accounts Office.

"The sheriff's office has had a credit card that they've been able to use since the nineties, but for some reason the examiner's office has come in now and said they wanted them to have legislative approval for them to be able to use that credit card," Harbison said.

Near identical legislation has also been approved for Chilton and Montgomery Counties this year.

HB370 amends the current CCSO policy of allowing deputies in good standing to be awarded their service-issued pistol upon retirement. Harbison's bill would allow deputies to keep "a weapon furnished by the department."

"All it does it let them keep any weapon. So, if they were issued a shotgun or an A-R or anything like that, they would be able to keep those also," Harbison said.

Harbison's final bill would allow the CCSO to, under certain circumstances, sell any "abandoned and stolen firearms," in the departments possession.

Harbison said the CCSO have accumulated a large collection of firearms currently being held in storage. Current policy requires the department to receive a court order allowing them to destroy the weapons. Harbison said his bill would keep the same requirements for a court order, but would also allow the department to sell the weapons as a revenue source.

The CCSO would only be allowed to sell firearms to gun dealers who have maintained an active license in the state for at least one year.

"Instead of having to destroy the weapons this allows the sheriff to follow the state and federal laws to auction them off through a licensed firearms dealer. Instead of having to pay to have to destroy them at least they generate a little bit of money back," he said.

The bill would also require the CCSO to maintain a separate and permanent record of all abandoned and stolen firearms with a complete description, the date and location in which it was discovered and any serial or other identifying numbers on the firearm.

Before firearms would allowed to be sold all of the following criteria would need to be met:

* It has been properly recorded according to the bill.

* It has been in the possession of the CCSO for no less than one year.

* The owner has not attempted to claim the firearm.

Harbison said the CCSO has arranged for the Cullman County District Attorney's Office to handle all of the administrative court filings needed to obtain authorization to sell the firearms in exchange for 30 percent of the revenue generated from the auctions.