Audit: Commission reviewing child abuse cases often lacked a quorum

(The Center Square) – An audit of a Tennessee commission tasked with reviewing severe child abuse cases had member vacancies and attendance issues, but those issues are largely resolved, commission officials told a joint legislative committee Monday.

The Second Look Commission was established in 2010 by the General Assembly as an independent body that reviews incidents of severe child abuse and makes recommendations to lawmakers on whether the cases are handled adequately, according to its description on TN.gov. The Government Operations and Joint Evaluation Committee agreed to extend the commission, which was set to sunset in four years, for an additional four years after hearing testimony.

An audit of the Second Look Commission found that the commission only had a quorum at 40% of its meetings in the audit of the period from July 1, 2021, through April 30, 2024.

Ten of the 17 commission members are needed for a quorum for the commission’s required seven annual meetings. The commission did not have a quorum when it approved the 2023 annual report, according to the audit.

A lack of attendance records hindered the comptroller’s office in determining how active members are, the audit said.

“At one meeting, we observed that members were marked present even if they were only there for a few minutes, although the meeting lasted two hours,” the audit said. “The director stated that members sometimes leave and rejoin the meeting multiple times. Taking attendance in this manner hinders management from determining which members are active and which may need to be replaced. The director should consider only counting members who are active in the discussion or present for the majority of the meeting.”

Kylie Graves of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth said the commission agreed with the audit as members usually have a superseding conflict when they cannot attend.

“A lot of times we have members who are unable to attend because they have been subpoenaed into court to testify on a case, or law enforcement officers are sometimes out on the scene, physicians have child they need to examine, things of that nature,” Graves said. “What we’ve done is we’ve started changing the way we are tracking attendance and keeping track of both present and also why they were not present.”

Since the audit, the commission has had a quorum in three out of the five meetings.

Sen. Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, said he and Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson, who co-chair the commission, have said members need to participate or be replaced.

“We’re trying to reverse everything that was wrong and move forward,” Littleton said.

Of the two commission vacancies listed in the audit, one has been filled, and another is in the process of being filled, Graves said.