Here is the information on the RC Elections site -

Alford, Bob picked up petition 1/5/10

Nelson, Kim R picked up petition 1/29/10

Wright, Mona Gardner filed petition 1/15/10

http://www.roaneelections.com/candidates.html

Tonight I read the comments of the "Rockwood Lawyer" concerning who else may be candidates for the Roane County Circuit Court Clerk's Office. My name is Mona Gardner Wright and I am a candidate for that office. I am a resident of Harriman. My strong work ethics stem from my late father, Tommy Gardner, who was raised in Rockwood. He was a salesman at Sexton Chevrolet for most of his working life. My mother, Dee Vee Gardner, managed the personnel office at Burlington Hosiery for her entire career. I am married to Danny Wright, a State of Tennessee employee for over 30 years. My only sibling is Dirk Gardner, an avid golfer. I have two sons, Roady and Pace Goldston, a step-daughter Raganne Wright Edwards and six fabulous grandchildren.

I've been thinking of running for this office for several months. After graduating from Leadership Roane County in the Spring of 2009 and following a year of research regarding this particular office, I decided to seek election. I am employed at Y-12 and have been so for the last 29 years. I currently supervise 20 employees in the Publications Department. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from Tusculum College, and quite frankly, this is my first venture into the political arena. Other than working diligently to seek this office, I have no further political ambitions.

The position of Clerk requires an administrator with experience in management and supervision. I have the management and supervisory experience to be the administrator of the Circuit Court Clerk's office. Any business or organization has to have strong leadership and supervision to be successful and provide proper direction to bring a team together. A team with all the talent in the world cannot be successful without a good coach to create an environment of teamwork to achieve a goal.

Some of ideas I will implement through the use of existing state-of-the-art technology are already available and in use in other Tennessee counties. I learned this through my research. These resources only need to be harnessed and put to work for Roane County and include:
• establishment of an internet website for public access to the clerk's office;
• establishment of secure online payment method of costs pursuant to judicial orders including the payments of traffic citations;
• publishing the minimum fees and court costs associated with judicial process such as divorces, warrants and other judicial procedures where applicable;
• providing a link to view updated court dockets providing both the public, law enforcement, and attorneys an opportunity to view future dockets eliminating unnecessary trips and needless waiting for postponed or reset hearings; and
• providing information pertaining to jury duty.

I have many other goals for this office and look forward to discussing these issues with as many voters as possible.

to visit this office recently standing at the front window on the second floor of the courthouse: I spotted a huge security risk, all of the computers USB ports are on the back of these computers right out in the open and only one lady was working , someone with the knowledge or know how could easily copy all files and taper with the countys court files how will you candidates fix this problem, and what will the county do several offices i noticed were like this?

Ms. Wright gave a good talk to the Rockwood Civitan Club today. She makes some strong points regarding areas where the Circuit, Criminal, Juvenile and General Sessions Court offices could improve.

I will also be talking with Kim Nelson again in the next few days and see if we can get her posting here.

I talked to Kim Nelson yesterday and she said she doesn't plan on posting on Roaneviews. She said she didn't like the anonymous attacks made online 4 years ago. That was slightly before my time in Roane County (and also before Roaneviews's inception, I believe), so I am not sure what went on then. I told her I was hoping to inspire a little bit of lively online debate, but it sounds like we will just have to go to Roane State for that.

And that means issues that this county must deal with in the future. Frankly, I was personally disgusted by some of the things that were posted on another web site four years ago and will do my best to prevent that from happening at Roane Views but I have a life, believe it or not, and can't be vigilant every second. I rely on everyone here to help police things. Please use the "flag as abusive" tab and give your reasons. Enough flags will take a post offline until I can review it.

Candidates will make their choices on how and where they communicate and we hope that more will follow Ron Woody's lead and accept that new media is here to stay and is a vital communication tool for all of us. Unfortunately we will have to use strong moderation and a heavy hand to keep things civil.

I just checked out both Nelson and Wright's websites.

Wow! There's quite a difference between the two sites.

Overall, it appears Wright is focused more on the actual position of court clerk while Nelson is focused more on the campaign itself.

Wright has several plans I like, especially the on-line payment system and the website with dockets, etc.

Nelson has no plans listed, she is heavy on biographical data. She needs details directly related to the job in my opinion. I would like to see some ideas from her camp soon. Just being a lawyer isn't enough for me. She does say she owned her own small business. Does anyone know what business that was? How many employees she managed?

