The DeKalb County Habitat for Humanity held their annual meeting at Evins Mill in Smithville in January
The newly elected Officers for 2013 are: President, Nolan Turner; Vice President, Chad Driver; Secretary, Gayla Hendrix; and Treasurer, Brenda Hooper.
Joining the Board as new members for a two year term are: Michael Barry, Chad Driver, and Joy Parker.
Other Board Members are: John Carpenter, Pam Restrepo, Arthur Primrose, Larry Steffee, Mary Nell Summers, Cindy Webb, Lisa Garrison, Larry Green, Rob Willingham, and Hearon Puckett.
Former Board members who continue to serve as committee chairs are: Sharon Evans, Tecia Puckett Pryor, Tom Janney, Glenda Davis, Gary Johnson, John Quintero, Kay Quintero, Kim Wheeler, Laura Stone, Nancy Lewis, and Marie Blair.
Leaving the Board as retiring members this year are: Jerry Scott, who has served since 2011, Laura Stone, who has served since 2007, and Nancy Lewis, who has served since 2003, and has served as Secretary for many years.
The DeKalb County Habitat for Humanity is nearing the completion of their fourth partner family house, which is located on Hays Street in Smithville. Plans for 2013 include: the completion of the fourth house; raising money to begin work on a fifth house; selecting and purchasing lots for future houses; and beginning the selection process of a partner family and an alternate partner family.
Funding for these projects comes from grants, fundraising projects, which include our annual fundraising events, The Fiddler 5K and the Chili Cook-Off.
The Fiddler 5K, takes place this year on July 6, 2013, (the Saturday morning of the Jamboree). Registration is currently available on the website at www.fiddler5k.com. The Annual Chili Cook-Off takes place in the fall (date to be announced), at the 303 Building on the square in Smithville.
Everyone is encouraged to continue supporting the DeKalb County Habitat through volunteering and fundraising events, to ensure continued success. If anyone would like to know more about how to volunteer, please contact any of the board members.
(2013 DeKalb County Habitat for Humanity Board Photo- Front Row (left to right) – Arthur Primrose, Michael Barry, Cindy Webb, Nolan Turner, Mary Nell Summers, and Lisa Garrison.
Back Row (left to right) – John Carpenter, Larry Green, Rob Willingham, Chad Driver, Gayla Hendrix, Joy Parker, and Brenda Hooper.
Not Pictured: Hearon Puckett, Pam Restrepo, and Larry Steffee)

A state lawmaker from Cookeville is proposing legislation to create a sunset provision for the Upper Cumberland Development District and Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency and to reduce the number of members who serve on those boards.
The legislation, sponsored by State Representative Ryan Williams, would apply to all development districts and human resource agencies throughout the state. State Representatives Terri Lynn Weaver and Mark Pody, who represent DeKalb County, and Cameron Sexton of Crossville are co-sponsors of the legislation. State Senator Charlotte Burks is sponsoring the bill in the Senate although she is waiting for more public input before moving forward with the legislation.
Representative Williams said the purpose of the legislation is to make the boards smaller and more accountable while still providing services to the poor. Adding the sunsetting provision, he said would give the state comptroller the power to cut off funding to these agencies and shut them down if he feels they are not running efficiently. By sunsetting the agencies, the comptroller’s office would look at them every three years by requesting audits from the past three years, according to Williams. Human Resource Agencies are already in the sunset cycle. Williams said the legislation could still be amended to address issues not covered by the bill.
The legislation would place the following agencies in the governmental entity review cycle, with a June 30, 2015, termination date: East Tennessee development district; First Tennessee development district; Greater Nashville regional council; Memphis area association of governments; Northwest Tennessee development district; South central Tennessee development district; Southeast Tennessee development district; Southwest Tennessee development district; and the Upper Cumberland development district.
Under present law, the membership of development district boards consist of the county mayor of each county within the district, the mayor of each municipality within the district, the chief executive officer of any metropolitan government within the district, one representative from a local agency in each county dealing with problems of industrial development or promotion appointed by the county mayor, and one (state senator and one state representative whose senatorial or representative districts lie wholly or in part in the development district.
