Franklin officials are hoping lawmakers will be able to correct a snafu that wouldn’t allow former police Chief Jamie Powell to take office last week as a city commissioner.

Powell, the top vote getter in the commission race, received a letter in June from the state Board of Retirement Systems giving him the go ahead to retire at the end of November. But after that letter, the General Assembly approved pension reform.

The change in the law, effective Sept. 1, would require Powell to be retired as police chief for 90 days before he could come back in any form of government employment, even as an elected official.

Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but if Powell doesn’t take office within 30 days of when the term was set to begin, another law says he loses the post and can’t take office for at least two years, according to Franklin Mayor Jim Brown

“We just kind of found out about this by accident in December,” Brown said.

The state Retirement Systems Board of Trustees requested an informal opinion about the situation because Powell and two other elected officials are apparently impacted, he said.

The attorney general’s office said that the law requiring the layoff of employment even applies to elected officials.

Powell, who worked 31 years to accumulate his retirement, said he couldn’t afford to jeopardize that. And since his last day of work was Nov. 30, it would be March before he can take office.

“Although I do not believe that the intent of this legislation was to apply to elected officials, this was the result,” he said.

Brown agrees.

“No one at the state level that I talked to expected that something like this would happen,” he said.

Now state Rep. Wilson Stone, D-Scottsville, with the help of former Rep. Rob Wilkey of Scottsville and the Legislative Research Commission, has drafted legislation that would eliminate a provision in the law that would require someone to take office within 30 days or lose the opportunity to serve for another two years.

“The LRC is looking at what the fiscal impact of the legislation will be before I can file it,” Stone said. “Time is of the essence here.

“It’s an unfortunate situation because Chief Powell was told his retirement was compatible with running for elected office. It is unfair to him and to the city of Franklin voters who elected him. I’m going to do everything I can to get it worked out.”

Meanwhile, Franklin City Commission has to deal with the vacancy, Brown said.

If the commission doesn’t appoint someone to fill the vacancy, the governor will.

“So we will have to find someone who is willing to be a placeholder,” Brown said. “Someone who would be willing to serve until this can be worked out and then step aside.”

The person also would also need to be willing to stay on if something were to happen and the situation can’t be worked out, he said.

“We’re going to have to discuss it again tonight,” Brown said. The commission meets at 7 p.m. at the Simpson County Board of Education office.