Today’s Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Tim Wheeler, the displaced Chief Deputy of the Knox County Circuit, Civil General Sessions and Juvenile Court Clerks office has filed a motion in Circuit Court asking for declaratory judgment.
The answer Wheeler apparently wants to court to answer is if he were an employee of Quist Shanks (the elected court clerk) or Knox County. It’s an interesting move in my opinion for two reasons. One, if I recall correctly, a similar incident occurred with the Ballard regime in the Property Assessors office. They tried to let someone go, the person sued and that person is back working with the Ballard regime.
Second, the Knox County Law Directors office is apparently scared of a court. The Law Directors office of Bud Armstrone / David Buuck like to just write checks and avoid a courtroom altogether. The most recent example was a couple of guys at a Red Box in Halls. They get into an argument and because one was an off duty Sheriffs Department employee, the law department settled for a cash payment (the taxpayers cash). I don’t fault Armstrong as much, when he was elected he had very little lawyering experience. I presumed he hired David Buuck to help with litigating, but all they really do, is open our check book and spend our money.
So, I would predict today that Wheeler and Quist Shanks will be reunited again in the near future.