This bill revises the board membership to be the county mayor of each county within the district, or an appointee of the county mayor of each county with knowledge of problems concerning industrial development or promotion; the chief executive officer of any metropolitan government within the district; and one state senator and one state representative whose senatorial or representative districts lie wholly or in part in the development district.
Similarly, the membership of the governing board under the Human Resource Agency Act consists of the county mayor of each county within the district, the mayor of each municipality within the district, the chief executive officer of any metropolitan government within the district, one representative from a local agency in each county knowledgeable of and dealing with the problems concerning human resource agencies appointed by the county mayor or chair, and one state senator and one state representative whose senatorial or representative districts lie wholly or in part within the development district.
This bill revises the membership of the governing board to be: the county mayor of each county within the district, or an appointee of the county mayor of each county with knowledge of problems concerning human resource agencies; the chief executive officer of any metropolitan government within the district; and one state senator and one state representative whose senatorial or representative districts lie wholly or in part within the development district.
Currently, the executive committee of the UCDD is made up of 32 members: 14 county mayors, 14 city mayors, two state representatives, and two industrial representatives. The agency’s board of directors is made up of the 14 county mayors, 30 city mayors, an industrial representative from
each county, a legislator and a state representative. The board of directors only meet once a year.
UCHRA’s board is made up of the same members, except there are consumer representatives instead of industrial representatives.

A federal judge is expected to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the DeKalb County Election Commission and several others in Tennessee brought by former administrators of elections in 2009 who claim they did not get to keep their jobs for political reasons.
In an order filed last week, U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp found that “the position of county administrator of elections is a political position, subject to patronage dismissal.”
The case now goes to Magistrate Judge Joe Brown for further review in light of the court’s ruling. “The judge’s ruling is limited to this party affiliation issue and he has sent the case back to the Magistrate Judge, it appears to decide whether or not there is anything else that needs to be addressed. If not, we expect to see a final order dismissing the case in favor of the election commissions and when that happens the plaintiffs will have a window of time to appeal the court’s ruling or portions of it to the sixth circuit court of appeals” said Nashville Attorney John Harris, III, who represents the DeKalb County Election Commission in this case.
Former DeKalb County Election Administrator Lisa Peterson and the other former administrators filed the lawsuit in July 2009 against the defendant county election commissions, claiming that their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when they were removed from their jobs because of their actual, or perceived, political party association. The former administrators asked the court to order their reinstatement, or in the alternative, order that they receive front pay for a reasonable amount of time. They wanted full back pay and a judgment for compensatory damages and punitive damages and an award for reasonable attorneys fees. Locally, the lawsuit named as defendants the three Republicans on the DeKalb County Election Commission James Dean, Walteen Parker, and Barbara Vanatta.
“The main thrust of the case was that these democratic administrators of elections who were replaced or thought they were being replaced in 2009 all sued claiming that they could not be terminated because of party affiliation being democrats,” said Harris in a telephone interview with WJLE. “But this month the federal district judge who has the case issued a ruling that the position of administrator of elections under Tennessee law is one that has sufficient political discretion so that federal law would allow individuals holding that office to be terminated based on no reason other than political party affiliation,” said Harris. “We’re not saying that’s necessarily what happened to Mrs. Peterson, but the court has found that even if that’s why she was not reappointed that this would be allowable under federal law because of the political involvement of that specific office in making decisions,” said Harris. “According to the court, because of the political discretion of that office it would be permissible for an election commission to either refuse to hire or to refuse to appoint or even to terminate someone based on nothing more than party affiliation,” according to Harris.
The defendants’ first legal victory in the case came in December, 2010 when U.S. District Judge Thomas Wiseman found that the Republican election commissioners named in the lawsuit in DeKalb and other counties were not subject to liability for monetary damages sought, in either their official or individual capacities as “state actors” or state officials. After Wiseman’s ruling, attorneys for the former administrators or plaintiffs filed an appeal to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals but the appeal was later dismissed as premature, meaning that more proceedings must have been held at the trial court level before an appeal could be considered at the appellate level.
