On August 31, 2022 Brett Lashlee completes the last day of his term as County Mayor, having been elected to office in August 2018. Brett became the 41st Chief Administrator of Benton County, elected in the 92nd election cycle of record which includes regular and special elections. Mayor Lashlee was the first republican nominee of record elected to the office. Prior to his election, Mayor Lashlee worked as an accountant for Caterpillar, Inc. in Nashville. Brett is 59 years old, married to Joleen Seilhammer Lashlee, father and step-father to Peyton, Olivia, Evan and Joelle. He is the son of the late Senator Frank Lashlee and Sandy Gatlin Rogers. Mayor Lashlee is currently an active member of the Tennessee Army National Guard with 26 years of service. Sergeant First Class Lashlee has served on 5 deployment operations in his career tenure. SFC Lashlee retires out of military service in October 2022.
A highlight of Mayor Lashlee’s 4-year term of leadership are the following:
Administrated our emergency operations through 5 federally designated natural disasters, one of which was a May 2020 tornado event claiming the life of a local citizen. Mayor Lashlee attributes the incorporation of the CodeRED system under his leadership as having saved possibly dozens of lives that night.
Administrated the county operations through the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed nearly 100 lives to date in Benton County. Mayor Lashlee managed our county finances through the COVID-19 negative impact to our economic condition.
Administrated the county finances and operations during the current economic decline and recession which greatly impacts our financial budgets and capabilities. The last budget passed in June 2022 saw a reduction in spending, but held current county employee levels and pay scales while also meeting the capital acquisitions for our sheriff’s department and ongoing capital projects.
Administrated through 4 years of balanced budgets which did not pull monies from our reserve to balance negative fiscal revenues less expenditures, finishing our annual audits in the positive financial levels every budget. Every budget under his tenure finished with no more than 1 annual audit finding under the mayoral control with no finding coming from the mayor’s office. In comparison, prior annual audits before his tenure amounted to over a dozen, and sometimes over 20 in an annual cycle. Under the efforts of his staff and his leadership Benton County ranks in the top tier fiscally managed counties in Tennessee.
Although battling the negative economic impacts of COVID-19 and the recent market decline, Benton County has realized record tax collection revenues in every category of receivables, year-after-year. Working with a financial revenue analyst, Benton County closed tax collection gaps and deficiencies, bringing in an additional tax receipts in hundreds of thousands of dollars formerly having gone uncollected or unreported. Projections over a 20-year period will be nearly $2 million dollars. Mayor Lashlee ushered in the first property tax decrease of county record, proposing the county reduce our tax rate 22 cents to meet the state certified rate in June 2020.
Under his tenure, Benton County property valuations surpassed the $1 billion dollar mark for the first time in history. Property Tax collections have increased nearly $200,000 annually from residential and construction expansion in Benton County.
In 4 short years, Benton County has received nearly $40 million dollars of grant monies covering a large array of needs at no more than $300,000 in local tax dollars. In the next year, Benton County will receive nearly $10 million dollars in grant monies related to ARPA and the OPIOD Settlement.
Mayor Lashlee was the first county administrator in Tennessee to be deployed to active-duty military since the world wars where he served in Africa and returned after 11 months of service to country. Mayor Lashlee represented our county and country to the best of his abilities. His ambassadorship landed him several interviews on national media outlets and even welcome the President of the United States off of Air Force One. Benton County was well represented on the regional, state, and national stages with Mayor Lashlee’s service.
In the category of capital projects, Mayor Lashlee administrated over the following:
Acquisition of the County Emergency Management Agency Building in the Industrial Park
Acquisition or remodeling of the new Senior Citizens Building (currently in progress)
Acquisition of a County Offices Annex housing Agriculture Extension
Over $150,000 in park improvements and site surveys for future projects.
Plans completed for the addition of 2 soccer fields at the County Ballpark Complex. These fields will also be used for minor league football until new fields can be constructed specifically for their use.