I have read both Ms. Wright's and Ms. Nelon's websites. Although Ms. Wright does seem to state a more thorough plan, I am just wondering where she plans on getting the money to implement these plans. As a former employee of the clerk's office, I know first hand that money is tight. Employees there are barely making minimum wage and raises are few and far between. Any money for extra equipment, staff, etc, to my knowledge, will have to come from the county commissioners. I witnessed first hand Angela trying to get money for things over the years, and it simply wasn't there to give. Also, to my knowledge, Roane County is already in line for computer updates or new programming from the State office. It is therefore, just a matter of time, that these upgrades will be made. I am not sure if this is something the State is mandating and therefore helping to pay for, or if it will be on the county. But, nevertheless, I feel it is a mute political agenda, as some computer implementations are being made. Being online and having website access are great ideas. But thereagain, someone has to foot the bill for those things. It sounds like both candidates are managerial qualified. Ms. Wright managing 20 or more employees doesn't carry more weight to me than Ms. Nelson, only managing a few. In fact, the fact that Ms. Nelson ran her own business, wherein Ms. Wright was governed by the company she worked for, might actually put Ms. Nelson ahead on that record. Ms. Wright seems to attack Ms. Nelson on her website a bit by referencing the fact that she is not taking an extended leave. I think it is admirable that Ms. Nelson did so, as it seems like it would head off any future conficts, should someone think she was out campaigning while on the job. I find it highly unlikely that the child support office is way behind on cases due to Ms. Nelson's absence. The child support office is way behind on cases due to the caseload. Period. I have sat in child support court. It is a tedious and long process. More often that not, cases are delayed due to parties not showing up for various reason.
I wish both of the candidates luck in their run. I am sorry to say that I haven't read Mr. Alford's website or know his agenda. The race really seems to be between Ms. Nelson and Ms. Wright.

I do not claim to know how many people Ms. Nelson managed in her practice, but only assume from the size of Roane County, the amount of staff she might have had. I also do not know, but it could be possible, that she has had other previous management experience at different firms or in different venues over time. And although the numbers of people that you could possible be managing could be more difficult with the number of people that you have to manage, sometimes one rotten egg can spoil the whole bunch and it is how you deal with people individually rather one, two, or twenty, that is of relevance and importance. The clerk's office as a whole is not a bad place and seems to have gotten a bad reputation. There are some wonderful people that work there. I have said before they are overworked and underpaid. They work in cramped quarters with mounds of paperwork that never end. They deal day to day with very unhappy people. Because, let's face it- the majority of people in court are either victims or a defendants in a case. Either way, no one's happy to be there. I have been in the office before and witnessed the phone ringing off the hook. But, the majority of the time it was because every other clerk was already helping someone, either on another line, in court, finding paperwork,or helping someone at the window. I don't know if it is better to answer the phone and put someone on hold forever, or not to answer the phone. The majority of the phones are equipped with an answering maching or voice mail system that should come on and alert someone to the fact that there is someone in the office.
I have heard no proof that Ms. Nelson ran an unsuccesful practice.
I don't think there was any need for Ms. Wright to take a leave of absence from her job and bringing up the subject on her website has to be considered a stab at Ms. Nelson. Ms. Wright works in a totally different venue and I don't think anyone could ever say she had a conflict of interest. The same would not be said about Ms. Nelson at all should she have continued to represent clients. And while I am also not saying that her absence has not had any effect whatsover on the child support docket, the fact is that the office was run for several years with only one ADA. The office, to my knowledge, is still run with only one child support referee. Only one referee and one ADA, to my knowledge, are in court on any given date. The majority of the paperwork, investigations, research, testing, etc, is being done by legal assistants in the office. Another office, I'm sure, where everyone is overworked and underpaid.
It is hard to imagine anyone from outside the legal system having any understanding or comprehension of the amount of paperwork, cases, and legal documents that go through that courthouse. The amount of forms and reports that have to be filled out and then the amount of paperwork that has to be saved, both electronically and on hard copy. Not to mention not having any knowledge of how to fill out those legal documents to insure that the Clerk's are doing so properly. It is easy to be on the outside and have a game plan of how to fix it. No matter who gets elected to the position, that person has a big job ahead of them.

You happen to be the only one who seems to have indicated you have knowledge the number of employees she managed. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Most local law offices have one employee per attorney. It is my understanding that she was in practice by herself so that would seem to indicate she supervised 1-2 employees at the most.