A Chancery Court lawsuit against the Republicans on the local election commission, filed by Peterson in 2009 prior to the federal lawsuit, was also recently dismissed according to Harris. “This was a case alleging that back in 2009 the election commission violated the Open Meetings Act. But after we got through the discovery phase, taking depositions Mrs. Peterson’s attorney voluntarily dismissed that claim,” he said.
In the Chancery Court action, Peterson contended that the Republican controlled election commission had violated the Open Meetings Act, State law, and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee “by a majority of its members’ meeting, communicating, and deliberating in private, secretly deciding and agreeing to terminate her employment, and secretly deciding and agreeing to appoint a Republican to the position of administrator of elections prior to the April 24th, 2009 public meeting of the commission.”
For decades, the local election commission had been controlled by Democrats. But when Republicans came to power in the state legislature in 2009, they also took control of the Tennessee election commission as well as county election commissions across the state
On April 24, 2009, the five member DeKalb County Election Commission, made up of three Republicans and two Democrats met to re-organize and to appoint an administrator of elections. Peterson, a Democrat who had been administrator for DeKalb County since 1998, did not receive enough votes to get reappointed. The vote was 2 to 2 along party lines with the Republican Chairman Walteen Parker opting not to vote. The commission then voted 3 to 2 along party lines to appoint Dennis Stanley, a Republican, to the position.
Chairman Parker explained during the April 2009 meeting that since the administrator position was “open” with a new election commission, Peterson was not being fired, just not re-hired. She added that the administrator serves at the pleasure of the election commission. ” I don’t look at this as a dismissal, but simply as not a re-hire. The position was open with the new commission and therefore the commission has spoken for Mr. (Dennis) Stanley,” said Chairman Parker.
She also denied assertions, during the meeting, that the Republican majority violated the open meetings law. “I would like to go on record as saying there have not been any secret meetings among anybody about what is going on,” said Chairman Parker.
Peterson and the other former administrators who filed the federal lawsuit have been represented by attorneys, W. Gary Blackburn and John Ray Clemmons of Blackburn & McCune, PPLC in Nashville.

As local officials contemplate what to do to enhance school security, a DeKalb County High School student says he is a believer in the School Resource Officer (SRO) program.
Jordan Wilkins, a DCHS eleventh grader and non-voting student representative of the school board, said school security is very much on the minds of his fellow students, especially in the wake of the school shooting incident at Newtown, Connecticut in December. “They (students) are worried about it and since Newtown I’ve heard a lot more people speak up about it, especially since it got so close to us (recent on-line facebook threat) at Warren County,” said Wilkins. “If you’ve got somebody there to protect you you’re going to feel safer. People do feel the need to have an SRO here,” he said.
“When you’re at school, you’re there a lot longer than you are with your families sometimes during the week,” said Wilkins. “He (SRO) is somebody you can go to. If you have a problem with anything you can go to Officer (Kenneth) Whitehead (at DCHS) and he will help you in any way he can. There are some things you might tell him that you wouldn’t tell a regular police officer. You learn to have a connection with him. Its good to have him there. He helps us out in any way he can,” said Wilkins.
DeKalb County has only one SRO officer (Kenneth Whitehead) and he is assigned to DeKalb County High School. The position is funded by the county through the sheriff’s department budget and he is employed by the sheriff.
During the February school board meeting, Dr. Gayle Redmon, Principal at Northside Elementary School, admonished the board members to work toward funding an SRO position at each of the five schools in the county.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby said he likes the idea of expanding the SRO program but it needs the support of the community. “An SRO is not just a police officer at school and its not just a police car at school. I don’t think we will ever know how important those police officers are in the school. Not only do they help take care of problems at the school, its also the relationship they have with everyone at that school. If there is something going on they hear about it. We hear the words “street smart”. Well if you are an SRO officer you are “student smart”. They know what to pay attention to and what not to pay attention to. I feel that if we did not have an SRO at the high school, we would probably have more problems. Students know what is important to tell (an SRO officer) and what shouldn’t be told. They’re probably not going to tell anybody about somebody cheating on a test. But if there is something serious that comes in, students want to take care of their school. They have ownership in the school. At DeKalb County High School, that relationship they have with officer Whitehead, we would like for that relationship to be developed at other schools,” said he said.