Construction of approximately $1 million dollars in land purchases for future expansion, vehicles, and improvements to the Sheriff’s Department
Instituted CodeRED as the notification and warning system for our citizens, which will also aid our county Emergency Management Agency in its communications of severe weather events.
Signed an agreement with Climavision for the installation of high-tech radar coverage for our county and regional area which will aid weather forecasting and notifications for future severe weather events. This is the first of its kind in Tennessee!
Became the first county in West Tennessee to receive the National Weather Service’s “Storm Ready Community” designation, which also has brought spotter training classes to Benton County as well as assist in the expansion of storm spotters throughout our region.
Acquired at no cost to the local taxpayer, the sites near the interstate for a future FEMA Storm Shelter and County Convenience (Trash and Recycling) for the South County Residents.
In the process of submitting grant applications for our County Convenience Center upgrade and enhancements for recycling and used tire drop offs.
In the process of submitting grant applications for a FEMA Storm Shelter in Big Sandy.
In the category of Economic and Industrial Development, Mayor Lashlee oversaw the following:
Acquiring option to purchase on 555-acre tract West of Camden and adjacent to our current industrial park that is under TVA and State of Tennessee financial and environmental evaluations for survey and site development toward future industrial development.
Acquiring additional acreage at the current industrial park which will allow the leveraging of strategic parcels to be more attractive to industrial development or expansion. Upon the successful landing of an industrial entity, this parcel will bring in approximately $300,000 profit to the Industrial Board which will be rolled over into site development at the new industrial site. We have a foreign entity looking at this parcel now and believe the Ford Blue Oval project will land us a tenant very soon.
The sale of a parcel at the current industrial park to a local business which netted over $2 million in capital expansion and an additional 24 well-paying jobs to this business entity. Almost every major county employer (employing over 50) has increased their job workforce 25% or more in the last four years.
The acquisition of a 24 acre and 3 1/2-acre tracts near the interstate for commercial development which came at a cost of zero to local taxpayers.
Under Mayor Lashlee’s guidance, the Benton-Decatur Special Sewer District has performed a financial turnaround, often near borderline financial loss to now performing over 200% better in income over expenditures. This financial turnaround is allowing the sewer utility to expand which will bring commercial development to interstate exit 126. The monies be realized will also aid in the upgrade of plant and property which has aged. To date, the sewer district has been awarded over $1.4 million dollars in grants at no cost to the local Benton County citizen tax-dollar.
In the last 4-years of Mayor Lashlee’s tenure, Benton County has awarded over $3 million in water-sewer grants that will assist the utility districts of Big Sandy, Camden, Harbor Town Utility, North Utility, and Benton-Decatur Special Sewer Districts.
In the area of Broadband Fiber and Internet, Benton County ranked 2nd to last in Tennessee for investment grant dollars prior to Mayor Lashlee’s term. Over his tenure, Benton County ranks near the top per-capita grant awards, realizing nearly $25 million in broadband investment in Benton County with fiber projects currently being conducted. Benton County will also award $800,000 in additional broadband grants to come.
Benton County hired its first Economic Development Director, who assist the Mayor’s Office and Industrial Board in recruitment efforts and presentations.
The Benton County airport has received nearly $2 million dollars in improvement and expansion grants, costing local taxpayers no more than $50,000. These grants have acquired equipment, lighting, and improved taxiway and runways. Another grant application will upgrade the facility’s office in the near future.
Benton County is partnering with the City of Camden on a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Grant of $1.4 million which will mitigate the flood problems caused by Cane Creek in the Old Depot/Fairgrounds areas. This will cost county taxpayers only $70,000 to acquire the grant.
For Veteran and Veteran Services, under Mayor Lashlee’s tenure the following was accomplished:
Full restoration and preservation of the American Legion Cannons, formerly positioned at the Camden City Park and now on display at The Benton County Veteran Memorial and Berry Military Museum.
