KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — What started as a disagreement over a department-issued vehicle has turned into a testy standoff for former Knox County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Martha Dooley and her longtime employer.
Dooley is asking the Sheriff’s Merit System Council to intervene. She’s filed a grievance with the council to get a county car back, arguing it’s always been an agreed-on benefit of her employment.
The nearly 23-year employee alleges Sheriff Tom Spangler has demoted her to a window clerk while trying to run her off. Dooley, former news director at WATE-TV, was on staff as communications chief when Spangler won election in August 2018.
Sheriff’s officials, however, say she’s no longer on call to respond to department business and doesn’t need a vehicle or a county gas card. She has no right to the benefit, private attorneys hired by the sheriff argue.
Spangler refused a subpoena last month in the case, and he won’t let staff serve a number of subpoenas on other personnel involved in the case, records show.
The fight has gotten personal and pointed.
Knoxville lawyers Gary Prince and Gina Vogel, hired to represent the sheriff, note Dooley makes $106,000 a year.
Dooley’s lawyer, John Valliant, took a shot last month at Spangler’s media spokeswoman, Kimberly Glenn, calling her a political appointee unqualified for the job.
Valliant last week also filed court papers in Knox County Chancery Court to force Spangler to serve subpoenas in the case so that those involved can be compelled to talk to the Merit System Council.
Dooley referred questions to Valliant.
Glenn referred questions to Prince.
WBIR sought to reach Valliant and Prince for comment.
In letters to sheriff’s personnel, Dooley wrote last fall she’s been treated “unfairly and with malice.”
“I have been singled out by the sheriff for unfair treatment and I believe this latest action is just one more attempt at retaliation to get me to quit,” she wrote the department's longtime legal counsel Mike Ruble in a letter on file with the council.
Prince, Vogel and Knox County Law Director David Buuck say she’s got no case.
“There are no allegations, let alone evidence, that the removal of her car was based on discrimination, violations of state law, or some other actionable wrong,” Prince wrote.
On Wednesday, the Merit System Council is scheduled to pick a date to hear Dooley’s grievance. The hearing has been in the works for months.
HER SIDE
Dooley, an East Tennessee native, started working for Sheriff Tim Hutchison in 1998 as planning and development director after a long career at WATE. The station let her go in 1997.
She soon began representing the Sheriff’s Office on its breaking cases. She stayed on the job when Jimmy “J.J.” Jones became sheriff.
For TV viewers and newspaper readers, Dooley was a familiar sight, showing up at crime scenes and updating criminal investigations.
That changed when Spangler won election. He put in Glenn, a realtor, longtime friend and his campaign manager, as his communications chief.
Dooley and Spangler have known each other for years. When he previously was an administrator at KCSO, he signed off on her evaluations, personnel records show.
After the new sheriff took over, Dooley was bumped down to assistant communications director. She was moved to support services, and was assigned to redact officer bodycam video.
“On several occasions, Ms. Dooley felt as if the footage being redacted did not conform to state law regarding same. She was told to contact the Knox County Attorney or state Comptroller’s Office if she had questions,” Valliant wrote the council Feb. 16.
Then, she was assigned to be a window clerk, helping the public with reports, writing receipts and conducting background checks.
She now works at KCSO’s satellite office at Turkey Creek.
In July 2020, the department informed her it was taking away her department-assigned Chevy Impala and her gas card. She didn’t need it for her job; she was no longer “on call.”
Dooley argues the vehicle and gas card had always been part of her compensation package. Hutchison agreed to give it to her and Jones let her keep it, Valliant wrote.
There are other Sheriff’s Office personnel who are not on call who also get a take-home car, she argues.
“Since his taking office, Sheriff Spangler has attempted to alienate Ms. Dooley from the position she once held, instead opting to fill the position with campaign staff who were unqualified. Despite her continued years of service, Sheriff Spangler has tried to force Ms. Dooley out of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office,” Valliant wrote.
Dooley has declined a buyout offer from Spangler.
Last month she got her latest evaluation -- a negative one, Valliant stated.
An evaluation a year prior marked her down for her use of equipment, referencing a “crash” and “car not kept clean.”
In 2014, Dooley was reprimanded twice in the span of months for backing into other vehicles while driving her department-issued car, records state.
She’s asking that she get a department car newer than her previous 2014 model, with less than 30,000 miles on it.
THE SHERIFF’S SIDE
Prince, Vogel and Buuck argue in memos to the council that Dooley doesn’t have grounds for a grievance and the council has no authority to give her what she wants.
An employee can appeal to the council if he or she gets a job change that affects salary, the lawyers argue, but a department-issued car doesn’t constitute salary. It’s something the sheriff awards at his discretion based on job function, they argue.
“Take home cars remain the property of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office,” Prince wrote.
Dooley doesn’t need the car and lives “beyond the 25-mile radius for which county vehicles may be used,” the lawyer writes, citing a KCSO general order.
“As this council is aware, promises made by a prior administration are not legally binding and/or form property interests in the use of county vehicles by the employee, particularly when such a promise would be in conflict with Merit System policies and KCSO personnel policies that state the exact opposite,” Prince wrote.
Buuck said in his opinion it’s questionable whether a sheriff could even give in-kind compensation as part of a salary package.
“The Merit System Council has no authority or jurisdiction to order the sheriff to provide Ms. Dooley a taxpayer-funded car or a taxpayer-funded gas card,” Buuck wrote.
SUBPOENAS
Valliant on Feb. 16 asked the Merit System Council to subpoena 10 people for Dooley’s grievance hearing, including Hutchison, Jones, Spangler and Glenn.
They were delivered Feb. 18, but the next day the Law Director’s Office sent them back, court records state.
Spangler refused his. According to Valliant, he wouldn’t let the others be served either.
On Feb. 24, Valliant sought a Chancery Court order forcing Spangler to ensure the subpoenas be served. Further, he wants the sheriff to be enjoined from trying that tactic again.
Veteran Chancellor John Weaver, who presided over a recent records access case in which he found against the Sheriff’s Office, is handling the case.
