Nobody told you this was happening.
That's the point.
On Monday night, April 27th, Alderman Busch Thoma walked into the regular meeting of the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen and added an item to the agenda — right there, on the spot, in front of the room. No advance notice to the public. No prior notice to fellow board members. No public hearing. Just a motion to tack it on, a 5-2 vote to allow it, and suddenly the future of Tullahoma's 2045 Comprehensive Land Use Plan was on the table.
By the end of the night, the board had voted 5-2 to begin repealing Ordinance 1582 — the ordinance that adopted the plan — with a second and final vote scheduled for the next meeting.
Most of Tullahoma had no idea it was coming.
What the 2045 Plan Actually Is
Ordinance 1582 is not some bureaucratic footnote. It's the document that governs how Tullahoma grows — where development goes, what gets built where, and what kind of city Tullahoma becomes over the next two decades. The planning commission worked on it. The board voted on it twice, as required by city code. It became law.
Monday night, five board members decided to start undoing that — without giving the public a single day's notice to respond.
How It Happened
Thoma's stated goal isn't to kill the plan outright. He wants to convert it from an ordinance to a resolution — a procedural change he argues would give the board more flexibility when developers come knocking, reducing the legal exposure of deviating from the plan's guidance.
City attorney Britney Hoskins backed him up on the legal logic, noting that cities like Chattanooga, Franklin, and Knoxville have moved to resolutions for their comprehensive plans over the last decade.
"When you pass an ordinance, it makes it more binding. Whereas if you pass it by resolution, it allows you all a lot more flexibility."
That may be a legitimate legal argument. But the way Thoma chose to pursue it is a different story entirely.
He didn't put it on the agenda in advance. He didn't notify fellow board members ahead of time. He didn't give the public a chance to weigh in before the first vote was cast. He added it the night of the meeting — and then moved to vote.
Alderman Bobbie Wilson called it out directly.
"I would like more time than just adding this to the agenda to do a little research and to maybe have some discussions before I'm prepared to vote on something like that."
She was outvoted.
The Procedure Was a Mess
What Thoma originally called a motion to "rescind" isn't even the right legal instrument for repealing an ordinance. Under Robert's Rules of Order — Tullahoma's adopted parliamentary authority — and the city's own code, an ordinance can only be repealed by another ordinance, passed on two readings.
The board figured that out in real time, on the floor, with the city attorney guiding them through it. What started as a rescind motion became a repeal ordinance — mid-meeting, mid-discussion, as board members and staff worked out what they were actually allowed to do.
The city attorney had to correct the course of the meeting while it was happening.
They landed on something closer to proper procedure by the end: a first reading of a repealing ordinance, with a second reading and a simultaneous resolution vote scheduled for the next meeting. The vote on that first reading passed 5-2.
But the fact that the board required live legal coaching to figure out how to do this — for an item added to the agenda that same night — tells you everything about how this was handled.
The Vote
Voting to begin the repeal: Mayor Sebourn, Alderman McGee, Alderman Mathis, Alderman Bird, and Alderman Thoma.
Voting against: Alderman Bobbie Wilson and Alderman Kurt Glick.
Glick's opposition wasn't just procedural. He argued on the merits that an ordinance provides exactly the kind of protection the city should want.
"Sometimes when you're working on a plan like that and things that could be controversial, it might be better to have that protection of the two votes."
Wilson agreed, pointing out that the board had never once had a legal problem with the plan being an ordinance. She also noted that Thoma wasn't even at the March 23rd meeting when the plan passed its second reading.
The five who voted yes were unmoved.
What Happens Next
The second reading of the repealing ordinance is expected at the next regular board meeting. If it passes, Ordinance 1582 is gone. The board would then vote separately to re-adopt the 2045 plan as a resolution — a single vote, no second reading required.
The content of the plan isn't changing. The legal weight it carries is.
Whether that's a reasonable modernization or a quiet loosening of the guardrails that protect Tullahoma's long-term development strategy is a question the public never got to ask — because nobody told them it was on the agenda until they were already in the room.
The next regular meeting of the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen is the second Monday of May. The second reading vote is expected on the agenda.