DRESDEN, TN – Dresden Mayor Jeff Washburn says he received information alleging a solicitation to commit voter fraud in the northwest Tennessee city.

Weakley County Press reports that Washburn posted a message on Facebook last week claiming that he had received information that someone who did not live in Dresden or own property there had tried to register to vote using an address of Dresden to “benefit from a mayoral candidate she supports”.

Washburn later said the incident involved a solicitation to check in illegally and no one actually checked in illegally, according to the article published on NWTN Today, the joint website of Weakley County Press and The Union City Messenger. .

A Weakley County Board of Elections office official told Weakley County Press that they had not received any reports of voter fraud and were not aware of anything reported by the district attorney’s office. The prosecutor’s office also told the newspaper that it was not aware of any allegations of voter fraud being investigated.

The publication reports that the mayor said he checked with District Attorney General Colin Johnson that his office had received a complaint alleging voter fraud. Washburn told the newspaper that Johnson told him personally that he had received the same information alleging voter fraud that Washburn had received.

The newspaper says Washburn claimed that the person who came to him with the allegation “refused to go ahead with anything.”

Story by News Reporter: Shannon Taylor

Tony Winstead, owner of the property on the court square in Dresden which was previously Majestic House, hired solicitor Langdon Unger to solve the problem of his property being demolished without his permission.

In a letter from Unger to City Archivist Jennifer Branscum, Unger said, “I have been contacted by Tony and Inju Winstead regarding the demolition and cleanup of the aforementioned property. For various reasons, they take the position that they owe the city of Dresden nothing for this. The Winsteads informed me that they had never agreed to this demolition and that in fact they could have the work done for a fraction of what was going to be charged by the city of Dresden. Additionally, they lost a significant amount of personal property due to the demolition.

Washburn said at the August 1 city council meeting^st that he had been in contact with Mr. Winstead who had advised him to contact his daughter. Washburn said he contacted his daughter, Tiana, and she asked Washburn to send her the documents he was referring to regarding the purchase of a property Winstead owns behind where his building was that the city wants to acquire. . Washburn said he told Mr Winstead he would recommend to the board that ‘we would forgive him his billing for the demolition of the hotel if he were so inclined to turn that property over to us’.

Washburn informed council that the town had received a letter from Mr. Winstead’s solicitor regarding the demolition of his property. “I would say that’s one way he wouldn’t have to do that with this offer. The city administration is definitely willing to contact him and go back and forth with offers and counter-offers and bring them to council for council consideration.

Washburn said Mr Winstead’s demolition was “approximately $24,000.00”. Washburn said there was also a dispute over what those amounts should be from Dickey Hutcherson, Keely Wilson Nanney and Tony Winstead. The dispute is that the total amount of $129,000.00 should have included the city sidewalks, which would have made the total amount after being divided by the owners a lower amount. “I think they have a good point. My personal opinion is that they should include sidewalks.

It was also noted that there was a cap on the amounts billed to each owner which could not exceed $25,000.00 by the contractor as they did not have a current contract license and would not be able to demolish anything over that amount. The amount for Mr Winstead’s property was said to have exceeded that amount by 25,000 and was lowered to match that.

The council voted unanimously to recalculate the square footage of the entire block that was demolished.

Mayoral candidate Mike Vernon, who is Mr Winstead’s nephew, addressed the council and said: ‘I know I was sitting here calculating property prices and what they should and shouldn’t should not be, but Mr. Winstead does not believe that the amount given to him to pay is due and that he could have obtained it cheaper elsewhere. Vernon went on to say that all matters from now on should go through Unger, but that part of the land that the city was interested in he was willing to sell to the city.

Washburn said they would be happy to speak with his attorney. “We will communicate with Mr. Unger regarding what we could do to settle the acquisition of this land that we wish to acquire.”

The press spoke with Mr. Winstead about the property and whether he would be willing to turn that property over to the city of Dresden in exchange for not paying the demolition costs and Winstead replied that the answer was: “No. I could probably be willing to sell it but I don’t owe them the money for the demolition and I told him that in writing and even got a lawyer to write him a letter – so if I don’t owe this, why would I do it? Am I giving this property in exchange for his debt forgiveness? »

Winstead said he was also unaware that the contractor who demolished the property was not a licensed contractor. “That’s the very reason why he [Washburn] wouldn’t allow local contractors to bid that’s because the contract was over 25,000 and the local contractors I know had a cap of 25,000 or at least that’s what they told me said.

Winstead said a local contractor he had in line to demolish the building said he would do it for $9,000.00. Winstead went on to say that if all the other buildings, which were smaller than his building, other than the town hall, were demolished at $5,000.00 each using local contractors, that would come to $39,000.00. $ – where does the remaining $90,000.00 come from? Winstead said he doesn’t understand the price that has come into play for all the buildings being demolished at the price the city says it was torn down.

Both Winstead and Vernon said that at FEMA meetings, a FEMA representative said they would not release the money for rebuilding City Hall until the city owns the property and that the city would have everything under control.

Winstead said one thing that troubled him was that “it cost $129,000.00 to tear it all down and it [Washburn] didn’t even finish everything he said he would do. It’s supposed to remove all the sole, concrete and asphalt and it’s still there.

Winstead said he wasn’t trying to be uncooperative because he wanted to see the city rebuild, but he said all he saw was poor planning or no planning at all. “It makes me not want to get involved until I see something happen.”

This is a developing story.

DRESDEN, TN – Dresden, Tennessee, Mayor Jeff Washburn has filed a civil lawsuit against the six-member city council of aldermen.

The lawsuit comes a month after the board voted 5-1 in favor of a resolution calling for Washburn’s censure.

Washburn says the board made the decision in violation of Tennessee Sun Law and that the censure resolution should be null and void.

The Tennessee Sun Law basically states that any decision on public policy or public business must be made in public and not in secret. It makes almost all government meetings open to the public.

Washburn says the board met to discuss his censorship ahead of a June 6 public board meeting.

Washburn said he expected a discussion after the presentation of the resolution calling for its censure.

“It was immediately adopted without discussion. This means that they have already discussed it. They had already made up their minds before they got to the meeting,” says Washburn.

Washburn’s lawsuit also details what he calls the violation of his First Amendment rights to post updates about Dresden on his Facebook news page, “The Weakley Times.”

Washburn says the board of aldermen discussed his censorship and other city business privately, including hiring a city administrator to take on the responsibilities of mayor.

“Taking away the administration powers of the mayor and hiring that extra staff member to run the city, like I said, pretty good cost for a small community – about 25 cents a year, tax rate increase” , says Washburn.

In addition to quashing the resolution, the suit says Washburn is seeking a temporary injunction to restrain the council from interfering with her rights.

“It’s the right thing to do, and I’ve been known to advocate for the right thing to do. It protects the powers of the mayor. It protects the integrity of people knowing what’s going on in their municipal government,” Washburn said.

The monthly Dresden board meeting on Monday evening was postponed because only two aldermen were present when the roll was called.

Washburn is representing himself in this lawsuit.

The college of aldermen has not yet hired a lawyer.

Local 6 contacted the board and members declined to comment.