County Commission Reappoints Judicial Commissioners (View video of meeting here)

October 26, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The county’s three judicial commissioners have been reappointed for another year.

The county commission, on a 10-1 vote, took that action during Monday night’s regular monthly meeting. Seventh district commissioner Bruce Malone was the lone no vote.

Tammy Ashburn, Joy Whitman, and David Gash currently serve as the judicial commissioners for the county and their terms are for one year.

Duties of the Judicial commissioners include processing the following: Criminal summons for the general public; Orders of protections; signing all arrest warrants for the Smithville, Alexandria, and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Departments, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Edgar Evins State Park Rangers, and TWRA Officers; signing search warrants and search warrants for blood draws; signing Mittimus; setting bonds; speaking with every person who has been arrested; answering any and all calls from the public; and attending certification classes three days each year with no pay for hours attended.

Judicial Commissioners are subject to call at all hours of the day and night when on duty. Only one judicial commissioner works at a time during a one week period on call for 168 hours. They rotate their weeks one week on duty and two weeks off.

The county commission has the sole authority in appointing judicial commissioners and terms may be from one to four years according to state law. For several years the county has had a judicial committee to vet and recommend applicants for appointment to the county commission.

Last fall seventh district county commissioner Bruce Malone asked county attorney Hilton Conger if there was any statutory authority for the county to have a judicial committee to recommend judicial commissioner appointments.

During last Thursday night’s committee of the whole meeting of the county commission, Conger said he had done the research and discovered that there is no statutory authority but that if the county commission chooses a judicial committee could still serve as an adhoc committee and continue to make recommendations on appointments to the county. If so the county commission would have to re-establish the committee since it was not included among the standing committees named when new policies and procedures of the commission were established months ago. If the judicial committee is re-established by the commission as an adhoc committee (for one purpose only) the county mayor would appoint members to serve on it according to the county’s policies and procedures. If the judicial committee is not re-established the county commission could simply re-appoint the judicial commissioners already serving or take on the role themselves of vetting applicants before making appointments.

Commissioner Malone said Monday night that while he favored reappointing Ashburn, Gash, and Whitman in the interim, he wanted to county to go through the process of interviewing and vetting applicants for the judicial commissioner positions to guard against a possible legal challenge in the future from some criminal defense attorney who might claim that the county did not follow proper procedures in making the appointments.

“I would like to see us maybe let these people who are on there serve temporarily until you (county mayor) or us (county commission) appoint a committee and let this committee interview people and properly vet them and then let the commission as a whole certify them. I don’t want us to take the easy way out. I think it needs to be done properly,” said Commissioner Malone.

In response, County Mayor Stribling said the county has always followed a procedure in vetting candidates.

“Every time we have needed a judicial commissioner there has been an advertisement put in the paper and we have taken applications (for judicial commissioners). We took applications for the ones that are now serving. I don’t think this process was not done properly. These people were advertised for. They did submit applications and they were interviewed and presented to the county commission (when they were previously appointed),” said County Mayor Stribling.

October 25, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Lockdown!

Smithville Elementary School was placed on lockdown early Monday morning before the arrival of students after a teacher reported seeing an intruder in a classroom.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the teacher immediately reported the incident and a walk through was conducted inside the building and around the campus by the School Resource Officer, Smithville Police, and School Administrators along with himself, Transportation Supervisor Michael Agee and Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder. Video from school security cameras were reviewed but revealed no one suspicious on the premises. Nothing occurred to trigger the school system’s security alarm and no windows or doors were found to have been tampered with.

Bus drivers kept Smithville Elementary students on their buses at other schools and parents who had transported their children to SES were kept from entering the campus until the lockdown order was lifted.

Director Cripps said he wants to thank everyone who took part in the effort to ensure the safety of the school and for the support of county and city law enforcement departments.

School administrators say they have remained in contact with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and that the investigation is ongoing. The Smithville Police Department has also offered extra support. Meanwhile additional security measures have been taken at the school.

October 24, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County has been approved for a special needs grant in the amount of $65,130 to replace the current HVAC system, phone system and to repave the parking lot at the local health department.

Michael Railing, Director of the DeKalb Health Department applied for the grant from the Upper Cumberland Primary Care Project, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

County Mayor Tim Stribling said there is no local match requirement for the grant.

“We received a grant for our health department and this is through the Tennessee Department of Health. No matching funds are required for the county. It’s to repave the parking lot at the health department, to install a new phone system there, and to put in a new HVAC system with some air purifiers. They have two. One went out about two years ago and we had to replace it. This is to replace the other one with the air purifiers and to put air purifiers on the one we replaced about two years ago. There will probably be a budget amendment coming for that and it might be one of those where we have to spend it and then get reimbursed by the state. We have done that before,” said County Mayor Stribling.

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