This afternoon, the Knox County Merit System Council for Sheriff’s Employees met for a regular meeting. There were several items for the 3 person Council to consider. There is an alternate Council member, however, the alternate only participates if one council member is absent or for some reason does not vote on an item. It is like a player sitting on the bench. I know, because I was the alternate on the Merit Council in the late 1990’s. When I served one of the members did not attend, so I did participate.
Merit System Council Members left to right Jim Wright, Jr, Jim Jennings and Gina Oster. Alternate John Marshall.
One item the Council had was to set a Grievance Hearing for John Ivan Harmon. Knox County Sheriff outside legal counsel Gary Prince along with a representative of Harmon’s Attorney Tommy Hindman were present. The hearing is set for Wednesday December 1, 2021.
Attorney Gary Prince speaking to the Merit System Council to set a hearing date for Harmon.
The council also discussed the meeting dates for Grievance Hearing for Martha Dooley. There is a hearing scheduled for late September 2021. The council decided to wait until the hearing in Chancery Court to determine the reset dates. This hearing has been rescheduled several times, sources indicate that the Sheriff’s outside legal counsel continues to mount significant charges in defending the Sheriff. There are currently three cases Prince is working on, Dooley, Raymond Scott Moore and now Harmon. Moore’s case was originally scheduled for August 30 and has been rescheduled for October 2021.
Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler has three attorneys on staff, Carlton “Butch” Bryant, Mike Ruble and former District Attorney General Randy Nichols. In addition, Knox County has a law department with a plethora of Attorneys at the taxpayers expense. However, he has outside legal counsel on grievance hearings.
Lowering the age of Corrections Officers
The Sheriff had requested that the age for a Corrections Officer be lowered from 21 to 18 years of age. After considerable discussion, the Council voted to lower the age to 19 for a Corrections Officer. Most interesting in this discussion was the question about juvenile records being sealed and how they can find out about that from a background check. Chief Mike Ruble, one of the Sheriff’s Attorneys on the Sheriff’s payroll said they have ways to find it out. One of the rationale for the lowering of the age is that Blount County does it. The agency Spangler worked before being elected Sheriff of Knox County.
There were three job descriptions approved. Two are new positions, one is at the request of County Commissioner Carson Dailey (according to Ruble)
You can watch the entire meeting from my recording here or below. Also Community Television recorded it as well.
