Thursday, February 28, 2008

P-card Audit Out

Just in case you've been living under a rock... (Link)

Treat this just like private business- fire and prosecute, recover funds if possible, all without consideration of party, faction, or ties- if laws and procedures have been broken. But we also have to observe due process and wait for the response from the Mayor's office. It's a little troublesome this audit was leaked before its completion.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Recycling Fluorescent Bulbs / Mercury

Our meeting last night included a discussion on recycling of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and the issue of the small amount of mercury in each bulb.

First, it should be noted that the amount of mercury in each bulb is less than the amount of additional mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants to support a regular incandescent (filament) bulb, so even if you throw the CFL in the trash, you're still emitting less mercury.

But that's not ideal. You can, however, buy a $15 box (click here) with prepaid shipping back to Sylvania, who will recover the mercury. Each box holds 12 bulbs, so the cost to recycle is $1.25 per bulb. Commercial companies can buy boxes to recycle long tube fluorescent bulbs, too.

Knoxville Concerned About Ozone Non-Attainment

See KNS article here.

Knoxville in 2007 had 16 days over the standard, but we're currently just in basic non-attainment, not the more extreme forms. See report.

Standard implementation plans in response can be found here (see "moderate areas" for the 'next steps' if the ozone standard changes):

Knox County's attainment status is VERY weather dependent. We had a consistently hot summer last year. TVA controls coming on-line this year may be of great help, as ozone formation is mostly related to NOx formation, which is primarily stationary sources (TVA) and cars coming through the area.

If we end up having a car inspection program, let's do it the RIGHT way and not waste our money. I recommend looking at the program in Washington State. Mike Reagan at WA Dept of Ecology would be a great resource, he has a lot of experience.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Tedford Road Update: Fire Out, Soil and Water Testing

It's been a week now with no flare-ups, so I think it's safe to say we're past the fire stage. County engineering continues daily inspections to confirm.

Soil tests (10 samples) should be back soon. We met today with Knox Co epidemiologist (Al Iannocone), and TDEC geologists. We discussed the possible strategy for the second round of well testing. At this time, we are awaiting the soil tests (to see if there are contaminants in the soil that would make water testing more urgent), and to find out the costs of dye testing (which would allow us to identify the specific underground water flow, rather than "guessing" at which wells and springs are connected to the sinkhole). I would suspect these details should be nailed down in about two weeks. I will be assisting the geologists with a backup plan by going door-to-door to identify which wells we can measure depths on.

Monday, February 25, 2008

County Commission Meeting 2/25

Zoning: Butler Homes condo development in Gleason/Ebenezer area cut back to 4 & 5 units/acre (2 proposals). The dangerous gulley issue still needs to be addressed.

We spent over an hour and a half debating a potential change to the Concord Marina contract that Owings already said wasn't a legal proposal (county can't approve contracts > 25 years). How it even got onto the meeting agenda (and wasn't pulled in committee by the law director) is the question.....

Open forum is going to include more on MulchGate, where Natural Resources Recovery is accused of witholding payments to the county, on top of their odor complaints. Now, it appears that lab tests results show fecal coliform levels 120x to 260x allowed limits. This is the exact same problem the City had 10-15 years ago that shut down their mulching facility (Compost Corporation of America, I think).

Right now they are debating the Charter Petition amendments, which (I believe) have to be approved on first reading to be on schedule to get on the August ballot, otherwise they have to go to petition drive. Craig Leuthold asked how one amendment works with the term limit provision (are we undoing it? If the language reads "two consecutive four year terms", it's possible that some districts would allow a commissioner elected in 2010 to serve for fourteen years!!!).

I would guess that most commissioners would vote to put all 9 on the ballot (Hammond), some will block some from being put on the ballot (such as appointed fee office managers), and some will work to amend them (Lambert is speaking to this) and dare KCOQ to go to petition drive to get the version they want.

Leuthold is criticizing KCOQ for "inflexibility in [their] proposals." Victoria DeFreese is recalling how confusing the Sheriff's pension was written, and suggests that the wording of the referendums be clear to the voters (yes!!!). Moore wants a list of all attendees to ensure the groups were representative of the various districts, and not the same people showing up at each meeting. Moore also asks if the voters will know before August what the new appointees salaries will be (KCOQ: yes). Hammond calls for a forum March 12 at 8am, Moore suggests that we need an evening forum more accessible to citizens.

7 lights still on, going to be a long night. Davis suggests splitting 902 to divide issue of 9 commissioners with issue of aligning school districts (the latter being more popular). Ballard echoing sentiment that the committee was too small, and this is a very quick process to make "radical changes."

