News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville has retained the services of a Knoxville attorney for its investigation of CRMC’s hiring of Mayor Ricky Shelton.
That attorney is William J. Carver from the firm Kramer Rayson LLP. City Manager James Mills said Carver met the qualifications he was looking for. That includes extensive experience in local government and having no ties to Cookeville.
“I’m hopeful that we can come to a very quick conclusion,” Mills said. “Because this is a significant distraction for us but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
Mills said the outside counsel wants to get a grasp on what the council hopes to achieve. Mills said Carver has spoken with all five member by phone so far after being retained earlier this week.
“There’s not been any meetings, these have been conference calls or individual phone calls,” Mills said. “But yes he will speak with all five. Mayor Shelton is a member of the council and he needs to be involved in this just as the other four and he has had discussions with all five council members.”
Mills said that Carver is being paid hourly. Mills said he is currently evaluating the next steps in the process and intends to meet with Carver to get a handle on the process moving forward.
“I’ll have further discussions with Mr. Carver to get a good handle on how long this is going to take and what it might potentially cost,” Mills said.
Cookeville City Council voted 4-0 to hire outside counsel in February. For the purpose of looking into the hiring of Mayor Ricky Shelton as the Chief Strategy Officer at Cookeville Regional Medical Center.
