Chancellor rules in county’s favor in rejecting Farthing’s lawsuit for employee raises

Chancellor George Sexton agreed that all county employees deserve raises but refused to order them from the bench in ruling against Register of Deeds Jackie Farthing’s lawsuit against Dickson County Friday. Farthing sued the county in July after her request for five percent raises for her three employees was not included in the 2012-13 budget. “It’s a sad day for Dickson County,” Farthing said following the ruling early Friday afternoon. She said she has not decided whether she will appeal the decision. Perhaps mindful of setting a precedent, Sexton said while the amount in question is only a little over $3,300, if raises were spread out to all employees of the county it would turn into a lot of money. At least four other elected county officials were present in the courtroom throughout the morning testimony by Farthing and Mayor Bob Rial. Sexton also said the members of the county commission should be asked how many of them have not had a raise in almost five years, like county employees. County attorney Tim Potter emphasized throughout the trial that Farthing was not claiming her office is needing more money in order to operate adequately, including Farthing’s own admissions on the stand. While Rial testified he would like to give raises to county employees, he said the county has not been in the financial position to do so. Farthing’s attorney Alan Poindexter asked Rial about several expenses, including doubling the amount of money given to the humane society, $200,000 to purchase eight more patrol cars than budgeted, $3,000 to join a regional transit authority and $7,000 spent on renovations to the courthouse elevator as well as a $1.2 million “windfall” discovered at the end of the previous fiscal year, questioning how those expenses could be approved while not allocating $3,300 for raises in the register’s office. “There’s good governmental financial management and there’s mistreating people and pushing them around,” Poindexter said in his closing statement. Potter countered that there are many county employees who don’t get paid what they deserve, but the argument is political and not judicial, saying the “remedy is at the ballot box.”