Tuesday, July 29, 2008

For those wanting to donate....

The UUA has started a web site for donations to help the victims.

Anyone reading who wants to help me do the weeding in front of the church this Saturday morning can shoot me an email as well.

Monday, July 28, 2008

An amazing vigil service tonight

The room was filled not just with members, but people from all over Knoxville. When the hands went up for who was from other congregations, the huge number of visitor's hands drew applause from the UUers.

The President of the UU Congregation from Boston spoke, the high points being:
  • We may feel anger, but we are also filled with understanding and compassion
  • This will not change who we are and what we believe
  • There is power in the community that has been forged out of this tragedy, and we should not let it go away
The surprise ending? The kids came out to sing "Tomorrow", the song they didn't get to finish in their production.

When you're faced with a day that's grey and lonely
I just stick out my chin and grin and say
The sun will come out tomorrow
...
Tomorrow... you're only a day away.

Thank you Chris, Mitra, Rosemary, and William for filling us with hope on this day.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Unspeakable Tragedy

How does this happen? Why? Will we ever know what motivated this individual?

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts for our injured members. I'm quite shocked and appalled at the early media reports of fatalities with no confirmation. I would ask all media to desist in those situations barring any official confirmation because we still have worried families in the hospital and nobody needs to make reports that (we pray) turn out to be false.

I would like to go on record regarding what I said to the media, which certainly did not include any conjecture regarding the condition of my fellow members (the people I helped were certainly not critical cases, and I'm hoping that the other cases were not much more serious than theirs).. My understanding is they are at UTMC, the best trauma center in the state, and being cared for, and I don't care for the 'we think' reporting.

If there's another source of information leading to these rumors of fatalities, I don't know what it is and I would hope that the media would be much more careful. Not just in this case, but any similar case. I know they are trying to get the news out, but please think of the people in the hospital waiting rooms. Please.

My goal (as I didn't have to await an interview) was to help people in the community to have friends or family members at the church to understand what happened, that the situation was being VERY well managed by KPD and emergency response, and that we are a very strong community already helping each other through this.

For future inquiries, please contact the church (who has not yet defined any official spokesperson, but it sure as hell isn't me) or the Knoxville Police Department.

And keep those prayers going. Again, my thanks out to KPD, KFD, the Red Cross, and my fellow members of the church, especially the brave men who stopped the assailant. And thanks to the outpouring of support from the community. I hope another situation never presents itself where we need to do the same, but be assured, if it does, we will be there standing with you.

Update- it's late evening. The news has already broken regarding our two losses, Linda and Gary. The media, in a vacuum, is making wild guesses regarding motive.

At the vigil tonight, it was clear that we aren't so focused on the 'why', but more on consoling each other, and helping those affected cope with the tragedy. One person commented that what "why" could there be that we would condemn? Mental illness? Hate? Neither of these would be a subject for rebuke by our congregation. So we will focus on the healing, especially the children who had to witness the tragic events. To labor on the question of whether the world is basically good or basically bad is a waste of time- the world is what WE all decide to make it.

And we thank the community (and other communities) for their outpouring of support. While we hope we never ever have to return the favor, we will of course stand with you in your time of need also. From the professional counselors that have offered their services to the person just making sandwiches for strung-out victims, we are grateful for everything.

You can read more about Gary at a site put up by his nephew.





Wednesday, July 23, 2008

DTV: Friday, 9:30 pm on CTV (Community Access)

Tune in, call in (215-2288)

Don't have Comcast. You can stream CTV now by clicking here!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Knoxville News-Sentinel Endorsements

Being an outside reform candidate, I never expected I would receive this. I toyed with the idea of not even going, but I thought to refuse the interview would send the wrong message.

For those who actually read the article, I should remind you that the News-Sentinel endorsed our current Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and George W. Bush (twice). The KNS also endorsed many of the term-limited commissioners, leading to Black Wednesday.

Yep, those endorsements and $3.80 still won't get you a gallon of gas. Now go vote, vote what YOU want (not what the newspaper wants), vote for something other than politics as usual, and take a friend with you.

