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Councilman In Hot Seat For Business Tax
By Glenda Dyer
Eagleville councilman Terry Zumbro came under fire Thursday night for not paying business taxes and for not having a city business license for all but about one month of the nine or so years that he has been in business in the city.
The issue came up at the March 22 council meeting because resident David Turner had requested the item be discussed. Turner had filed a complaint with the city March 19 alleging misconduct of a council member in conjunction with Zumbro’s operating Zumbro Food Brokerage in Eagleville "without a license/permit and/or not paying city taxes on that business for many years."
Zumbro moved to Eagleville from the Nashville area about nine years ago. He operated his food brokerage business in Nashville also and said he paid business taxes and had a license there.
The difference in the operations, Zumbro said, was that in Nashville he worked out of an office in a commercial building but he operates his business in Eagleville out of his home. Otherwise, Zumbro said, he does the same type of business here that he did in Nashville.
Service performed by food brokers, however, is on the list of businesses that the state says are taxable without reference to whether they are operated out of an outside office or in the home.
Zumbro said he also does not pay business taxes to Rutherford County but does pay personal property taxes on his computer and fax machine.
Zumbro’s not paying business taxes and not having a business license have been talked about around city hall circles and in the community for some time but only surfaced in official actions in about the last five months.
Zumbro said he talked with former town attorney Greg Reed about last July about the business tax matter. He said Reed told him he should have a business license and thus pay business taxes.
Reed wrote an opinion about the issue in about September or October of last year but a copy of the opinion was not available at city hall Monday to verify the date or to confirm what the opinion said.
Reed left his job as Eagleville’s town attorney after 12 years in December and new town attorney Travis Lampley was hired in January.
It appears a settlement agreement for Zumbro’s back taxes was reached under Reed which called for Zumbro to pay only three years of back taxes and fees plus penalties.
On Feb. 20, Zumbro paid the back taxes and penalties and license fees for 2003, 2004 and 2005 and the current taxes for 2006. The total amount, including taxes and fees, penalty and interest, for the four year period came to $145.15.
Eagleville’s new city attorney, Travis Lampley deemed Zumbro’s not paying taxes over the years "a mute point" at Thursday’s council meeting.
"The former attorney Greg Reed wrote his opinion on this and I was given a copy of Mr. Reed’s opinion and my research came to the exact same conclusion," Lampley said. "But since that time all taxes have been paid off, all permits have been in and it would be a waste of time to talk about it."
Lampley’s comments sparked remarks from Councilman Greg Buchanan and Vice-Mayor Ronnie Hill.
"Does this indicate I don’t need a business license to run my business?" Buchanan asked. "Is that what you are telling me that if you’ve been here for 15 years, and if we catch you, you’re going to pay for three?"
Hill directed his comments to Zumbro.
"The thing that has been bugging me since this issue came up is when you moved here from Nashville or wherever you came from, did you have a business license and pay business taxes there?" Hill asked.
Zumbro answered that he did and said Nashville required the license and payment of taxes. He agreed that Eagleville does also.
Zumbro said in an interview after the meeting that he had not addressed the issue earlier because he did not believe he needed a license nor needed to pay taxes because he was operating in a residence.
"All I have is a computer and I am in the phone book," he said.
As a food broker, Zumbro sells to food wholesalers.
"I get an order and I turn it in to a manufacturer and they ship the product to the wholesaler," he said. "I don’t have an inventory nor any trucks or anything like that."
Councilman M.A. Smitty suggested Thursday night that the discussion about the back taxes should end.
"Putting personal feelings aside, we are beating a dead horse because this has been settled through the attorney," he said. "I believe Mr. Lampley is saying we are looking forward now. This is behind us and done."
Mayor Nolan Barham was pressured into reconvening Thursday night’s city council meeting just to discuss the Zumbro business tax issue after it was not discussed before the initial council meeting adjourned.
In the reconvened session, Barham indicated the attorney could have addressed the complaint about Zumbro in the initial council meeting under an agenda item entitled "business taxes."
"It was already on the agenda and I thought he was going to talk about it with that," Barham said. "He had the floor and could have addressed anything."
But when Lampley asked Barham if he should address the complaint against Zumbro when the business taxes agenda item came up in the initial meeting, Barham said no. Instead the discussion under the business taxes item centered around a policy on how long to wait until delinquent tax accounts are turned over to the attorney.
Turner, who filed the complaint against Zumbro, could have brought the Zumbro matter up during the citizen’s input section held at the beginning of the initial council meeting but he believed it would be discussed later in the meeting by the attorney.
Turner had asked the city attorney before the meeting began if he would read the complaint during the meeting but the attorney did not read it out loud and made no comment about the Zumbro issue until the reconvened session.
Barham said complaints filed with the city have always been handled as a legal matter. The complaints are given to the person who is in charge of the department that the complaint involves then the matter goes to the attorney, he said.
Councilman Smitty agreed with Barham’s comments on how complaints should be handled.
"We’ve never discussed stuff like this (in the council meeting) before, he said.
Published April 1, 2007
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