I don't think anyone in management would agree that the number of people supervised in not relevant. I agree it is very important for manager to be able to demonstrate the ability to handle and supervise one on one. How you handle that one or two directly effects how the other 20 or so respond. An experienced manager knows that you have to be compassionate but firm and supply discipline fairly to all. That alone makes it difficult to manage a large staff.

The clerk's office is a good place. They are underpaid and over worked and it will take someone experienced in management to handle the employees, the work environment, plaintiffs, victims, and defendants. It will take someone with strong mangerial and leadership skills to increase the efficiency of the office including answering the phone, providing efficient service, and provide a good work environment.

You indicated your doubt as to Ms. Nelson’s absence adding to the backlog of child. I quote, “I find it highly unlikely that the child support office is way behind on cases due to Ms. Nelson's absence. The child support office is way behind on cases due to the caseload. Period.” It has created a backlog. If child support was backlogged before and a new attorney was hired to assist in reducing the backlog, would that not imply that the absence of one attorney for extended leave be resorting back to a one attorney office and a step backwards? Wouldn’t have taking vacation intermittently or leave closer to the election been a better exercise in judgment and provided some relief to the backlog rather than taking a two month leave? Some will disagree but everyone has an opinion. That is okay.

Ms. Nelson's campaign is based on her successful law practice and beng an attorney. It was not successful. I have asked attorneys, police, clients, and others. Her business was failing. There is nothing wrong with that as many businesses have failed in these trying economic times. The issue here is she is basing campaign on her success. Would it have not been better to just have said she was an attorney and closed her law practice to accept employment with the District Attorney and just leave the “successful” part off?

The amount of paperwork that goes through “the courthouse” is all the more reason for an experienced manager capable of multitasking with maturity to be the clerk. The new clerk, whether it be Mr. Alford, Ms. Nelson, or Ms Wright will have a lot to learn making his/her employees very important. Ms. Nelson is the only candidate to publicly state she would “clean house” on Spetember 1. She has since reduced that language to saying I didn’t mean "all.” Those employees have the knowledge and to make immediate changes would appear be a step back in the efficiency of the office. How would you have felt when you worked there if those same statements had been made concerning personnel changes? It will take someone with experience to provide the discipline, fairness, and motivation to get them to do as they should and make changes if and when they are necessary. As for someone outside the legal system knowing the office or paperwork, being an attorney is not a requirement election to the office.

One thing we do agree on is that whoever is elected it will be a huge undertaking. Mr. Alford and Ms. Wright seem to both have more focus on platform and issues concerning the office in their campaigns while Ms. Nelson is more focused on herself. We have three choices.Mr. Alford, who has a 24 years longevity owning a successful small business (Bob’s Burgers) with the experience of managing 4-6 employees possessing a high school education; Ms. Nelson, an assistant district attorney practicing in child support with 9 years experience as an attorney and who’s number of employees supervised is not known; and Ms. Wright, a government employee with 29 years longevity and 12 years of managing 20 employees and a degree in Organizational Management.

Ms. Nelson's law practice seems to be a hot topic, but I am inclineed to agree that the appearance is that it must have been unsuccessful. I am not an attorney, but it is my understanding that attorneys typically take public service jobs (IE: DA's office) when they are fresh out of law school in order to gain experience & give back to their respective communities. The next career step, after public service and experience is gained, is to open your own practice. Doesn't anybody else read John Grisham?

It appears to me that Ms. Nelson did the exact opposite, which would lead me to believe that she left private practice because she had to. Most "successful" business owners do not close their businesses to take a job that pays a middle class salary.

Please correct me if I misunderstand.

I am fully supporting Mona Wright. I think she has the management skills and customer service qualities to make that office run at 100%. There is a huge mess to clean up and I believe Mona is more concerned with the good of Roane County. Her plans are well thought out and posted for us to see. I don't see any plan or position posted from Ms Nelson nor do I hear her saying much except that she is a lawyer. The Clerk of Court position has little to do with law and more to do with administrative procedure and management. That office needs a strong manager who will work with the clerks already employed.

Talk to both ladies and you will see the better candidate is Ms Wright!

