Priorities, priorities…
Offered without comment, two stories from Knox County government during the past 24 hours:
Clinic offering free health services for working poor denied county grant funding
Mayor Mike Ragsdale reimburses county taxpayers for things like unused plane tickets and $76 car detailing services, using some of the $82,788.81 remaining in his campaign warchest.
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Read More..>>Ragsdale in Rocky Hill
Cathy at Domestic Psychology gives a full report of Mayor’s Night Out at Rocky Hill:
The mayor was very low-key with the audience. He began the evening by trying to joke about his administration’s daily presence on the front page of the local paper. I guess that even politicians heed the celebrity “all publicity is good” [...]
Dr. Seuss wrote about Knox County government? Who knew?!
Sam Venable does a pretty great impression of the Good Doctor:
Mike The Rag was called to task by local folks who were aghast
At thousands in suspicious spending; seemed the spree was never-ending.
Quoth The Rag: “Please worry none. Consider all the good I’ve done!
“Every dollar in this quest, I’ve done my best to well-invest.
“It’s J.J. and [...]
A Ragsdale re-imagining of the Gettysburg Address
Satire, via LVG:
The Knoxburg Address
(Rendered with sincere apologies to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, our greatest president)
The mayor speaks:
Four score and one page ago, I brought forth to this county a new audit response, conceived in desperation, handsomely bound and dedicated to the proposition that all receipts are created equal, especially mine.
Now we are [...]
If The Onion covered Knox County politics…
….it might read something like this very funny bit from Knoxville’s best satirist, Scott McNutt:
Knox County Mayor Clears Himself After ‘Grueling’ Self-Interrogation
From wire reports. The Knox County Mayor revealed today that he had cleared himself of all inappropriate p-card activities after what he described as a “grueling, hours-long question-and-answer session” with himself.
“I was very, very [...]
A pretty snazzy place to have a meeting
In looking thru the listed receipts and charges in Mayor Ragsdale’s response to the p-card audit, this one caught my eye:
Charge #71 - 12/18/06 - Palm Restaurant - $143.16 - Dinner meeting with Chuck Welch, Mike Arms, Grant Rosenberg And Mark Jones regarding healthcare conference and BEP funding in Nashville.
Chuck Welch is Knox County’s paid [...]
How do you “accidentally” use a county p-card?
Like everyone else in town, I’m still trying to digest Mayor Ragsdale’s response to the p-card audit, released today.
One thing that struck me was this passage:
Personal charges should never be placed on a procurement card. Management does recognize that “inadvertent or accidental charges” may occur…
The document goes on to explain that when a county employee [...]
Read More..>>What will Ragsdale say?
Folks around town are pretty curious to find out what Mayor Ragsdale will say at his 30 minute press conference scheduled for this afternoon. Will he take questions? Will he address the Cynthia Finch matter?
Sources tell me he is likely to stick to this talking point: the funds represented by missing receipts and questionable spending [...]
Point/Counterpoint in the Finch p-card affair
Cynthia Finch says she never asked anyone to make fake receipts. The man who admits making them says otherwise.
It will be interesting to hear from Mayor Ragsdale at tomorrow afternoon’s press conference.
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Sharp-eyed WBIR.com readers help solve a p-card mystery
This is the power of new media at work:
Until now, the events surrounding the creation of these false invoices were unknown. However, 10News has learned how and where the false invoices were created.
When we posted copies of the false FedEx Kinkos invoices to WBIR.com last Friday, a sharp-eyed reader noticed that the zip code given [...]
It’s not all about the MISSING p-card receipts
From the KNS today:
In the period covered by the audit, the mayor and the six staffers charged $55,519 in meals, $49,735 in lodging, $20,169 in air fare, $14,224 in conferences and $3,036 in memberships.
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Ragsdale talks
Ragsdale says he and senior staff will spend no more than 30 minutes offering their public response to the draft p-card audit on Wednesday, March 19 at 3:00 pm at the City County Building
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“Jamie Woodson’s no Jimmy Kyle Davis”
That’s Betty Bean’s comment in response to political buzz (via Randy Neal) suggesting Knox County Attorney General Randy Nichols (Democrat) might challenge State Sen. Jamie Woodson (Republican).
Bean opines:
Woodson is a juggernaut and would mortally whip his butt. Nichols got appointed AG and was appointed to the bench before that. He’s never had a [...]
Read More..>>What your Knox County P-card bought
LVG breaks it down:
By now, any Knox County resident who hasn’t spent the last year in a cave knows about the lobster dinners, Smoothie King treats, cigars and other goodies we paid for courtesy of Mayor Ragsdale’s generous p-card policies. If you’re a homeowner, it might interest you to consider what part of your property [...]
DeFreese and the Ragsdale “machine”
George Korda on new Knox County Commissioner Victoria DeFreese’s history with the Ragsdale administration:
DeFreese wants the mayor and his top staffers subpoenaed to appear before County Commission and testify about the alleged misappropriation of funds through purchasing card use. If this is misappropriation of public dollars it ought to be brought before the public, she [...]
Knox County government revealed!
Wow.
This explains a lot:
“So once we started looking into Knox County government, it became obvious it was bogus. $29,000 in sorority sleepovers at county expense? Commissioners calling each other ‘peckerhead’ and ‘university twit’ and citing the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials to protest ethics policies? A commission chairman speaks English like it’s [...]
Read More..>>Don’t let Ragsdale get away with it
That’s Larry Van Guilder’s message in his column this week for the Halls Shopper:
John Werner, Requitta Bone, Margie Loyd, Tyler Harber and Finch have all earned the dubious distinction of “former Knox County employee.” Meanwhile, the chief architect of the scandal straightens his tie, smiles for the camera and bravely proclaims: “No comment.”
And here’s [...]
A damning indictment of Ragsdale
Larry Van Guilder is pulling no punches in his summary of why he thinks Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale is “guilty, guilty, guilty:”
The clamor surrounding Cynthia Finch, the woman the Mayor once compared to Jesus, may prove just loud enough to drown out the cries for Hizzoner’s head. That would be a travesty, not because [...]
Larry Van Guilder’s Top 10 List
He’s blogging an imaginary Ragsdale list at Tabloid Boy:
Ragsdale’s Top Ten Justifications for P-Card Problems
10. John Werner did it. He’s gone, so leave me alone!
9. We have to have receipts? Who knew?
8. Pinkston, Scoobie and Lumpy hired stand-ins for the Jan. 31, 2007 appointments meeting. During the meeting, the real Pinkston, Scoobie and Lumpy disguised [...]
Tax money for greetings cards and dog food
While the Knox County p-card draft audit concerns itself primarily (and very reasonably) with the p-card receipts that are missing, or even possibly faked, I find in surfing around local blogs and message boards today that taxpayers who are talking about this issue online are actually just as concerned with the spending that IS documented [...]
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