Third district school board member Kenny Rhody said he believes the SRO program works well and has made a difference at DCHS. “I supported it when Vice Principal David Gash was our SRO officer. He (Officer Whitehead) has quelled so many things that have come about that you don’t hear about. There might be a student who will come up to him and say ‘you might need to check a locker over there’. They will tell him things. He’ll have information coming from every direction and he’s very intelligent about going through it. He picks up those pieces of advice, I’d say on a daily basis and that helps avoid a bigger problem,” said Rhody.
Other measures are already being taken to beef up school security, according to Willoughby. “We have had someone come out and go through the schools and study about the bricks and mortar and how we can make our schools safer. If you have been in some of our schools lately you’ll notice that there are new locks on the doors, electronic locks and latches. Those things are happening right now but as time goes by technology will get cheaper so we are hopefully going to be funding some things that will make our schools safer in this next year,” said Willoughby.
The board of education had intended to host a workshop on school security this week but that has been postponed until after the high school basketball tournaments involving the DCHS Tigers.
Director Willoughby said the workshop will soon be rescheduled and city and county leaders along with law enforcement authorities will be invited to attend to provide input. “When we have this meeting we would like to invite all the county commissioners, the mayors of Alexandria, Liberty, and Dowelltown, County Mayor Mike Foster, the sheriff, and the chiefs of police in Smithville and Alexandria. Of course, it’ll be an open meeting for anyone who wants to attend. When we know where we are on the basketball tournaments, we’ll be able to set a date that will hopefully be good for everybody who is concerned and wants to be involved in helping make those decisions,” said Willoughby.

Two men pleaded guilty to statutory rape of young girls in DeKalb County Criminal Court Friday.
Judge Leon Burns, Jr. presided.
19 year old Paul D. Gilliam, indicted for statutory rape of a 14 year old girl, pleaded guilty to the indictment. He is requesting judicial diversion probation. A sentencing hearing is set for April 8.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said at the time of his arrest that Gilliam is alleged to have had sexual intercourse on four or five occasions with a 14 year old female at her home on Dale Ridge Road and with her consent. The offense allegedly occurred on May 30, 2012. The case was referred to the sheriff’s department and investigated by criminal detectives. Gilliam was arrested on July 11, 2012 and brought to the jail.
22 year old Stephen M. Rogers, Jr., indicted for the statutory rape of a 15 year old girl, pleaded guilty to the indictment. He is requesting judicial diversion probation. A sentencing hearing is set for April 8.
Meanwhile the parents of the victim in the Rogers case have each pleaded guilty to child neglect
46 year old Donna Smith and 34 year old Bryan Smith were indicted for child neglect because they allegedly allowed their daughter to engage in sexual activity with Rogers, even providing them condoms
Under a negotiated settlement, both Donna and Bryan Smith received a sentence of 11 months and 29 days, all suspended to supervised probation by CPS. They are to attend parenting classes.
The warrant against Rogers states that “on Friday, May 11, 2012 at a residence in Smithville, Rogers did have sexual intercourse with a 15 year old female while living with her the previous four months”.
The warrant against Donna Smith, the mother of the girl, states that she ” did knowingly approve of the daughter’s sexual intercourse with a 21 year old male, Michael Rogers. This has been happening for the previous four months and on several occasions. Also the parents furnished condoms to the subjects and allowed them to live together”.
The warrant against Bryan Smith, the father of the girl, states that he “did knowingly approve of his daughter’s sexual intercourse with a 21 year old male, Michael Rogers. He has known of this going on for the previous four months and on several occasions has furnished them with condoms and allowed them to live together knowing that this was going on in the residence.”
The case was investigated by the Department of Children Services and detectives and officers of the Smithville Police Department.