Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble is taking a unique stand by today’s standards, by doing something relatively unheard of in modern times: He is placing the care of one of his deputies and the moral imperative of such above the budgetary concerns of his contemporaries in county government.

The fact that Sgt. Bill Coultry was shot twice in the line of duty did not faze the Bradley County Mayor's Office – the office of Mr. D. Gary Davis – from illustrating that he should remain at two thirds his pay for having the audacity to be shot in the line of duty, because quite clearly their policies and procedures do not allow him to do so. The Finance Committee, despite the opportunity to change this for Heaven’s sake, had spoken.

Yet, despite the declaration of the County Mayor D. Gary Davis’s office as backed up by the County Finance Committee, Sheriff Gobble still felt that the deputy shot twice in the line of duty should not suffer a net pay reduction for his sacrifice, baffling as this logic may be to elected county administrators.

Boldly looking into state law and the once-thought-lost “County Technical Assistance Service Manual (CTAS)” as well as the erstwhile mistakenly displaced “CTAS Tennessee Sheriff’s Handbook,” Sheriff Gobble has elected to adopt a separate set of policies than that adopted by the rest of the county as applied to leave, wage and hour, as allowed by a county official’s separately filed policies which the county legislative body has no authority to approve or disapprove. Devastating as this may be, it will unfortunately (for the aforementioned County Mayor’s Office and Finance Committee) potentially allow the deputy to receive full pay, despite his having been shot twice in the line of duty after a decades or so service to same municipality.

While the County Commission recently decided to upgrade and replace the bullet-resistant vests that ultimately saved Sgt. Coultry’s life, it is believed that the County Mayor’s Office and the Finance Committee had no idea they would actually work, which may have thrown a theoretical wrench into the entire budgetary process. Sheriff Gobble, however, has no such qualms with the success of the commission’s bullet-resistant vests and is pressing forward with the novel thought of not punishing the injured deputy for having utilized his.

I for one have tracked Sheriff Gobble’s career and it leads me to yet another entirely unrelated quandary of my own: Do I leave my own career of 12 years to work in any capacity I could, from janitor, jailer or adjunct for a man of such caliber…or is it worth the risk of falling victim to the County Mayor's Office should I actually have to risk the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty?

The answer, for what it’s worth, is easy: A Man like Sheriff Gobble is worth the risk, and allegiance to those such as he are the reason we have stories of Heroes echoing through the millennia; as a student of history, Men such as he only come around every century or so… But Budget Minded County Mayors such as D. Gary Davis and similar "Finance Committee" members are the fodder of Complacency and Mediocrity every day of the year.

Whatever the case - thank you, Sheriff. I’ll tell my son about you some day, but I’ll have to make up a name for the County Mayor. History, barring any changes in his character, will forget about him.

C.W. Joel
Outside Observer/Peace Officer
Chattanooga
cwjoel@comcast.net