Knox County source material
Dwight Van de Vate notes over at KnoxViews that the county’s p-card records are now available for perusal online, at the county’s website. Vehicle records are also now available online, including county employee take-home cars.
This is an excellent idea, and along with the new County Commissioners’ online forum, a great example of how the Web [...]
An Albert Baah billboard I saw today
Saw an Albert Baah billboard today on Magnolia with the tagline: “Vote for Albert Baah and trim the frat out of county government.
Clever play on words, I thought.
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9:18 am
Commission Forum now active. Lots of views, but no posts from Commissioners except a welcome from Mr. Strickland.
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9:16 am
Still no active link at the new County Commission Online Forum…
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This should be interesting: tune in at 9am EST
Well, today’s the day Knox County Commissioners can begin talking to each other in their brand, spanking new online message board, which you can visit here.
I have said before that I think the message board is a great idea for all kinds of reasons, and I am happy to see it get up and running. [...]
Blogger candidate says he’s getting no love from “old media”
John Spellings - who blogs as “The Pol” at The Sunspehere is not a Wigshop is running as a write-in candidate for Knox County Commission - and he says the News Sentinel is ignoring his candidacy: “Old media still hasn’t caught on to pay attention to new media, i.e. the Political Knoxville website and [...]
Read More..>>Four day workweek for Knox County employees?
A friend tells me that Knox County Commissioner Lumpy Lambert called in to the Hallerin Hill show this morning in response to Hill’s interview with an official of the city of Birmingham, which has just instituted a 4-day workweek.
My friend says Lambert expressed a lot of support for the idea of making the same change [...]
John Gill speaks on special prosecutor issue
Story is now updated with Gill’s comments:
Elaborating on Nichols’ letter John Gill, Special Counsel, Knox County District Attorney General’s Office said, “We have an obligation to review any allegation of this kind and determine if there is any basis for it. If there were a case in which, even if the [...]
Read More..>>Nichols responds to Hammond
Read Randy Nichols’ letter to Commissioner Mike Hammond regarding Hammond’s request to have a special prosecutor look into issues related to Mayor Ragsdale’s office.
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An online primer
Knox County commissioners are proposing that they create an online message board to assist in making their meetings/discussions more transparent. (I think this is a fantastic idea, by the way).
But the News Sentinel is referring to the online venue being proposed as a “chat room”.
Note: they are not the same thing.
(Please correct [...]
Knox County Commission gets all Shakespearean
Larry Van Guilder on last week’s budget hearing:
Here’s one way to consider the outcome of County Commission’s budget meeting:
“… it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
And here’s a more contemporary summation:
“How disingenuous can we be?” (Commissioner Mark Harmon)
Shakespeare was concerned with weightier subjects [...]
KNS and the charter petition
A conversation is underway over at KnoxBlab on the decsion by the Knoxville News Sentinel to throw its explict support behind the Knox County charter petition efforts.
Editor Jack McElroy says:
This Wednesday, the News Sentinel will take the unusual step of publishing a pair of petitions, the ones being circulated by Knox Charter Petition to change [...]
William Daniels: what does the Office of Neighborhoods do?
One County Commissioner says that in tight budget times, he can’t justify the expense for Alison Wagley’s department.
What do you think?
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In case you missed it
Yesterday afternoon, we posted the entire 75 page document in which the Ragsdale administration responded to questions county commissioners had about specific items in the proposed budget. It’s interesting reading.
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DeFreese on the march
I just got off the phone with Knox County Commissioner Victoria DeFreese, who informs that she and citizen Charles Bowers, along with some other folks, will be hand-delivering a letter to DA Randy Nichols at 10am this morning, demanding that he take action on various complaints against Mayor Ragsdale.
Stay tuned…
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Read More..>>Draft Knox County Hospitality Fund audit release - coming soon to a commission meeting near you
Auditor Richard Walls says today he expects the draft audit of Mayor Ragsdale’s Hospitality Fund to be released to county officials sometime next week.
The Mayor’s office sent this letter to Knox County Commissioners in advance of the audit release. (Click here to view a larger version). Make of it what you will…
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Read More..>>Anybody in the market for a high school?
If so, today’s your lucky day.
Knox County Commission plans to auction off South High School at noon.
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The “reasonable man” standard may be unreasonable
Larry Van Guilder:
There’s a new tool for dispensing justice in Knox County. Building upon a suggestion from Commissioner William Daniels, Commissioner Richard Briggs unveiled a dazzling world of opportunities when he proposed using the “reasonable man” standard to gauge the validity of undocumented p-card charges made by Mayor Mike Ragsdale and his senior staffers.
That [...]
No, these Knox County positions don’t come with a p-card…
From County Commissioner Mark Harmon:
Knox County Commission needs to appoint two citizens with substantial
experience in benefits administration to the Health Insurance Appeal
Board re: county employees. The commission also needs two appointees
with substantial experience in financial management for the same
board. Terms of one and two years are available. Please contact me
at markdharmon@ yahoo.com or 524-4026 to [...]
Knox County Commissioners under oath
Referring to this story about Knox County Commission’s plan to consider a subpoena process that would allow them to question…certain people, KnoxBlab’s favorite political satirist is at it again:
Panel to consider self-subpoena process
“Now we’ll get to the bottom of us!” proclaims commission
From APB reports. Knoxville, TENN. After waiting almost nine months, the Knox County Commission [...]
