Knoxville Tennessee Blog

Every time I think about Knox County Politics I’m reminded of Black Wednesday and the quite humorous edits that were made to the Knox County, Tennessee Wikipedia article.

Heading up those proceedings was of course Scott Moore who also happened to be the speaker for this month’s West Knox Republican Club meeting.

Commissioner Moore didn’t have a whole lot to say but he did mention the following:

• No tax increases in the past 8 years
• The county has fully funded mobile meals
• There are a few new parks and libraries
• Knox County schools test scores are up.

I will say the tone of the meeting was drastically different from last month’s meeting with Mayor Bill Haslam. Moore got railed by a few people in the meeting for several minutes during the question and answer time after his speech, but recovered from the cheap shots with the help of Brian H. and Barbara P.

I think a lot of people in Knox county want to find somebody to blame for the chaos that ensued as a result of the court’s ruling on term limits (and I can’t blame them). Scott, as head of the Knox County Commission, is an easy target especially since he has a tendency to speak his mind in a tone that can easily be perceived as course and arrogant.

I’m not going to claim that I want Scott Moore as my best friend, but I’m certainly not going to blame him for events and circumstances that are out of his control which is what quite a few people seem intent on doing.

In today’s Knoxville News Sentinel there is an article titled “Discussions or Deliberations?”. It is somewhat humorous that at this late time that the powers that be at the News Sentinel have just figured out that the Sunshine Law lawsuit they have filed against Knox County Commission will ultimately hinge on how to define words like “deliberation” and “discussion”.

Gee, do you think?

The News Sentinel has for some time been trying to make their case in the newspaper. Which while not very ethical is not illegal. Yet today by posting a Timeline the News Sentinel shoots their case in the foot a few times. It appears that no one knows what “deliberation” and “discussion” is including the Knoxville News Sentinel. The Timeline also calls into question the actions of former Knox County Commissioner and current Knoxville One Question steering committee member John Schmid. Is much of this a case of sour grapes? Perhaps.

It is at times like this people might feel like the theme song for Knox County is “Heroes are hard to find”.

All hell has broken lose with a decision by the Tennessean newspaper to publish a searchable state wide database of Concealed Carry Weapons permit holders in Tennessee. You can find it here.

Noted First and Second Amendment website Say Uncle has taken the lead in challenging the decision of the Editor and Publisher of the Tennessean to make public information that many people in Tennessee feel is just as private as their medical information.

Instapundit weighs in here. Steve Gill is primed and ready for his Wednesday radio program.

Other than the harassment of those on the list, what purpose is achieved by making this private information public?

Over at The Bivings Report is an interesting post on the “Top 6 Political YouTube Videos so far the Cycle“.

Since that post there is another candidate for inclusion. The Joe Biden “Ram it down his throat” YouTube.

Are you familiar with the term TIF? It stands for Tax Increment Financing. Local governments can use TIF’s to get projects off the ground that would not have an acceptable breakeven without the TIF.

However both the City Council of Knoxville and Knox County Commission have been TIF happy for the past few years. It seems that all projects must have TIF’s, which brings up the question, can local government go to far using TIF’s?

In the April 16th meeting of Knox County Commission a good discussion about TIF’s was held. It is interesting to watch Lumpy Lambert praise TIF’s as an almost magical invention while Frank Leuthold asks the questions I have been asking for several years. Bill Lyons from the City of Knoxville explains how TIF’s work and why they are needed.

You can watch this TIF portion of the Knox County Commission meeting here Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

The entire Knox County Commission meeting up to the Public Forum is here.

In the April 16th meeting of the Knox County Commission a speaker in the Public Forum created a bit of a stir. In fact before it was all done voices were raised, apologies were given, and it became very clear that Knox County government doesn’t really care much about local people’s property rights.

The speaker that triggered this passionate discussion was Laura Cole. Betty Bean covered what happened in this Knox County Commission here in the Halls News Shopper News. What you couldn’t see in Betty’s story is the damage that has occurred to Ms. Cole’s property because of inadequate stormwater ordinances, pitiful development practices, and incompetent code enforcement from Knox County engineering. If this sounds bad then you should hear the excuses from Chris Granju of the Knox County engineering department. The only thing he did not say was that the sun was in his eyes. He did say he felt he was being “compelled to investigate myself”.

To make a long story short Mr. Granju had his hat handed to him by Knox County Commissioner Phil Ballard. Commissioner Ballard told Mr. Granju he had written the county engineering department three weeks ago about Ms. Cole’s problems and had heard nothing. Mr. Ballard asked Mr. Granju, “Is it a normal practice of your department not to report back to a commissioner?”

Commissioner Tony Norman apologised to Ms. Cole. The frustration he felt was clear in his voice.

So you might ask yourself what happened to Ms. Cole’s property that was so severe that she says, “My farm will be destroyed within a year, and I have few options. I can sell or I can sue … this is not a balance (between development and environmental concerns). This is destruction of one person’s property for another person’s profit.”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a movie must be worth much more.

The Laura Cole story via “Farmer” James McMillan and YouTube:

Part 1 and Part 2

The Knox County Commission meeting Public Forum featuring Laura Cole via Publius9 and Channel9 of YouTube:

Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV

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Rikki Hall of the Metropulse has written an important and revealing column on the challenge of stormwater in Knox County. This follows Mondays Betty Bean column in the Halls Shopper News that also confronts Knox County Commission on the new stormwater ordinance.

The simple issue at hand is whether developers should put in stormwater pipes that will last for many decades or put in pipes that may only last a few decades. 

When stormwater piping is replaced either property owners or taxpayers have to pay the tab. Developers like Victor Jernigan express their viewpoint that putting in concrete stormwater piping cost too much. In last months Knox County Commission meeting  Jernigan said that a $1000 cost for the developer would result in a $5000 expense for the homeowner. Seems like a high profit margin but not only did Jernigan use this example but so did another developer in this past Monday’s stormwater workshop. 

In fact this has become the manta of the development community. I think the example is all wet as there is no way developers make a 80 percent profit margin. But it does reveal the mindset of the development community in Knox County. 

Toothless ordinances are merely a subsidy for developers that create a transfer cost to property owners and taxpayers. Complicating the matter are Knox County Commissioners like Lumpy Lambert that are trying to preserve the materials like corrugated metal piping and plastic piping that simply do not last as long as concrete. In Monday’s stormwater meeting Commissioner Lambert incorrectly told the audience that mandating concrete stormwater piping would create a monopoly. He was quickly corrected by Joe Simpson of Sherman Dixie Concrete Industries in Chattanooga who informed Commissioner Lambert that their competitor in London, Ky gets plenty of business in East Tennessee. 

This is simple, do you want to continue the subsidy for developers that requires taxpayers and property owners to pay for stormwater pipe replacement 15 years down the road or do you want Knox County Commission to require concrete piping for stormwater? 

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Tennesseans have lost faith in governing officials which is why I believe they don’t even want to show up to vote. You don’t have to look far to find blatant demonstrations of the corruption and utter lack of respect for the law and for the citizens. Everyone is familiar with the current lawsuit against Knox County government, but check out this video of Jimmy Naifeh and Stacey Campfield to see just how out of control our politicians have become.

It’s funny because Naifeh is the Speaker of the House, but yet I can hardly understand what he is saying (read mumbling) half of the time. But, he must be doing something right since Tennesseans have felt compelled to re-elect or not vote against him for the past 10+ years. More commentary from the infamous Rep Campfield here.