June 20, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Judicial Commissioners are asking for an increase in pay.
The request was made during Thursday night’s county budget committee meeting.
The pay for each of the three Judicial Commissioners, Tammy Ashburn, Joy Whitman, and David Gash is $12,900 per year. The request is to up the pay by $1,000 per year for each of the three judicial commissioners.
Last September the county commission adopted a budget amendment to increase the pay at that time by $75 per month.
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
*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 budget committee has not yet acted on the request.