Undecided? The bottom of this page has two good links to help you compare/contrast, and don't forget politicalknoxville.com.
.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Some Budget Questions

I've been meaning to write this up for weeks, just a few questions I had as I read through the budget, I'd be curious to find out the answers to in the future... Not to say anything is out of line, but some changes bear some questioning:
  • Internal Audit funding down $150K, nearly 40% from their request. Will internal audits be hampered by lack of funding?
  • Codes administration cut 5% from current year, 15% from their request. Implications on codes enforcement?
  • I was surprised to hear that J.J. Jones Sunday stated on WBIR that KCSD funding has only gone up "one percent," yet the current year budget has large increases in Sheriff's Administration (5%), Patrol (9%), Warrants (30%!), Detectives (22%!), etc.
  • Vehicle services up 18%- I guess that's gas prices.
  • Building maintenance up 10%
  • Capital outlay for eight (8) vehicles outside of patrol cars and engineering/codes/etc vehicles- how many need to be trucks/SUVs, and how many can be defined so that more fuel-efficient (and less costly) vehicles can be purchased? Over their lifetime, a more efficient vehicle purchase could save taxpayers $160,000.

My Perspective: Open Records and Constituent Communications

See George Korda's column here.

My response:
The requirement to turn over records is not the same as a requirement for a constituent to identify themselves. Anyone can call, or even anonymously e-mail (via Yahoo, Gmail, etc) their Commissioner.

Commission could also respond by allowing for an anonymous e-mail form on the web site. I'd be in favor of that (and propose a resolution on that, if elected), especially if it means that the books are opened on the back-door lobbying already taking place.

Civil Service Hearing

Mayor's office: $1.8 million + costs of testing and renting testing facility (um... don't we have a room right next door we can use for testing?). Three months to fill positions instead of six weeks.

Sounds like lots of skewed data, given that the costs vastly exceed what the City pays. The teachers and law enforcement officers already have their own program, so the cost should be more like $500K.

FYI, to dispel some misconceptions:

"You can't fire someone once they get under civil service."
Civil service is not like tenure. CS only means that an employee must receive written warnings before termination and is allowed to appeal the decision. What this does is forces the supervisors in the county to document a bad employee. The benefit of such a structure is that it saves money by reducing lawsuit expenses. The City has not lost a single HR lawsuit since instituting their program. Saving ourselves losing two or three lawsuits would pay for the program.

Other benefits:
- Reduces nepotism and hiring of political associates unqualified to hold the position (through job requirements and associated testing).

In short, a well-crafted program is a good idea. It should include some excluded positions (mayor's office, probably most of the fee offices since they are elected), a grievance board, one year probationary period, and other items to make a program that will save us money and protect our career employees from political influence.

Pinkston is opposed, citing budget concerns. He said he believes it's impossible to fire a county employee right now, but he should read page 12 of the Knox County employee handbook and read the "Employment At Will" section. Unless a federal or state law is violated (e.g., discriminatory practices), there is no recourse for political firings. The only prohibition by the handbook is that supervisors cannot require (but may allow!) political campaigning by employees, and cannot coerce or compel (but may still solicit!) political contributions.

C'mon. If you're an at-will employee, and your boss asks you to put up some signs and/or contribute (and he/she just gave you a big raise), what are you going to do? If you see another employee contribute $1000 and they got a $5000/year permanent raise (taxpayer $$!), what are people going to do? Get real.

William Daniels just brought up this donation-raise issue. Larry Smith said, "if they don't like it, they can get another job." I guess we know where Larry's vote is going to fall on this issue.

Lynne Liddington (Air Quality)- arguing that we have a good set of policies, suggests perhaps enhancing the policies we have already.


Live Blogging, County Commission Committee Meeting

The expectation is that the Natural Resources Recovery issue will be the biggest thing on the agenda. There is one resolution to accept the mediation, the second is to accept the lease agreement contract. To say that this is a complex issue is an understatement.

We're already jumping to it, as we have a woman in the audience (Diana Pott) stating that the ruptured runoff ponds (collapsed and spilled into a sinkhole, a direct injection to groundwater...) contaminated her well and made her sick. My understanding is that no well testing was done after the rupture, but well testing is being done this week.