Ms. Nelson did not do the opposite of what attorney's typically due with their career. In fact, there problably isn't a typical overall scenerario at all. Given the amount of attorney's that pass the bar every year, and the limited amount of public service positions that are available out there, the numbers would not add up to say that attorneys typically go in public service before opening their own practice and therefore Ms. Nelson is doing the opposite. You mention John Grisham in your statement and in fact, John Grisham also chose a public service office after being in a law firm ...."After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990."
I would also think that the current ADA's at District Attorney's office are not fresh out of law school, but rather seasoned attorney's. They work in public office because that is what they wanted to do. No matter the timing.
Since there seems to be such a stand being taken on Ms. Nelson being an "attorney" and Ms. Nelson being a "manager", I went looking for and found some information on attorneys and management...
" Members of the legal profession should not have the bad rap of generally lacking in management and leadership skills. Lawyers are bright, intelligent and generally aggressive action-oriented people"
There are also many non-legal jobs which legal training is good preparation for, such as corporate executive, government administrator, investment banker, entrepreneur, or journalist,..."

If you had researched a little farther you would have also discovered that while your statement is correct those administrators who are attorneys in those management and supervision have gathered years of experience in management before being appointed or placed in a top level management position. The key word in that phrase is experience. Also had you researched a little more you would have discovered that nowhere in the law school curriculum are any courses taught to prospective attorneys on how to operate and manage business. The exception to that would be those enrolled in the dual MBA/Law program where a law degree and MBA is conferred on the successful candidate. If an MBA applied here I am sure we would have heard about it.

Mr. Alford and Ms. Wright have provided the basic information concerning their experience but then have focused more on the office issues. Ms. Nelson on the other hand has played her hand on the fact that she is an attorney and has, quite frankly, exaggerated a bit on her responsibilities.

Ms. Nelson says she has tried cases in all six courts (criminal, both divisions of general sessions, juvenile, and child support court) for the last nine years. I have yet to see her practice or appear as a representative of the District Attorney's staff in any court other than child support. Is she ashamed of her position? It would have been much easier to just have said I closed my law practice to accept a position as an Assistant District Attorney in the Child Support Division of the with the District Attorney's Office. That is fact. Then none of the questions concerning how successful says she was or which courts she practices would have been an issue. When you attempt to make something appear more than it is, the truth will always be discovered.

The Bar Assocaiation tried to convince her to seek the office of County Attorney. She refused and instead decided to seek the position of Circuit Court Clerk. At least as County Attorney she would have been able to put to use all those years of studing law. But of course she would have had to leave the District Attorney's Office (she will any way if she is elected) and reopen up her "successful" law practice. She would have then been able to collect the generous part-time pay as County Attorney and collect on her "successful" law practice as well. And, most importantly, she would still be able to provide legal advice and practice the profession that is so cherished to her.

Ms. Nelson seems to be a sweet person who is simply trying to get on the fast track politically to something as yet unknown and has no patience to wait.

It just bring a lot of quesions to me why she would leave the honarable profession of barrrister (attroney) for the position of a clerk.

This is job is going to be a huge responsibility and undertaking for the person elected. It is going to take someone whith experience and responsibility to manage the employees and office.

"The Bar Assocaiation tried to convince her to seek the office of County Attorney. She refused and instead decided to seek the position of Circuit Court Clerk"....Just wondering who was in on this "Bar Association" meeting? Was the current county attorney, Tom McFarland, a member of the bar, present? I'm sure he would have appreciated the rest of his collegues encouraging Ms. Nelson to run against him at one of their meetings.

Ms. Nelson has tried cases in all six courts during the past nine years. She hasn't been in all of them as an Associate District Attorney, and I don't think she said that. I think you are misunderstanding what she is saying. I take it to read that during the past nine years of her practicing law in Roane County, she has tried cases in all of the courts. True statement.

I don't believe Ms. Nelson needs to produce a transcript of each and every course she has taken during her education career. She has the education, at least 7 years of it, along with the additional CLE classes attorney's have to take every year, and she has the experience.

Looking back through all of posts here, I really can't find any references to attacks against Ms. Wright. I applaud Ms. Nelson and those who support her for running a non-negative campaign. She should not have to defend her education, her career reasonings, or her ethically taken leave of absences.

I actually was undecided on my vote for clerk, but can tell you which way I may be leaning now.

The offices, General Sessions, Juvenile, Criminal, and Circuit Courts have a combined number of 18-20 employess. The office is the record keeping of all judicial actions inccluding keeping the reocrds for fees, fines, court costs, appeals, vjury pools, etc. It is the management that will be extenisive as many of the issues deal with personnel and record keeping. No legal advice can be given by any staff.