How awful would it be to plan to delay some of these items to the 2010 ballot, to take effect in 2014? We could salvage anti-nepotism, conflict of interest policies (I want to see a stronger proposal here!), returning the petition to earlier rules, Board of Education alignment, and even getting an Inspector General. Likely the 2008 petition drive for the others would fail, but we'd get a break-out vote of the most urgent reforms.

Daniels: Why/how are you grouping them together?

Harmon: Put them all on the ballot individually, let voters decide. Don't amend, one person's improvement is another person's poison pill (ahem, Greg).

Pinkston: what's difference between auditor and inspector General? Leuthold: What' s the point if the mayor appoints the IG (where's the independence?)

DeFreese blows a big hole when she points out she was at the South-Doyle meeting, but many of the proposals weren't discussed in her group (executive branch restructuring, IG). She points out that some ideas may have only been discussed by 50 to 100 people.

Briggs: Did some ideas come from "best practices" Baker study and not from the forum? Daytime March 12 meeting isn't a good forum, we need an evening forum.

It is pointed out that it is very difficult to align districts since we allow School Board to define their own districts? Are they now in control of commission districts? It turns out our charter provision to let the School Board write districts is wrong, so apparently we have to fix that.

Pinkston points out that more commissioners mean more access by common citizens, 9 commissioners would mean just th e"rich and powerful" would get the seats, with the at large dominated by the West.

Smith: Too much work for 1 commissioner per district.

Scooby: Let's vote! Just up or down, no more modifications! But we should really discuss before we take a single vote! It's 11:00 for crying out loud!

Amendments by Lambert/Smith fail, but unmodified motion 102 (reducing size of commission, align with school board) passes (barely) 13-6. Voting no: DeFreese, McKenzie, Moore, Pinkston, Strickland.

103 (conflict of interest provision) passes unanimously, as it mirrors current ethics policy (which is too weak!!!)

104 (consistency provision).

Leuthold- we can't set our voters up to vote on something and then leave it in legal limbo or possibly overturned.

Moore- we debated a boat dock for 3 hours, but we're changing our government in less than an hour.

12-7 Nos: McKenzie, Pinkston, I Harmon, Defreese, Davis, Moore, Lambert. 104 FAILS.

105 (Exec Branch Restructuring) FAILS 11-7-1
No: Strickland, I Harmon, Davis, Lambert, Moore, Defreese, Pinkston

106 (Inspector General): Two attempts to amend, the first to make the person elected (8 year terms, 16 max, partisan elections) and keep the auditor (this fails 10-9), the last to keep the existing auditor (also fails).

Unamended 106 passes barely 13-6. Nos: Pinkston, Defreese, Moore, Lambert, I Harmon, Strickland.

107 (Nepotism): Passes 19-0

108 (County Employees on Commission): Rules suspended since this was discussed earlier. Lumpy tries to add poison pill, and Pinkston has to have the concept of a poison pill explained to him. Amendment fails. Unamended proposal amazingly passes 14-4 (Pinkston, Moore, Lambert, Harmon)

109 (Legislative Conflict of Interest): 14-4-1
Nos: Pinkston, Moore, Lambert, I Harmon,

It's 12:30. I've been here NINE hours.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Forum: City's Energy & Sustainability Initiative (Tues night)

Madeline Weil will speak to the 4th Tuesday Democratic Club this Tuesday, February 26 about the City of Knoxville's Energy and Sustainability Initiative. Since she is the chairperson of this committee , and also Deputy Director, Policy and Communications of the City of Knoxville ,she will be able to inform us about our city's effort to sustain our resources and make us less energy dependent.
The City of Knoxville's Energy and Sustainability Task Force will analyze the city's energy use and develop a strategic plan to make changes needed to lower consumption, costs and emissions. Numerous city departments will be involved in gathering data, analyzing ideas and implementing changes.
The program begins at 6 P.M. at the West Knox County Library , l00 Golf Club Road (Kingston Pike and Papermill, across from P.F. Chang's). See you there!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Schools: Grant-Writing

Did you know the Knox County Schools only has one person working about half of their time working on grant proposals? A grant writer can generally bring in 15 to 20 times their salary. If our 19 Commissioners were to surrender 50% of their Discretionary Fund, we could fund another full-time grant writer, probably bringing in another $1 million in for school programs.

Or maybe we could just add it to this round of the budget?

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Live Blogging: Temporary Appointments Meeting

District 6: Smooth process, Roundtree appointed

District 2: A few rounds of voting to eliminate Williams, then Campen edges out Wolfenbarger. Moore votes repeatedly for Wolfenbarger to show good faith.

