MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:55 pm

An ethics complaint has been filed against County Commissioner Trey Gooch, who represents the Blackman area, for his actions leading up to the denial of Bible Park USA.

Rutherford County resident Avent Lane lodged a complaint Monday with County Mayor Ernest Burgess, alleging Gooch misused information and advice provided to him by the county attorney.

“This is not about the bible park … it’s about process and transparency in government,” Lane said.

In the complaint, Lane said Gooch took advice from the county attorney on how protest petitions should be worded and even had the county official write up a petition as an example. Gooch then provided the sample petition to the bible park opposition for use.

“This information was not available to the public,” Lane said in his letter. “Mr. Gooch’s clear intent in providing this information was clearly to provide certain of his constituents with an advantage in defeating a zoning resolution supported by other of his constituents.”

Burgess said he has looked over the allegations and has no comment.

“I will forward this to the Ethics Committee to review,” he said.

Gooch could not be reached for comment.

The petitions in question later led to the defeat of a rezoning request by the park’s developers. Because 20 percent of surrounding landowners opposed the park, a two-thirds majority vote was needed for the rezoning request. But the vote fell two votes short and the request failed to get approved.

Lane alleged Gooch then lied about providing John L. Batey with the pre-written petition in his deposition in the Sheltons’ lawsuit against the county.

Judge Robert Corlew ruled in favor of the Sheltons and ordered the county to revisit the bible park-rezoning vote. In response the county filed an appeal with the Tennessee State Appellate Court.

Lane said he was neither for nor against the proposed bible park, but is concerned about a perceived “good ole boys network” in county government.

“The commissioners won’t make decisions based on what the law is,” Lane said. “They decide one way on one thing and another way in another one based on who you are and who you know.”

He said he filed the complaint to bring the situation to light.

“I think the commission has been getting bad, bad advice. … By negligence, by design, by incompetence, I don’t know …” He said. “But it’s time for a new way of doing things.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.