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Earlier in the year, the Troup County Board of Commissioners approved funding for former Juvenile Court Judge Michael Key to serve as judge tempore but the contract to do so was never formally finalized.

On Tuesday the commissioners approved the contract with Key to serve as a backup judge for new Juvenile Court Judge Janelle Johnson.

Key will be on a three-year contract starting at $30,000 per year, prorated to for the first year to $15,000. The annual contract will also go down each year with $30,000 for the first year, $24,000 for the second, and $18,000 for the final year.

Judge Johnson is expected to have many conflict issues due to her work as an attorney representing children inside Juvenile Count. The cases where Johnson represented children that might appear before her are expected to take upwards of three years to make their way through court.

Key said that while Johnson will have conflicts as she starts out, she will start off better as a new juvenile court judge because of her experience as a child advocate.

“This is a really good model. I’m glad it worked out this way,” Key said. “You’ll have someone appointed a judge over this important work that they have never handled … we don’t have that.”

Key said the cases he will have to preside over will likely trickle down over the three years with the first year having most of the cases.

“The third year, that caseload may be pretty low. This year is really heavy. So the plan was to spread the cost of that over three years. Quite honestly, with the cases I covered this year, this is $72,000 for the three-year period. I would have earned that money this year,” Key said.