The ethics legislation that was passed in 2005 and 2006 does not require a county to have an ethics committee.  Nevertheless, many counties have established county ethics committees to deal with potential ethics complaints.  Bear in mind that a county ethics committee has very little, if any, authority to do anything other than to screen ethics complaints and direct the complaint to the proper county official or county or state agency that can take appropriate action on the complaint. NOTE: In 2026 there was legislation that would have required all counties to have an ethics committee. The legislation failed. (SB 2257 - HB 1451)

The county ethics committee is not like a grand jury.

The county ethics committee is not a quasi-judicial body.

IT HAS NO AUTHORITY TO:

Compel attendance
Issue subpoenas
Investigate violations of state criminal laws
Investigate violations of federal laws
Hire an investigator
Meet in executive session
 

As previously stated, the county ethics policy is required to cover the acceptance of and disclosure of gifts accepted by officials and employees and the disclosure of conflicts of interest.  Accordingly, an ethics complaint received by a county ethics committee that does not address either the acceptance and/or disclosure of a gift or a conflict of interest need not be pursued by the ethics committee.

Note that the County Purchasing Law of 1957, T.C.A. § 5‑14‑101 et seq., and the 1981 Financial Management Act, T.C.A. § 5‑21‑101 et seq., both contain conflict of interest provisions and prohibitions on the acceptance of gifts.  It is important to note that in counties that have adopted either of these two Acts, the provisions of these state laws control to the extent that they are more restrictive than the county’s ethics policy. 

County officials who serve on a county ethics committee should review ethics complaints to make sure that the complaint first addresses either the acceptance/disclosure of a gift or a conflict of interest.  If the ethics complaint does not address one of these two issues, the ethics committee should direct the complainant to the appropriate person or agency that may properly address the complaint and proceed no further.

If the complaint does address an issue covered by the county ethics policy, the committee should proceed to determine if the complaint bears further inquiry.  If the complaint states a possible violation of the county ethics policy, the committee should turn the complaint over to the proper county official who actually has the authority the deal with the violation.  Depending upon the stated complaint, that could be a county office holder, if the complaint is against an employee, or the county attorney if the complaint is against an elected county official.  If the complaint states a possible criminal violation, the committee should turn the matter over to the district attorney’s office.  In addition, if the information contained in the complaint reasonably causes the committee members to believe that a theft, forgery, credit card fraud, or any other act of unlawful taking of public money, property, or services has occurred, the committee must report the information in a reasonable amount of time to the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury.  T.C.A. § 8-4-503(a).

In order to do the job effectively, members of the ethics committee must be well versed in the state conflict of interest laws that apply to their particular county.  A general understanding of  criminal law would also be helpful.

Notice Sunshine Law – Public

Meetings of the county ethics committee are subject to the Open Meetings Act and applicable public notice requirements. T.C.A. § 8-44-102.

As a body governed by the Open Meetings Act, the ethics committee is subject to the public notice requirements set forth in T.C.A. § 8-44-103.  That statute requires adequate public notice be given for all regular and special meetings. 

Minutes

All bodies subject to the Open Meetings Act are required to keep minutes. T.C.A. § 8-44-104(a) and (b).

(a) The minutes of a meeting of any such governmental body shall be promptly and fully recorded, shall be open to public inspection, and shall include, but not be limited to, a record of persons present, all motions, proposals and resolutions offered, the results of any votes taken, and a record of individual votes in the event of roll call.

Voting

(b) All votes of any such governmental body shall be by public vote or public ballot or public roll call. No secret votes, or secret ballots, or secret roll calls shall be allowed. As used in this chapter, “public vote” means a vote in which the “aye” faction vocally expresses its will in unison and in which the “nay” faction, subsequently, vocally expresses its will in unison.

Public Comment Period

Pursuant to T.C.A. § 8-44-112, the county ethics committee must for each public meeting, reserve a period for public comment.