District 9: 10-1 for Victoria DeFreese, with only Norman voting for Pleasant

District 1: First fireworks. McKenzie, Cox, Boyd,and Baah nominated. Baah says nominating candidates going to the general is wrong and withdraws himself, asking the Commissioners not to nominate McKenzie as well. Jimmy Golden self-nominates, but only to make a speech about problems he sees in the district and wants to draw attention to. Pete Drew speaking to Commission now, berating them over the process (appointing those involved in the general election). Perhaps this will set the tone for the Fifth district debate?

First round of voting McKenzie 10-1. That sets the tone for Briggs to be elected in the Fifth.

Doing #8: Wright and Boyer nominated. Short speeches by the candidates.
Ivan Harmon, Norman- Boyer
rest - Wright

Finally, 4-B!!!! Nominations:
MarkH - Davis
Norman- Daniels
IvanH - Wojnar
Leuthold- Brummitt
Lumpy- Alford

Mostly short speeches saying thanks. Let's vote!

Harmon speaks in favor of both Davis and Daniels, pushing the highest vote-getters. Other commissioners speak about how good the slate is.

Vote#1:
Strickland-Davis
MH-Davis
Norman- Daniels
IH-Wojnar
Hammond- Daniels
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Daniels
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Daniels
Pinkston-Alford

Tone set for Daniels and Alford to win the two seats? The pro-development crowd will fight hard to get Alford on, which means Elaine is probably out.

Vote#2 (can't drop of since there is no one "loser" to drop off):
Strickland-Davis
MH-Davis
Norman- Daniels
IH-Wojnar
Hammond- Daniels
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Daniels
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Daniels
Pinkston-Brummit**

Wojnar drops off, vote#3:
Strickland-Davis
MH-Davis
Norman- Daniels
IH-Brummitt
Hammond- Daniels
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Daniels
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Daniels
Pinkston-Alford

Davis and Brummitt now on the cutting block.
Strickland-Davis
MH-(PASS), than changes to Daniels
Norman- Daniels
IH-Brummitt
Hammond- Daniels
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Daniels
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Daniels
Pinkston-Alford?

Davis cut, but that's a strategic move to put her in round two. Very smart!!!!

Strickland-Daniels
MH-Daniels
Norman- Daniels
IH-Brummitt
Hammond- Daniels
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Daniels
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Daniels
Pinkston-Alford

Daniels is in with 6. Second round for Fourth will be more interesting.

District 5 now...
MH/Norman nominate Tracey
IH/Hammond/Leuthold/Lambert/ nominates Briggs.

Tracey gives a good speech about voters wanting a fair election. But the vote in First says to me that Briggs is going to get it. Will there be backlash in August? We'll see.

Vote:
Strickland-Briggs
MH-Tracey
Norman-Tracey
IH-Briggs
Hammond-Briggs
Leuthold-Briggs
Lambert-Briggs
RLSmith-Briggs
Moore-Briggs
Ballard-Briggs
Pinkston-Briggs

So much for caretakers.

On to 4-A. Same nominations. Mike Hammond speaks in favor of Davis. Looks like a Davis-Alford fight.

Strickland-Davis
MH-Davis
Norman-Davis
IH-Wojnar
Hammond- Davis
Leuthold- Brummit
Lambert-Alford
RLSmith-Davis
Moore-Alford
Ballard-Davis
Pinkston-Alford

Elaine wins first round!!!

Wow. Commission did a great job overall. You can argue voting in people that are in the August election, but time will tell if that is the "kiss of death" for the candidates.

Kudos to 'Tank' Strickland for running a tight ship today. He's a great chairman.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Committee Meeting Summary

  • TIF requested for road work near Campbell Station Road related to development already in progress. Developer agreed area not blighted and development would go forward without the TIF. Other commissioners seem to be pushing in favor based on the traffic improvements, because we don't have enough money in our capital budget, even though the County admitted that we can do it cheaper. So because we're poor planners, we have to violate TIF guidelines and sign away our financial future? More evidence that our poor long-term planning is costing us dearly. Bruce Wuethrich (Director, Engineering) admitted that he's just dealing with overloaded roads based on existing traffic counts.
  • Grant management software needs updating, but clearly the Commission could use someone on board who understands software procurement
  • (More, but had to leave to meet a future constituent)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

TIF News, Tedford Fire Update

The Industrial Development Board (IDB) is requesting developers seeking TIFs to apply to the IDB first, before Commission takes up the issue.

Link...

This is a good thing, as Commission could then vote with some data in hand about the economic benefit and a review of the "but for" standard. And they should SLAP the crap outa IDB if they send something up that doesn't meet that standard.


