September 20, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
A new full time courthouse security officer position to be filled by Fifth district Constable Mark Milam is being created subject to adoption of a budget amendment by the county commission.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, the county public works committee voted to add the new job as a county employee with pay at $18 per hour based on a 40-hour work week with 30 minutes off for lunch and 2- 15-minute breaks per day as provided for under federal labor laws. The courthouse opens Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m.
County Mayor Matt Adcock said efforts were made to explore the option of private security vendors but using a constable was more cost effective.
“We talked about getting vendors to do security and I presented those quotes,” said County Mayor Adcock. “I think one of them was $50 an hour and the other was $45 an hour. It ended up being a lot more expensive. Then we got into the issue of hiring somebody who would have to meet all these state regulations because its very heavily regulated to be an armed security guard in the state of Tennessee and that’s why those vendors are so expensive,” he said.
“We concluded that using a constable would be the best solution because they already meet all the criteria you would need including POST certification”.
“What I am presenting is a full time 40 hour a week position without benefits (this year) at $37,440 and with benefits included (next year) its $49,030 with social security, retirement, health insurance, unemployment, and Medicare for one employee. That is still significantly cheaper than a vendor,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Constable Milam will not be working for the sheriff’s department. His supervisor will be the county mayor.
“Under state law, the sheriff is in charge of the custody and security of the courthouse unless the county legislative body assigns the duties to someone else. In that case this person will work as a county employee and not for the sheriff’s department. The county legislative body is to have a policy in place with this employee to follow and it should state who the supervisor is whether it be the legislative body or county mayor,” said Adcock.
“The sheriff will still provide deputies for the General Sessions, Criminal, Juvenile, and Chancery Courtrooms to assist with the courts, but the new courthouse security officer will scan everyone through a designated passageway to get into the courthouse and a deputy will not be needed there. In the event of an emergency, the Smithville Police Department and Sheriff’s Department will always be available for security assistance if the security guard needs someone in an emergency,” added County Mayor Adcock.
The public works committee identified the east side entrance to the courthouse near the handicapped ramp on the second floor to be the only secured entry point. Constable Milam will be posted there with a metal detector. Until more secure exterior doors and locks are acquired, Constable Milam will roam the courthouse beginning after October 10.
Commitee Vice Chairman Mathias Anderson said having a security officer in place at the courthouse as soon as possible would be better.
“In the meantime, even though court is not every day and there are other court officials and county officials working in the building, I think it would be a good idea to have a security officer in the building day to day to give us a security presence ASAP and then we can have time to look at options with the budget for what is actually going to take place with the doors and maybe we can approach a secondary security guard, full time or part time. A lot of prevention is just a presence knowing someone is here on a daily basis. That is a big deterrent,” said Anderson.
As for the secured entry point, County Mayor Adcock explained how the second-floor option provided the best solution.
“We had two proposals. I thought we should use the basement entrance because I don’t believe the handicapped accessible ramp is ADA compliant. Its pretty steep. The downside of that is if you get to the third floor you have to take the elevator or two flights of stairs,” said County Mayor Adcock.
“Commissioner Larry Green’s idea makes a lot of sense too. He is saying come to the second-floor entrance on the side that has the ramp. That way you either take the elevator or one flight of stairs to the top floor or one flight of stairs to the bottom floor or use the elevator and we would lock the basement doors and doors on the other (west) side,” he said.
“My idea was that on the second floor at the east entrance, take out the two inside doors,” said Commissioner Green. “Move one of the metal detectors from upstairs down there. That’s where your guard would be posted. You would have a metal detector and a table. All the other doors would be locked. Charlie (Parker) said the codes would change next spring. Instead of using this little push (paddle for handicapped accessibility) we have right now, it has to be a full bar down lower. If our doors would retrofit to that new lock it would work. We might have to buy new doors,” said Green.
Charlie Parker, Smithville Fire Chief and Emergency Management Agency Director, said the way the 54-year-old building is configured new exterior doors would work better.
“Right now, we have an exterior panic device with a small paddle on there. With the new codes, it has to be a minimum of half the width of the door,” said Parker. The way the doors are made up there the marble is wrapped around the frame. You could do a surface mount exit or panic device except for our courthouse its wrapped with marble and there’s not enough room for that which means the actual doors would have to be changed to a new style latch at roughly $2,000 to $2,500 per door. The double doors on the west side you could leave them and mark them not as an exit or you could change them out too. If you do that, I recommend that you change the key and locking system. If you go to a new key system, the numbered key is assigned to a person and you know who has it,” said Parker.
Committee member Glynn Merriman made a motion to acquire bids for new doors, locks, and (no exit) signage for the courthouse and to make one secured entrance on the second-floor level. The cost of the project is to be referred to the budget committee for a funding source. Committee member Andy Pack offered a second to the motion and it was adopted.
Vice Chairman Anderson made a motion to hire one full-time security officer at $18 per hour starting as soon as October 10 and that a job description be created and presented. Committee member Myron Rhody seconded the motion, and it was adopted.