Niles' suit against county dismissed
 
A legal matter hanging over Loudon County since September 2014 ended last week after a lawsuit filed by former Loudon County circuit court clerk Lisa Niles was dismissed by the new clerk.
 
“This was just a good time to put it behind us,” Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw, county mayor, said. “Regardless of where you stood on the lawsuit. From 2014 to where it had been, it has just grown and evolved and gotten so big. I think it’s a good thing for the county to get it behind us now.”
 
Steve Harrelson, who was appointed to the position by county commission in December after Niles resigned to become clerk and master following the retirement of Fred Chaney, withdrew the suit against the county.
 
Harrelson served on county commission when the case was filed and as commission chairman for the majority of the time the suit was ongoing.
 
“Once I was appointed to the position of circuit court clerk, of course I wanted to evaluate the whole department and see if I could do anything to make it better and more efficient,” Harrelson said. “The lawsuit is definitely something that came to mind very quickly. I thought it was something the commission and myself would want to resolve and put behind us and move on from it.”
 
The Niles suit originally requested six new employees at a base salary of $31,000 and pay increases for all full- and part-time employees.
 
In December 2015, Chancellor Frank V. Williams III issued a memorandum opinion allowing four new employees for Niles — a deputy clerk/bookkeeper at a salary of $32,000 and three deputy clerks at $25,500.
 
A month later, Niles filed a motion for a post-trial conference seeking clarification on whether she would be granted $57,000 in raises for current employees.
 
After several months of uncertainty around the case, the issue was retried in December 2016.
 
Williams again issued a memorandum in favor of Niles in May 2017, again approving the hiring of four new employees and allowing $50,000 for salary adjustments for current employees.
 
County commissioners in April 2017 voted to appeal the decision — specifically that the judge allowed for $50,000 for salary adjustments, which was more than requested during the December 2016 hearing.
 
The status of the case had been up in the air until Harrelson’s decision to withdraw the suit.
 
“The more I looked at the whole situation and where we were at today and the thoughts of going back and starting from scratch … with a new judge and the additional cost of attorney fees, I just thought it was in the best interest of Loudon County to dismiss the suit, sign the salary agreement with mayor Bradshaw and move on to more pressing issues for Loudon County,” Harrelson said.
 
Three of the four new employees granted the department have already been hired and each full-time staff member was brought up to a minimum salary of $25,500.
 
“I’m just going to continue to evaluate my department and see if we need to fill the final position or not,” Harrelson said.
 
The lawsuit racked up about $200,000 in legal fees for the county from both sides over the more than four years. Bradshaw was surprised the lawsuit extended on, but didn’t blame Niles or commissioners, saying both sides did what they felt best.
 
“I’m happy to get it behind us,” Harrelson said. “I think everybody associated with the lawsuit and all the citizens of Loudon County will be glad to get this lawsuit behind us. I figured that would be the case and that’s why I thought it was best to go ahead and dismiss it and proceed according to the ruling of the judge.”

BACK
2/28/18