From Amacher v. City of Tullahoma, decided June 25 by the Sixth Circuit (opinion by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, joined by Judges Joan Larsen and Eric Murphy); for a recent case involving the same plaintiff but a different incident, see also Coffee County Clerk Candidate Indicted for Using Fake Address on Election Petition, DA Says (WSMV-4, Kassidy Brown, June 11):
In August 2020, the people of Tullahoma elected [Jenna] Amacher to a three-year term as an alderman. Amacher did not hide from controversy, whether in that role or outside of it. One example: She opposed a local redevelopment plan that many local leaders and residents supported. Another example: She took more conservative political positions than her fellow aldermen. Still another example: She posted a photo on Facebook of her and her sister-in-law at a "redneck Christmas party" posing in front of a Confederate flag with a sign that read, "[w]e go together like cocaine and waffles." Her political stances alienated some residents and officials, and the photo "shocked" Tullahoma Mayor Ray Knowis and "bother[ed]" City Administrator Jennifer Moody.
The Tullahoma charter requires aldermen to live within the City and provides that an alderman "vacates" her office by moving her residence outside of the City. In February 2021, Amacher sold her home in Tullahoma and moved into her grandfather's former house, which is located outside of the City. For about six months, she did not own any property in the City. In August 2021, Amacher bought an unimproved lot in the City, on which she planned to build a new house. But the plan did not come to fruition for some time. She started construction in the Fall of 2021, suffered delays due to a tornado, then experienced further delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Construction did not begin in earnest until early 2023. In the meantime, Amacher continued to live outside of the City, between at least February 2021 and March 2023, while remaining an alderman.
In February 2022, Amacher ran for a seat on the county commission and listed her house-free property in the City as her residence. The designation raised the suspicion of the county election commissioner who questioned whether Amacher lived in the district. The commissioner told Moody, the city administrator, about Amacher's uncertain residency status. In May 2022, Amacher lost the primary election for the county commission seat.
Even so, a local resident, Scott Van Velsor, collected 270 signatures to ask the district attorney to investigate Amacher's residency because she continued to serve as a Tullahoma alderman. In October 2022, with the support of several citizens, the district attorney sought a writ of quo warranto from a Tennessee state court, requesting Amacher's removal from office due to her lack of residency in the City. In December, the district attorney amended the petition to name Van Velsor as the relator and another Tullahoma resident, Jim Woodard, as the guarantor for a $500 bond to cover court costs if the petition failed.





