December Commission Packet

Many of you may know this already, but just as a reminder, our “December Commission Packet” can be found here. They are regularly posted on the Robertson County website approximately a week before each Regular Meeting of the Robertson County Commission.

As you know, the “commission packets” are our monthly agendas for the Robertson County Commission “Regular Meetings.”

Federal, State and Local Inmates: What is OUR Responsibility?

How might this apply to Robertson County? Well, in my humble opinion, this County relies too much on “state” (“Tennessee Department of Corrections” or “TDOC”)) prisoners as well as federal prisoners to – and, I quote folks around government - “make” money or “generate revenues.” You are reading this correctly, there are folks in and around your county government who believe that “the jail” (the “Robertson County Detention Facility”) is an opportunity to increase our county revenues.

MY Minutes: 2011.7.26 RCC Budget Committee Meeting

Jim Bellis of the Robertson County Times covered Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Budget Committee Meeting here.

Here are several of the keys I would like to highlight:

At the committee meeting held July 21, committee members had asked county department heads to revisit their individual budgets in search of additional areas that might be trimmed.

What resulted from the charge?

Collectively, those administrators came to the committee Tuesday night with a total of $58,944 in additional cuts, amounting to just under one-half-cent in property tax value.

Further,

Sheriff Bill Holt said that, after further examining his budget, he was optimistic about the possibility of receiving an additional $125,000 in revenue for federal inmates housed in the county’s detention center, reducing the potential property tax increase by one penny.

However, as I understand this effort by the Sheriff’s Department, this is not cutting as much as it is growing an estimate of bring more convicted federal criminals to our County.

Lastly,

Overall, approximately two cents were trimmed from the budget, bringing the potential property tax increase to 38 cents, which Ray said is still too much.

It is not enough.

You know where I stand on this issue.

MY Minutes: 2011.7.21 Budget Committee Meeting

You may have heard discussion about it already, but prepare for the Robertson County Budget Committee meeting (of Thursday, July 21, 2011) to be talked about over the next several days….at least, not until the next meeting which is currently scheduled for Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 5:00pm. (Recall the schedule I originally posted here.)

MY Minutes: 2011.3.21 - RCC Regular Meeting

Several folks have e-mailed me inquiring what the results were with some of the resolutions from Monday (from the Regular Meeting March 21^st).

As always, here are results of the votes (in bold font), and my editorial comment (in italics).

Appointment / Library Board –

Ms. Linda Thompson was nominated, and appointed to the Library Board.

I will look forward to serving with her.

Budget Amendments –

The Highway Commission and Robertson County Schools had proposed Budget Amendments. Both of these resolutions passed without discussion.

Generating the most discussion of the night, the backpay for former EMS employees was taken up by the RCC.

You will recall, and you have probably heard talk of this throughout the County. It was not an easy vote, and quite candidly it was a very difficult decision for the body. Recall that this proposal has been discussion, re-discussed and discussed again.

This issue stems from some of the original turmoil coming from EMS as noted here.

In my humble opinion, what made this such a difficult issue was the allegations and rumors surrounding EMS. But, at the end of the day, the pervasiveness of these problems dictated the outcome that the RCC had to come to terms with – that the lack of oversight and adherence to polices & procedures created a low standard of accountability that the RCC was bound to in making this decision.

At the end of the day, the RCC could night change the” rules of the game” when it came to these employment matters. I underscore employment matters because notwithstanding the issues and concerns with EMS, the employment matters will be handled separately.

The RCC could not consider both.

That is what made this decision tremendously difficult.

At the end of the day, I did not like it, but I think the RCC took the right approach. It brings the County closure on this issue, and allows the EMS Committee to focus on much needed reform in EMS.

This reform is forthcoming.

10 Commandments Resolution –

The resolution I mentioned in the couple of weeks leading up to this meeting PASSED.

It passed overwhelmingly.

I do not mind sharing with you that I voted against this resolution. I did, for several reasons. Most notably, I see no reason for the RCC to take such a position on such an issue spontaneously. It is spontaneous for this is but a special interest matter of a handful of folks. We do not have an existing monument or placard here in the County that is currently under attack by some outside group.

Now, we have drawn a line in the sand.

I just hope that no one was watching when we did.

Law Enforcement / Sheriff’s Department –

There were several proposals brought to the floor by way of the Robertson County Sheriff’s Department.

-          28-Day workweek: This proposal will give way to allow the RCSD to change the way that they schedule their shifts. The Sheriff hopes that it will allow them more flexibility in the way they schedule a work-week, by moving to 12-hour shifts. Further, over time, the objective will be a cost saving measure since it will likely decrease the amount of overtime.

-          Inmate Booking Fee: Relatively self-explanatory as it assesses a fee for the booking process in the Robertson County Detention Facility.

-          Inmate Medical Payment Plan: Relatively self-explanatory as it assesses a fee for medical payments incurred while an inmate is incarcerated.

Yes, in Robertson County, Tennessee

As reported in the RCT:

A bomb threat briefly emptied the Robertson County Office building just before 2 p.m. today.

The Robertson County 911 Center was advised by Sumner County that they had received the threat from an untraceable cell phone number and that the link was traced to a cell tower in Sumner County. The caller said the bomb was in General Sessions Court in Robertson County.

Robertson County Sheriff's Office Captain P.R. West had the building sealed and searched before allowing people back in. The search was done quickly and efficiently, and turned up no indication of explosives.

General Sessions Judge Burton Glover wanted to continue with his court docket and once the building was declared safe, people filed back in to offices and courtrooms to resume schedules that had been interrupted.

Additional details will be posted as they become available.

All I could add is a little perspective as someone who was there for the afternoon court docket: It was brief disturbance that was handled with efficiency and professionalism
I appreciate the professional nature of the court officers, Springfield Fire Department and Robertson County Sheriff's Department. Without them, a troubling and confusing affair could have devolved into something that much more perilous.