City of Sparta now has a new city attorney and a new city judge after newly-elected Mayor Jerry Lowery requested the appointment of two women to the positions.
During the Sept. 1, 2022 meeting of Sparta Board of Mayor and Aldermen, members unanimously approved Lowery’s request to appoint Caroline Sapp as the city attorney, effective immediately. Sapp will replace Lynn Omohundro who resigned last month.
Lowery also asked the board to approve Macey Dawson Gurley as the city’s municipal court judge, and the request was again met with unanimous approval. Gurley will be the first female to serve as judge for the city of Sparta.
In other business, the board set a new pay scale for city employees.
During an Aug. 30 work session, the mayor and aldermen were presented with results of a recent in-house study that was conducted by the city administrator, Brad Hennessee, to determine if Sparta needed to change the pay scale that was being used for city employees. The study was requested by the previous board earlier in the summer and was prompted by a frequent turnover in employees, particularly in the public works and police departments.
From the work session, a plan was made to increase the hourly rate of all employees in Pay Grades 2 through 7 of the city’s Position Classification/Compensation Plan by $2.32. The increase will set the starting pay for city employees, listed as Pay Grade 2, at $15 per hour, but will also adjust the pay rate for all employees not in management positions by the same amount.
The board unanimously approved the new pay scale.
The board also:
Sparta Board of Mayor and Aldermen also approved the internal promotion of the police department’s Patrolman Charlie Sims to police sergeant and to solicit applications for a new patrolman.
In addition, the board approved a $1,000 sponsorship for t-shirts for White County High School.
“The school system has received recognition from the state of Tennessee that the high school is a Level Five School. They want to by t-shirts for every student in the high school,” Alderman Jim Floyd told the board when he presented the idea of helping to sponsor the shirts. “I think this is good for not only the city of Sparta but the whole community.”
“It is a good thing, and I think it is a good thing to be unified with the school system as well,” Mayor Lowery added after the motion to approve the sponsorship had been made and approved.
Before the meeting was adjourned, Lowery asked the board for their approval of new appointments to the city’s planning commission. Lowery said he restructured the list of members so they rotate off the planning commission every four years as required by TCA 13-4-101.
“I don’t need a motion and a second to make that happen, but I would like that,” the mayor told the board, saying he was legally able to make the changes on his own but would prefer that all the city’s aldermen were in agreement with the decisions being made.
There were no objections, and the board approved the following members to Sparta Planning Commission.
The next meeting for Sparta Board of Mayor and Aldermen will be 5 p.m., Sept. 15, at Sparta City Hall.
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