Where does it end?

Sometimes the right decision feels like the wrong decision. And sometimes you can't tell which is the right one and which is the wrong one.

That's what happened at the Monday night Carroll County Council meeting when most of the council members voted to strike a compromise with Superior Court Judge Jeff Smith over his refusal to follow the county personnel hiring policy. None of the council members seemed to want to do what the judge wanted, but most of them were not willing to spend the unknown, but certainly costly, amount of money it would take to do that which seemed like the right thing.

Although the county personnel policy manual, adopted by the county commissioners, contains a statement at the very beginning which says the policy is for all county personnel, excluding court personnel, Smith did not use this information when he explained his reasons to mandate the council and county auditor to do as he requested.

According to one council member, in some counties, such as neighboring Cass County, when a person gets a payroll check from the county, they are considered a county employee. Period.

This doesn't seem to be the case in Carroll County. There has been a long-standing feud between the Carroll County Prosecutor's office with the council about the nepotism policy because the prosecutor hired sisters to work in his office. And now the Superior Court is following suit.

How far behind will Carroll Circuit Court be? Does this extend to the county probation department, which is controlled by the courts? And how about the sheriff's department? Are deputies not considered "officers of the court?"

And where are the Carroll County Commissioners when all of this is going on?