County attorney seeks to split investigator role into two part-time positions under SB 22 funding

County Attorney Teresa Nettles asked Wilson County Commissioners Court on April 7 to approve reclassifying a full-time investigator position into two part-time positions and to create a part-time attorney position to meet increased scheduling needs in the justice-of-the-peace (JP) courts.

Nettles told the court the current full-time investigator will be leaving and there is insufficient full-time work to justify retaining a single investigator. She said truancy cases are now routed to JP 1 and JP judges are scheduling more court dates, increasing the need for legal support. "The funding is still under, s b 22, so it will be at no additional cost to the county," Nettles said, and added that the change is a reallocation that does not require an overall budget amendment.

Nut graf: The proposal reallocates existing SB 22 funds to split staff duties and align legal support with JP court needs; Nettles said HR and payroll tasks require a court action to create the two part-time positions in the county system.

Commissioners asked whether the hours and duties would allow the two positions to work together and whether a budget amendment was necessary; Nettles said payroll and HR will reflect the change but no budget amendment is required because the total dollars remain the same. The request was placed before the court as an action item; a motion was recorded in the transcript as made and seconded, but the transcript does not contain a clear roll-call vote or recorded outcome.

Ending: The court heard and discussed the request to split a full-time investigator into two part-time positions and a part-time attorney using SB 22 funds; the transcript records a motion and second without an explicit vote tally in the provided record.