Judge Mike Spitzer, the Circuit Judge for the 21st Judicial District, recently pointed out at a meeting of the Lewis County Commissioners the average household income in Williamson County is about $120,000, which is in stark contrast to the average in the other three counties of $28,000 to $32,000. "There is a huge difference in the thought process between Williamson and the other three counties," stated Judge Spitzer.

His appearance at this meeting was to give information to the commissioners about the significance of the new Judicial District the State of Tennessee has formed for Hickman, Lewis and Perry Counties.

Judge Spitzer continued, "We always wanted judges who were local judges, but we never could get that for all the time that I've practiced law, they were always from Williamson County."

In September, 2018, legislation was initiated and the result was Division Five, and a local judge was appointed to preside over Chancery, and Circuit Criminal and Civil Court cases for Lewis, Hickman and Perry Counties; Judge Spitzer, a judge who lived in the community and cared about justice being served. And caseloads were drastically reduced.

However, in 2022 when election time comes, Williamson County officials will be allowed to add their names to the ballot. Since Williamson County has a population of almost 240,000, more than all the other counties put together, 44,000, the odds are in favor of the presiding judge for Division Five coming from Williamson County.

Judge Spitzer had a meeting with then Attorney General Herbert Slatery to express his concerns the judge should always come out of Hickman, Lewis or Perry County, but the Attorney General believed it to be unconstitutional. However, a solution finally got underway, starting under Gov. Haslam and ending with Gov. Lee.

A Judicial Commission was appointed, and it reported back that no changes were necessary, except Hickman, Lewis and Perry Counties need to be a judicial district of their own.

September 1, 2022, will bring forth the newly appointed Thirty Second Judicial District, a new district in Tennessee, forever. So forever the counties of Hickman, Lewis and Perry will be represented by a local judge, a local district attorney and a local public defender, Judge Spencer said.

What does this mean? Judge Spitzer said, "One day you're going to see a name on the ballot that you know, and that's going to be next August, 2022. They need to be people of character. They need to be people that you know within these three counties."