Expanding Veteran Services Office (VSO) to fulltime hours, with designated disabled veteran parking space
Recognition and permanent flying of the POW-MIA flag at the County Courthouse
The VSO has brought in over $1,000,000 in financial assistance to our county veterans
Communications, Operations, and Transparency:
Initiated the first Mayor’s Townhall Meetings in 2018 and conducted on a monthly basis.
Initiated the first Facebook Live/Social Media publishing of county meetings in 2018.
At no cost to the annual budget, created a County Technology Director position that would assist and facilitate county communications on webpages and social media platforms and assist in conducting live coverage of county meetings.
Created a County Engineer position so as to give an independent analysis of county capital projects and facilitate in the grant application and execution efforts until completion. This position would be paid for via grant awards and already budgeted expenditures in the budget.
Implemented Direct Deposit for County Operational Employees cutting cost of processing and supplies saving the taxpayers over $10,000 annually.
Created a county webpage that is built for employee and citizen interaction. Although in its early stages, this website/webpage will be capable of handling large volumes of internet traffic and information, while also allowing the visitor, employee, and citizen to interact as needed to obtain what they are trying to do in the form of information and doing business with county government.
Community Initiatives:
Animal Shelter
Our shelter operations have been the most successful of any rural operation in Tennessee. Euthanasia cases have been at an all time low while adoptions, rescues and fosters are at an all-time high! The Pam Chmelik and Rose Tutura Estates have been critical in positioning our shelter operations to their point of success. Volunteerism is very high and recently one of the most critical components to its future success came to reality – the creation of a non-profit entity PAWS! The mix of all these components coming together have made for a model that will ensure success going forward.
Solid Waste
Official formation of Solid Waste Dept so as to pursue grants and contract opportunities that will create and improve the waste-recycling-environmental improvements of the county.
Currently pursuing Recycling Program grants that will allow our citizens to have a convenient opportunity to dispose of recyclable items and lesson the negative impact in the environment
Acquired land for a trash-recycle drop off convenience center in the Holladay-McIlwain area at no cost to the local taxpayers
Met or exceeded our local annual recycling state requirement to lesson the intake of our county landfill and submitted our annual reports timely.
Saw the contractual increase go into effect, increasing our annual host fee revenue nearly $200,000 annually.
Built a relationship with Waste Management’s to obtain an annual community contribution of $2500 toward our CodeRED subscription
Promoted successful citizen efforts and response to our blight-trash cleanups within the community as well as tire pickups from illegal dumping sites.
Asian Carp
Wrote grant application and was awarded the first grant in Benton County and only 3 in Tennessee directly related to eradicating Asian Carp from our waters. This grant went to expand and enhance operational capacity for our only county vendor for Asian Carp. The grant more than tripled their capacity to intake the specie from local fishermen.
Tourism
Tourism dollars are at an all time high. Our Tennessee River Resort District Board is realizing revenues at the highest levels in history and reinvesting this money back into community events geared toward bring tourist to our county. All four years have brought in more and more dollars, as well as our Occupancy/Hotel taxes are at an all time high. We invested into improvements to the ballpark and Patsy Cline Memorial Park. There are plans for finishing the 5th ballfield in the works as well as batting cages and a future soccer field complex. At one time we counted over 300 vehicles on a day there was a softball tournament being played. Our Patsy Cline Facebook page has an enormous following and shows uncountable out-of-town visitors. The state park has an all-time high occupancy in its campgrounds and cabins. Folks are frequenting Benton County and bringing dollars here at the same time. Tourism is our biggest selling point and the last four years visitors have been off the charts in frequenting here!
When anyone assumes public office, the main measurement of accomplishment is: I will leave the operation in better shape than I found it. I believe we have accomplished this in these past four years. Benton County is set to take off and bring opportunities to our youth and citizens we have never seen before. I am honored and proud to have served as your County Mayor. Thank you and May God Bless Benton County Always!
Original source can be found here
Alerts Sign-up