An email written by Mary K. Jacobsen is at the center of an issue of whether she resigned from the Fairfield Community Club Board of Directors in November but has continued to serve also as its treasurer without being officially reinstated.
Board President Greg Jones maintains that Jacobsen did not resign.
Tennessee Assistant Attorney General Melanie K. Thomas, however, on March 31 requested documents from the community club showing if “any director or officer has been removed or resigned” in the past three years.
Thomas had given the community club until April 30 to provide any such information and various governing and financial documents she wanted in an examination after some club members expressed concerns about how the club was being run.
The club later was given an extension to May 22.
The issue involving Jacobsen surfaced when property owner Jessica Speaker asked board Secretary Monica Hysell at the directors’ April meeting whether there was any record of Jacobsen resigning.
Neither Hysell nor Jacobsen responded, but Jones interjected by saying there would be no response to that question because the matter could be part of what he called the attorney general’s “probe” into the community club.
Speaker followed up the next week with an April 28 email to the entire board, general manager, community club attorney and administrative assistant informing them she filed a request for documentation of board votes that could have reinstated Jacobsen.
She also asked for authorization under which Jacobsen “is currently acting as a signatory on Club financial accounts.”
“Allowing an individual to act as Treasurer and execute financial authority without clear, documented board approval creates unnecessary risk for the organization and its members,” Speaker wrote.
The email in question from Jacobsen has not been released publicly, and she has not commented on it publicly.
She did not respond to Glade Sun telephone and email requests for comment by press time.
But Jones, replying to Speaker on May 1, wrote that after board discussion and the community club attorney’s “legal analysis of the situation,” the board “believes that Mary K Jacobsen’s email did not constitute a resignation under our By-laws” and she therefore remains on the board.
“Accordingly,” he added, “there was no action to be taken by the Board and consequently no minutes were necessary.”
Speaker continued to press, pointing out in another email the same day that under the community club’s bylaws and state law a resignation takes effect immediately unless a specific date is stated.
Further, she referred to the U.S. Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which generally considers an email message a valid written communication.
Jones, replying to Speaker the next day, wrote that as a result of the community club attorney’s analysis of state laws and Fairfield Glade’s bylaws “we feel comfortable” in concluding that Jacobsen did not resign.
Whether the community club response to the assistant attorney general’s request for information mentioned Jacobsen’s email has not been made public.
Asked by the Glade Sun on May 11, Jones said in an email reply only that, “We submitted all requested material to the AG. We will continue to work with the AG for any additional information that they request.”