With respect to the Tedford Road Dump Fire, we held our second interdepartmental meeting with the Knox County agencies. High points:
  • Soil samples are being taken from various locations (disturbed soil, undisturbed, controls) to determine if there are any contaminants that can't be seen visually (fuel oil, chemicals, etc).
  • Final disposition of the site (capping, truck off or re-bury, etc) is still under discussion and partly tied up with the legal proceedings against the landowner.
  • Still doing excavation and extinguishing work. Air quality has been good for about a week, but had smoke and odor evening of 2/11
  • Health Dept looking at putting contracts into place for future air sampling, particulate monitoring (next incident, or if this drags on).
  • Solid Waste will share their documentation of excavation
  • Second round of well testing will occur, we have pushed for samples in previously unsampled locations. County is consulting outside geologists for recommendations.
Update (2/14): More smoldering today from the "lower" hole, but not burning like 2-3 weeks ago. Renfro is excavating (stumps and logs) and Rural Metro will put water on. Upper hole is being left exposed to see if there is anything left that might start smoldering.

Update (2/15): Rural Metro reports yesterday's burning material/hotspots indicate that considerably more excavation will need to be done on the lower section and eastern flank to dig down to natural grade, to make a complete search for possible pockets of material. Rural Metro expects that it could take "the next couple of weeks." Yesterday we requested Air Quality to accelerate putting in place contracts for additional air monitoring, to include possible second round of toxics, as well as initial formaldehyde and particulate testing.

Thanks again to Rural Metro & the Knox Co agencies for their hard work resolving this difficult issue.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

No Appointment

I've had a few people ask me why I didn't seek appointment for one of the Fourth District commission seats. For many, it seems to be obvious- but is it?

The people who ask usually phrase it this way- if you're willing to serve and you think you're the best candidate, why not start now?

When the primary was over, and the question turned to the appointments, the first thing I did was to recruit and push many of those who did not win their primary to seek appointment. To be honest, some really didn't want to and had to be talked into it. Why did I do this? It's a question of fairness. While Ed Shouse has more name recognition in the city areas of the Fourth District (and appointment would balance that), would it be fair to 'wrestle' some incumbent advantage I didn't have before? I've certainly heard some arguments made to me that seeking incumbent advantage would 'balance the field,' many pointing out that major media is likely to give more coverage to Shouse.

And to be clear, it's not because I think it's the "kiss of death" either to be appointed by the current commission. The sole things I had to balance in my decision were the issues of what the Fourth District needs versus fairness. We have several good appointee candidates now. If there had only been one or two names thrown out, I probably would have faxed a tentative resume in Friday (qualifying the request for appointment with an agreement to step aside if other good candidates came forward). But the voters need a fair, straight-up election. I have five months to overcome the name recognition issue, and I'm confident the voters will choose someone who stands for real change.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

A Great Day For Voting

Thanks to everyone who helped me at the polls yesterday. The weather couldn't have been better, and turnout was good. I met a lot of great people going in and out of the polls (and got some good questions as well). I missed the lunch crowd because of issues related to the Tedford Fire, but otherwise, I saw the polls being steady and busy.

Now what? Commission will be considering appointments. My preference is for Commission to appoint caretakers, and I understand that my August opponent, Ed Shouse, told the News-Sentinel he won't be seeking the appointment either. I'm a little anxious as to who they might select (we want good representation for the Fourth- we've waited too long!!), but going outside of me and Ed is probably best for everyone in the long run.

I've been impressed by Logan Brummitt and his attention to detail in the issues. Lee Tramel, although controversial, brings experience during the coming budgeting process. Being a lame duck and a KCSO employee would be considered a major conflict of interest in the budgeting process, though. Jim Smeltcher was the #2 vote in the GOP primary, and is well-respected.

The same issues for the Fourth exist in the 4-A appointment. Finbarr said he won't seek the appointment. I don't know about Ruthie. But Commission may be stuck with a lot of top choices taking themselves out of consideration, the exact point I made in November when they voted (wrongly, I argued then) to delay the appointments until February.

My top picks as a Fourth District resident? Elaine (who polled 46%+ in the 2006 general) and Jim or Logan. But hey, I'm just one resident.

Update- Walt Woljnar has put his resume in, and Logan should be putting his in as well. I didn't mention Walt because I thought he wasn't interested, but I think we have two excellent caretakers for the Fourth District.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

If I had $40,000 of developer money....

... you might see this on TV.

Public Trust PAC Questionnaire Available

I stated on Knoxviews that I would post my responses to the major questions on the Public Trust PAC questionnaire, so here's the PDF. I have nothing to hold back from anyone who is interested.

Note that it is not the complete questionnaire, I can't find my master copy to scan, but this is the "meat" of the questionnaire. Much of the rest of the questions were just routine things (name, rank, serial number, web site).