The Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Oversight Board voted to postpone formal action on a drafted onboarding and vision statement and moved the item to the boards February 2026 meeting to allow further review.

Dr. Michael McDonald, who introduced the overview and onboarding materials, told the board the document was intended to give new members a clearer sense of the boards mission and onboarding process and asked for deliberate review rather than immediate adoption. He flagged security questions for board meetings and asked that members be informed about protocols for what to do if an incident occurred during a meeting.

The chair said courthouse security staff are notified when the board meets in the courthouse and that member safety is taken seriously. The chair asked that the draft be sent to Nick Christiansen, the county attorney, for review to ensure the document would not conflict with the countys governing private act. Sonya from human resources was also asked to be involved in finalizing the materials and the chair noted HR has been assembling a comprehensive packet for all county boards, including an online application portal.

Board members agreed to separate the vision statement as its own line item on the February agenda so members could review it in advance. Dr. McDonald moved to give the board time to review the overview and to move consideration of the draft to February; the motion was seconded, called for a voice vote and passed.

The board directed staff to circulate the draft onboarding/vision materials to board members, coordinate a legal review by the county attorney and involve HR (Sonya) in preparing the final materials before the February meeting.