Lenoir City judge salary unchang

After months of tension and warnings of a pending reduction, the salary for Lenoir City’s judge will go unchanged.

Lenoir City Council decided Monday to keep the salary at $75,000 when Judge-elect Gregg Harrison starts his term Sept. 1.

The city sent out a letter in April informing candidates for the position that the salary was being cut from $75,000 to $7,200 a year starting with the new term. The letter indicated the decision was due to a decrease in court performance.

Harrison defeated incumbent Robin McNabb and challenger Amanda Smith in the Aug. 4 election.

At an Aug. 8 city council meeting, Harrison said he planned to hold court three days a week and reduce the number of city cases being sent to Loudon General Sessions Court. He asked council to reconsider the planned salary reduction to reflect the addition of those extra days and cases.

Mayor Tony Aikens then announced he had formed a committee to reevaluate the salary and present a recommendation to council by Monday. The committee included Councilman Mike Henline, Lenoir City Police Capt. David Flynn and city residents Chris Swafford and Tammy Powell.

All four members of the committee spoke Monday in support of maintaining the salary.

“... We just did some research on what other judges in the area, their salaries are, and so with the court going back to a three-day court, and plus an evening court, it just made perfect sense to restore that salary back to where it was,” Henline said. “After doing the research, we found that we’re getting a bargain in that the other judges in the area make quite a bit more money than that.”

City Administrator Amber Scott Kelso said the county’s general sessions judges make $184,000 working five days a week, while judges in Knoxville earn $85,000 for traffic court. Judges for smaller courts make $15,000-$18,000, she said.

The expansion of the court is expected to take on a broader range of cases such as driving under the influence charges. LCPD Chief Don White said during the meeting that such an approach was originally planned by former judge Terry Vann.

“… I would say that by Judge Harrison vowing to have court three days a week and night court being one of those options it’ll increase the performance and the service to our citizens through our court system, and therefore warrants the salary to remain the same as it has been,” Kelso said.

The city held a public hearing on the salary at 5:45 p.m. Monday. No one spoke.

“We have to do something to protect the integrity of the court system and the office,” Aikens said. “Obviously, with the person that’s in there now we knew what we had. We knew it wasn’t working. They had five and a half years to do something and chose to go the other route — chose to work one day a week for $75,000 a year. That’s just not right, ladies and gentlemen.”

McNabb said in a statement that she wanted to hold evening court dates but was told due to city staffing and transportation obstacles such a plan wasn’t possible.

“I asked how many days we should hold court, and city officials wavered between twice a month and once a week at the most,” McNabb said. “No city judge has ever held court three times per week, and I was definitely never asked to do so. I opted for holding court once a week, even though during that meeting Mr. Harrison said he could not attend city court four days a month to prosecute cases as city attorney.

“ ... The mayor never intended for that salary to stick unless I was re-elected,” she added. “I am disheartened by this entire election cycle with our current city officials.”