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County Commissioner Required Training

About County Commissioner Required Training

Beginning September 1, 2018, newly-elected or newly-appointed county commissioners are required to complete orientation training provided by CTAS under T.C.A. § 5-5-113. In addition, those newly elected members will also be required to complete eight (8) hours of continuing education provided or approved by CTAS on an annual basis. The requirements for this training, including exemptions from the training requirements, are described below. The comptroller will publish annually a list of commissioners with the hours of training required and the hours each commissioner has obtained.

Program Requirements

Orientation Training

You have 120 days after the date of your election or appointment within which to complete your orientation training. Orientation training can be obtained by attending the CTAS County Officials Orientation Program (COOP) held for newly-elected officials every four years, or by taking specific online training classes offered by CTAS through K@te.

IMPORTANT: Newly elected commissioners need to contact CTAS at ctas.support@tennessee.edu to notify us that they are new and need to be registered for the online commissioner training.

If you need assistance enrolling in K@te, please contact the CTAS training department.

Continuing Education Training

You must complete at least eight (8) hours of continuing education annually. The annual compliance period is from September 1 through August 31 each year. For newly-elected or newly-appointed county commissioners, your annual compliance period begins on the first September 1 occurring after the date of your election or appointment. Orientation training does not count toward your continuing education requirement.

Continuing Education Options

The annual continuing education requirement can be met in various ways, including attending educational sessions at TCSA conferences and TCCA regional meetings, attending CTAS training classes, completing online training provided by CTAS, and attending other professional development approved by CTAS. Sign-in sheets will be provided at association events and CTAS training. If you attend outside training, please submit a Credit Request using the button on the right.

Exemptions

  • You are exempt from the ORIENTATION TRAINING requirement if you were in office on April 12, 2018 and have continuously served after that date.
  • You are exempt from the CONTINUING EDUCATION TRAINING requirement if:
    • You were in office on April 12, 2018 and have continuously served after that date; OR
    • You have a total of eight (8) years or more of service as a county commissioner (years of service are not required to be continuous).

CLB Incentive Programs

On May 21, 2024, Governor Bill Lee signed into law an amendment to T.C.A. § 5-5-113 that provides for a new incentive for county commissioners, should their county choose to adopt by resolution.

To qualify for the new incentive, the following must happen:

  1. Your county must adopt a resolution establishing the incentive.
  2. Commissioners who have never participated in any CTAS training must register for a k@te account.

This new incentive for county commissioners has specific requirements to meet in order to qualify for it. The qualifications depend on when you were elected.

Elected before April 2018 and were previously exempted from the mandatory training requirements

You must now complete 8 hours of continuing education each year to qualify for the new incentive.

Elected after April 2018

You must complete both the orientation and 8 hours of continuing education to qualify for the new incentive. We offer an online orientation to make this qualification easier to achieve. Once you set up your k@te account, the online orientation can be assigned to you. If you already have a k@te account and have not completed the orientation requirement, please contact us to make sure the online orientation is assigned to you correctly.

If you have any questions, please send us an email at ctas.support@tennessee.edu

Contact

For questions or comments, contact the CTAS training staff:

(615) 532-3555

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