New security measures at the Chilton County Courthouse began Thursday morning with an off-duty Clanton Police Department officer manning the building’s front entrance.

“I have been here since this morning checking everyone who walks through this door,” Clanton Police Department officer Jason Ousley said. “Safety is our main objective.”

Ousley stood in his police uniform near a white table set up at the front door entrance to the courthouse with a handheld scanning wand used as a metal detector in hand, ready to check every person entering the front doors.

“Everyone has to be checked,” Ousley said. “If you come to the courthouse, you will have to be checked at the front before you can go anywhere else in the building.”

The Clanton Police Department will now provide a rotation of off-duty officers to work at the front entrance of the courthouse on a temporary basis, at least until the end of the current budget year for the county.

The Chilton County Commission unanimously voted on Monday to contract with the Clanton Police Department for two off-duty police officers to man the front entrance to the courthouse for $15 an hour, until a permanent solution can be found.

The commission plans to form a concrete plan for officers to man the doors after the current budget year is complete.

After the meeting on Monday, commissioners called an emergency meeting Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. to rescind a motion made by the commission on Aug. 26, 2013, which appointed Chilton County Sheriff Kevin Davis as the head of security of the courthouse and annex buildings.

The commission called the emergency meeting without announcing the meeting to the media.

Commissioners met in the emergency meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday after learning they would need to rescind the 2013 motion to be able to contract with the CPD.

“We voted on Wednesday to take the responsibility of courthouse security from the sheriff, back to the county commission,” Commission Chairman Allen Caton said on Thursday. “Until the end of this budget year, there will be two Clanton Police Department officers who will be at the front entrance of the courthouse. This is a preliminary thing. We have not moved the machines down from the third floor yet, but we are just hoping to get everyone used to security as they enter the doors to the courthouse.”

Caton said commissioners Heedy Hayes, Joe Headley and Bobby Agee voted against the motion to rescind the 2013 resolution.

Commissioners Caton, Shannon Welch, Joseph Parnell and Greg Moore voted in favor of rescinding the motion made by the commission on Aug. 26, 2013.

The motion passed during the emergency meeting by a vote of 4-3.

Davis said in a telephone interview on Thursday he was disappointed with how commissioners handled the decision to implement courthouse security.

“The commission has had multiple meetings in the last couple of months discussing this topic with different people, but they have never had the discussion with the sheriff’s department,” Davis said. “I have not been included on any of the discussions regarding the security measures, and was extremely disappointed to hear the measures they took to get a vote passed.”

Davis said he was not made aware of the emergency meeting on Wednesday until the meeting had already begun.

“I ended up coming to the meeting because someone let me know they were meeting, but otherwise I would have had no idea they were getting together,” Davis said. “I would simply like a direct line of communication to discuss the different issues. I want to know what the plan is, and I have not been made aware that any of these discussions about security at the courthouse were even taking place. It is very frustrating, and I am just disappointed.”

Commissioners discussed the possibility of placing two sheriff’s deputies at the front doors of the courthouse during the regularly scheduled commission meeting on Monday.

Several commissioners expressed concerns that a lack of extra personnel in the sheriff’s department would result in commissioners having to hire two full-time deputies as opposed to hiring two off-duty officers with CPD.

“It is my understanding that with the sheriff’s department, they would have to hire people to have enough people to do what we are wanting to do,” commissioner Joseph Parnell said on Monday.

Commissioner Heedy Hayes asked commissioners on Monday if Davis had been consulted regarding the possibility of hiring two officers with the Clanton Police Department.

“We have a sheriff that we are funding and to me, we are just completely leaving him out of the picture,” Hayes said. “We have left the sheriff’s department totally out of this.”

Caton told Hayes during the meeting on Monday he had tried several times to reach Davis on the telephone, but was unsuccessful in reaching him.

“There was a representative of the sheriff’s department who came to our last meeting and told us they would have to hire two deputies to be able to cover the security at the courthouse,” Caton said. “If we hire deputies, that costs us more money, versus $15 an officer with the Clanton Police Department for a temporary basis.”