County officials voted 3-1 Monday to allow Southern Insurance Company to continue handling the county’s insurance.
The decision came after a stalemate in April when John Pelham and Linda Hillis voted in favor of  Southern Insurance, while Commissioners Hershel Wells and Gary Prater voted to give the bid to Hoover & Son Insurance.
It was at that time Wells said, “I’m not going to change my vote.”
But he did change his vote, as he sided with Pelham and Hillis to continue allowing Southern Insurance to remain the county’s insurance carrier. Prater did not change his vote, and voted for Hoover & Sons.
When later asked why he changed his vote, Wells said, “I’ve got a reason, but I’d rather not say.” He then added, “We couldn’t keep going and not have insurance. Some of it was going to run out in June. The biggest reason was because we couldn’t keep going without insurance.”
Freddie Hoover voiced his irritation about not being informed of the meeting sooner. He said he received his meeting agenda at 10 a.m. Monday morning. The meeting was held at 1:30 p.m.
“They were all mailed at the same time,” stated Hillis.
In a previous Purchasing Commission meeting, Wells and Prater said they were not informed in a timely manner about that meeting. Hillis told them their letters were sent at the same time as everyone else’s.
Hoover said, “I feel like you’re trying not to show everything. Maybe that’s the way you want it.”
Hoover announced to commission members, “I think this is really low how this is being handled. Why not start in January if insurance is running out? Why didn’t you start in January?” he asked.
Hillis answered, “We actually started in March.”
“You should have started earlier,” replied Hoover.
Prater held up the insurance policy statement and said “There is no information on this paper telling what a guy can bid. It says $48,000 is involved, but I’d say there is more involved than that. How could anyone bid a job from that? It is not specific enough.”
Both county attorney Larry Stanley and county financial advisor Bob Shupe said they liked the current arrangement with Southern Insurance and had no desire to change.
Said Shupe, “This is a unique program for your size entity in the state of Tennessee. It has been handled very well.”
Shupe went on to say the premiums on insurance have not gone up in several years. “You have saved $1.5 million since self-insurance went into effect.”
Present at the meeting were Pelham, Wells, Prater, Stanley, Bob Shupe and Jeremy Shupe, Jay Bragg, Hoover and Rick Stacy.