UCHRA Passes Bylaw Easing Executive Director Restrictions

A new bylaw passed by the UCHRA’s Executive Board will ease some restrictions on Executive Director Mark Farley.

Attorney Danny Rader said the bylaw was put into place shortly after Farley was hired and after former director Luke Collins was terminated.

“Several months ago we put in some provisions in the bylaws that addressed the authority of the executive director so that it was clear what [their] individual authority was,” Rader said. “The board only meets once every two months, so we had some changes to that to expand the authority because of the constraints on the infrequency of the board meetings.”

Rader said the updated bylaw will allow Farley to enter into agreements and contracts without needing the approval of the executive board.

“Essentially, it gives the executive director the authority to enter into renewal contracts for state and federal programs and contracts that come up all the time,” Rader said. “Under the prior version, each one of those would have had to been presented to the board. Now he (Farley) can renew those contracts and make expenditures accordingly.”

The Executive Board approved the new bylaw along with several other “clean-up” provisions during Wednesday’s meeting in Cookeville. The provisions were passed following the shared-management agreement between the UCHRA and UCDD in August.