Rocky Top council dismisses city judge
Clinton attorney Sal Varsalona, standing, addresses the Rocky Top City Council on Thursday, Dec. 21, over the mayor’s request that he resign as city court judge, a position he had held since 2014. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Council members then appointed Knoxville lawyer Bradley Hodge to be Varsalona’s replacement. Hodge also serves as city judge in Norris.
The council’s vote was 3-0 on both actions. Councilman Jeff Gilliam made the motion to dismiss Varsalona, and it was seconded by Councilwoman Stacy Phillips. The mayor voted with them in favor of both motions – firing Varsalona and hiring Hodge. Councilmen Mack Bunch and Zack Green were absent from the meeting.
Varsalona appeared before the council prior to the vote to oppose the city’s efforts to replace him, and said he had been told that he was being dismissed “because I’ve been too lenient.”
Some defendants in his court had been let off without paying court costs, Varsalona told The Courier News on Friday, which had led to the accusation of being lenient.
“It came as a shock to me,” he said. “I had been the appointed judge there since about 2014, and no one has ever told me I was doing it wrong.
“But after court last month, the mayor (Kerry Templin) called and asked me to come in to see him,” Varsalona said. “He gave me the opportunity TO resign or be fired. He said that I’d been letting people go without paying court costs, and that running the court was very expensive.
“I said if someone wants me to be stricter, let me know, and I will be. But he said, ‘Too late. We’re going in a different direction.’”
Varsalona said the city judge’s position pays $92 a month, which is less than a third of his regular hourly fee as an attorney, so he felt that the job was essentially a volunteer position for him.
“It was certainly not about the money,” he said as to why he accepted the position originally.
“I really have no idea what his different direction is,” Varsalona said. “I understand he hired the city judge of Norris. I only make $92 a month, but I volunteered 10 years ago to help the city out.”
He said he felt sorry for a lot of the local people who were cited into his court, because the majority were “ticketed for no license, no insurance, no registration.”
Rocky Top is a financially depressed community with the vast majority of its residents on fixed incomes, Varsalona said, so he was forgoing the court costs in some of those cases because the defendants really couldn’t afford them.
As for his dismissal, “I was disappointed,” he said. “I just hate it, but I couldn’t in good conscience resign.
“I’ve never once asked for a raise. The money was never an issue for me. I did notice (the mayor’s) wife chose to sit up at the bench with me last time I held court, and she questioned why I did not require some people to pay court costs.”
As for the complaint that he had been too lenient, Varsalona pointed out to the council that the November police report that had just been given to them by the police chief noted that the Police Department had made 99 traffic stops during the month, but had issued only 15 tickets.
“Tell me who’s being lenient?” he said.
“I know that I didn’t do anything wrong,” Varsalona added. “I hate the way (the mayor’s) doing everything. I’ve known the mayor for 50 years. I knew his father.
“Thankfully, losing the judge’s position doesn’t have any economic impact on me. But I would have continued to do it until I retired. I’m not bitter about it, I’m just disappointed.”
The council also voted to change city court sessions to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, rather than having them in the morning.
In other business Thursday, the council:
• Was told by City Manager Mike Ellis that he would open bids for the city’s $4 million-plus sewer upgrade project on Jan. 11, and bring the winning bid to the council during its Jan. 18 meeting for approval of a contract.
The city in April received notice of an additional $1.38 million in grant money to pay for the work, this time an American Rescue Plan grant through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
That money is in addition to other funds transferred from Anderson County “to develop a comprehensive asset management plan and address the critical needs of water loss and excessive infiltration and inflow into its sewer system,” the department said.
Rocky Top plans to use the new grant to help rehabilitate 33,000 linear feet of sewer lines. The city is among 43 Tennessee communities to share in the latest round of grants totaling $203.2 million from the state’s ARP fund.
• Approved on final reading a change in the city’s recently passed ordinance limiting certain fundraising activities in the city, including “roadblocks,” parades and bike races, to those only charitable organizations with IRS certified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
• Was told that the city had entered into an agreement with R.J. Corman Railroad for the city’s Police Department to enforce no-trespassing rules on railroad property through the city.
Most of the city’s homeless camps are set up on railroad property, Gilliam said, and this agreement allows the police to arrest and remove any trespassers on the railroad’s behalf.