John Coffelt, Editor

An ongoing move by the Coffee County Law Enforcement Commission to create a Judicial Commissioner Supervisor position was derailed when the board was informed that state law would prevent it.

Law Enforcement Chair Missy DeFord said during the April 22 meeting that she had spoken with the UT County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) about the situation and was informed of a state statute that prevents any one Judicial Commissioner being in a position over any of the others.

DeFord said that the committee has been working for several years to get a supervisor position over the commissioners.

“(The CTAS attorney) said that they can have an administrative assistant, but they can’t have any judicial authority,” DeFord said.

The option to create a supervisor without judiciary powers was unpopular with a feeling that creating a new employee position would create unnecessary payroll expense.

“We have had discussions in the last years about having problems in that office,” said Commissioner Dwight Miller. “We don’t have any way to address that.” 

The Committee did approve a motion to send a resolution to the full County Commission to set the juridical commissioners at one-year terms that would run from September 1 through August 31.

“I want to do this the legal way and the right way and I think this is a way to start clearing up some stuff in that office,” DeFord said.

County Commissioner Roger Chambers said that having an annual reappointment schedule would give the commission the opportunity to evaluate judicial work performance.

Judicial commissioners do fall under county guidelines regarding misconduct, yet termination would have to be made by the County Commission, according to DeFord. 

Currently, the county has had an unofficial policy of renewing the commissioners’ terms every four years. Yet, in looking at the records, several members have not been reappointed for longer than that.

According to TCA code, a judicial commissioner appointed by the county legislative body is considered a county officer and serves a fixed term set by the county legislative body, but the term may not be longer than four years.  Judicial commissioners are compensated from the county’s general fund in an amount determined by the legislative body. The county has four judicial commissioners.

In most of the counties in the state, judicial commissioners fall under the supervision of the county general session judges.  Members of the law enforcement committee said that the Coffee County General Sessions Judges were disinclined to supervise the judicial commissioners.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.