If you look at any other office in the court most display a disclaimer that "No legal advice will be given." Legal decisions concerning the staft, daily functions of the office , etc are to be referred to the County Attorney Legal advice for defendnats or plantiff's should be given by thier hired or provided attorney.

There is nothing contrived about the issue of management in this election.. It is a management position. One candidate has management experience with a large staff, one candidate has management experience with a medium staff, and the third has some management exeprience with with what is mostlikey a small staff(No information has been publicly stated concerning the number). Nothing contrived. Management is the issue along with credibility.

I'm not sure you are all of a sudden trying to bring up the subject of giving legal advice. I don't think that anyone is saying because she is an attorney she will able to do that. Sounds like you are trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Because she is an attorney she will have first hand knowledge of all that paperwork that you mentinoed. When she has to see and file a summons, she will know what it is. When she has to issue a capias, she will know how and know what it is. When she has to be in the court room assisting the Judge, she will know how to do that and what that process entails. When she has to seat the jury for a trial, she will know how to do that. When she has explain to someone which court they need to go to and why they can't file their case in one particular court, and why some cases start in sessions court and move to Circuit, etc, she will know all that. More than likely, she already knows how to work through the computer system, look up a case, and pull a file. When she needs to tell someone where to go in the building, she will know that. When she is entering a citation number in the computer, she will know what the citation is and will know if it is correctly done. When she needs to pick up the phone and call the office down the hall, she will know the number! These are little things that make up a big part of the job as well as the paperwork that has to be done. These are a few things, not by any means all of them, that a new person coming in will have to learn in additional to all the other paperwork procedures.

In all six courts for over 9 years, does not mean all six courts for every year of the 9 years! She clearly states she has been with the DA's office for the past 3 years. I just don't see that she is saying something dishonest there. But, actually, now that I think about it, child support court cases are filed in Circuit Court, Criminal Court, General Sessions Court and Juvenile Court. I don't know for sure, but would not doubt that some of them end up in Criminal Court. So, even with your interpretation of her statement, that would still be correct.

Some don't see it that way. That is your take. But as I said some will see it that and some won't. I am not saying she is dishonest. I am saying it reads as an implication she has. Would led me to believe it so. It is one of those things you can interpret it as you want or clarify any way you want. Nope, child support is child support and even you earlier said they are heard in fron of one child support referree, Judge Crass. The origianl decision setting the child supprt may may have come from the other courts. If either of one or both us are wrong, I'm sure we will be corrected.

Good debate. Stimulating. Thanks

Well, there are a lot of people in this world working in different careers than what they went to school for. I see this has being a related position and not totally changing careers.

In general, you are correct that a deputy clerk should handle some of the other tasks. And a lot of times they do. But the Clerk has to know how to do it in order to train the other clerks and assist the customers when need be when other staff aren't there. The Clerk will have to learn everything from the ground up and be able to do everything. Some offices are not as staffed as others are. In Circuit, for instance, there are normally just 2 clerks working. If one is out sick or on vacation, and one is gone to lunch, or has to be in the courtroom, then one has to man the public window, telephone, etc. There has been a lot of times that Angela had to work nights and weekends to take care of administrative duties because she had to handle some of the jobs that the deputies could have done. Your are correct that my list left out some things and that is because a lot of them had already been mentioned, as well as the fact that I did say this by no means all of it.

I agree- good debating. We might even be friends with each other and pass each other on the street every day, and not even know it. Don't you just love cyber space!

Granted it's an important job but it's hardly worthy of all the finger pointing and venom! Why not debate the County Executive or Commission races. Those are positions that will effect all of us far more than the County clerk ever will. All the hand wringing over qualifications is silly. There hasn't been nearly as much discusssion of the qualifications of Mr Woody and Mr Farmer.

Here are a few multiple choice questions for your consideration. The answers may be chose from the following;
A-an experienced attorney
B-and experienced doctor
C- and experienced manager
D-an experienced mechanic

What would be your choice to solve the following situations.

Questions:
1. You are experiencing dizziness and double vision with a headache.
ANSWER-?

2. You have been sued for damages because of a car accident.
ANSWER-?

3. You business is experiencing low worker productivity and is failing
ANSWER-?

4. Your car's engine is missing an seems sluggish.
ANSWER-?