Simpson County Judge-executive Mason Barnes committed an ethics violation when he cast his vote in favor of a rezoning ordinance on a project he was involved in during a Simpson County Fiscal Court meeting, the Barren River Area Development District Regional Ethics Board has found.

The Board’s findings were in a report obtained by the Daily News. Barnes was found to have violated two parts of Simpson County’s ethics ordinance that prohibits elected officials from discussing or taking action on any matter that may result in personal financial gain for the official. If such a matter comes up, the official must recuse themselves.

A letter of complaint from a citizens group that was signed by some Franklin city officials alleged that Barnes, who owns the construction company Mason Barnes Construction, used his position as judge-executive to “receive preferential treatment” permitting the company to start building a house on property that was zoned for Interstate Interchange Business District.

During an ethics hearing at BRADD on Jan. 29, Barnes stated he voted in favor of the rezoning at the Fiscal Court meeting, but told the board he did not make a motion for the vote and did not second a motion.

“I didn’t think about it at all from the perspective of (the) home, or building a home,” Barnes told the board.

Barnes also said during the hearing that Simpson County Attorney Sam Phillips did not advise him to abstain from voting on the rezoning. According to testimony at the hearing, Simpson County magistrates voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning before Barnes cast this vote.

While the board found that Barnes did violate ethics rules by casting the vote, the board determined that Barnes did not do so intentionally.

“There is no evidence that (Barnes) leveraged his position as judge/executive to influence members of the (Franklin-Simpson Industrial Authority), (Planning and Zoning) Commission or Fiscal Court to act or refrain from acting in a particular manner,” the report states.

Several penalty options were available to the board, including reprimanding violators to local government leaders or requiring violators to file a report or statement over the matter. The board could also levy a fine of no more than $500 to violators.

In this case, the board issued an order directing Barnes to “cease and desist” any present or future violations of the ethics ordinance.

The report states that in the future, Barnes “must carefully consider the relationship” between private business and the interests of the fiscal court.

In a live stream on Facebook Monday night, Barnes told viewers he was “thankful” for the board’s decision and said when he first ran for county judge, he knew things could get “ugly.”

“When you do things and make decisions that people don’t agree with, it has become uglier and uglier, and I think it’s going to get worse,” Barnes said.

In the video Barnes stated he did not act to give himself financial gain, saying “that is not the way I operate.”

“In fact, I tell people just the opposite,” Barnes said in the video. “Don’t give me any favors, don’t do anything special for me – I don’t want it, don’t need it, don’t expect it, don’t demand it.”

Speaking to the Daily News Tuesday on the board’s findings, Barnes had a simple response.

“It is what it is,” he said.