Tennessee

County JECDBs: a legally nested table with open meetings and real funding hooks

Problem

Top-down decisions alienate residents. Single big meetings exclude many voices. People feel powerless and stop participating.

Solution

Tenn. Code Ann. 6-58-114 (Public Chapter 1101 of 1998) requires each county to have a Joint Economic and Community Development Board created by interlocal agreement, with the county mayor, every city mayor or manager and a greenbelt landowner as minimum members, a board that meets at least four times a year and an executive committee that meets once each calendar quarter, minutes and attendance certification, open-meetings coverage, and a certification of compliance on every state grant application. Jefferson County (2023 and 2025) and Shelby County (2024 and 2026) post meeting notices and agendas that follow this cadence.

Patterns used: Nested Governance Tables