A little humor- Mr. Pott addressed Paul Pinkston as "Mr. Ragsdale." Paul was more than happy to correct him. DVD is already talking to them about the well testing schedule.

Mr. Mayes, a party to the lawsuit, is at the podium saying he had not agreed to the mediated settlement, and is arguing against acceptance of the settlement.

Points of contention:
- Was NRR left with no raw materials (as they/county claim) or did they have material that was sold off for cash (as Mr. Mayes claims, and indicates he has letters)?
- Is 'casual contact' with contaminated mulch hazardous to health or not?

There's little debate over the fact that the contract was poorly managed with little oversight, and that both parties in the contract (NRR/County) didn't do what the contract required. I'm a bit surprised that issues were not caught earlier when John Evans' budget didn't show income from the NRR contract. (update- Lewis Cosby just asked the same question!)

Mayes just said he bought some mulch from NRR last year for a job and ended up with a lung infection (Commissioner Briggs may offer some expertise on this issue with a little research).

Finance voted to Deny. Mediated agreement is in for rough waters next Monday. John Owings just agreed that an agenda item that fails in both committees is removed from the final Commission meeting agenda.


Other topics:
- Gay Street redevelopment TIF: general agreement, as long as the city participates as well.

-Mosquito spraying- to move from notifying neighborhood associations to notifying individual homes by postcard. Motion to recommend fails, I think partly because the costs to expand the notification was unknown (no fiscal note).

- A resolution to partner with the City's Energy & Sustainability Task Force, but Mike Hammond pulled it from the consent agenda, so apparently he has something to discuss there. Lynn Liddington has already indicated that some work has already started in the Health Department to curb energy usage, expand recycling, etc. This partnership resolution would include an overall audit. Hammond is opposed to spending more money for an audit. Mr. Hammond, I hope we also consider how much can be saved by improving efficiency in the millions of square feet of our county buildings, not even considering the air quality improvements gained from energy use reductions.

- Rushing through the rest, no recommendations. Daniels said he had questions for PBA, but they did not attend this morning.

- Midway Road: withdrawn.

- Civil Service: pass with no recommendation, public hearings coming up. It would be nice if public hearings were posted on the Commission web site!

- Charter Review Committee Change: voted to Approve.


... more to come....

Sunday, July 20, 2008

WNOX Interview MP3

WNOX doesn't have their new voter's guide yet, but if you want to review the interview Catherine Howell did with me and Ed Shouse, you can click here.

Good questions!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

1-minute Campaign Commercial

I made this for WBIR's web site. Serious video editing people, please don't laugh too hard. I had to throw this together, and I'm pretty new to iMovie....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVOF0258lTQ




Friday, July 18, 2008

Voting Today? Looking for Info?

Need a quick 5-minute rundown from the blog on "what I believe"?

Try these:

Clarifications to West Debate

June Committee Meeting

Budget Crisis Thoughts

Also, check out the extended interviews available at Knoxville Voice, extended questionnaires at Political Knoxville, and a video interview at News-Sentinel.

Public Trust Committee Endorsement

We were pleased today to be endorsed by the Public Trust PAC.

Of course, as part of our work to come onto Commission uninfluenced by any PAC or developer money, the funds would be allocated to a local charity instead. This is simply in observance of general principal, and should not be construed as any criticism of the PT-PAC.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Air Quality Alerts- did you know?

That you can receive text messages to your phone warning you about yellow (moderate), orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) and higher air quality days, and receive forecasts for future days?

Go to: http://www.enviroflash.info/signup.cfm

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Reminder- Happy Hour at Casa Don Gallo's

Come out at 6pm-8pm, we'll be on side patio! The weather should cooperate (it was quite nice for 'walking and knocking' last night). Remember to invite 2-3 friends and spread the word. See you there!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Some Clarifications (Shopper News Article)

Sandra Clark of the Shopper News invited me to clarify some of what she perceived as "vague" answers during the West High forum (see her article here). Actually, I got a mixed review from people after the forum- most thought that my answers were more complete and reflected more thought than others, but I can see how they could be perceived as rambling, as I tend to search for a little more nuance, rather than offering the quick/easy answer. Call it the "Al Gore Syndrome" if you will, but most citizens say they appreciate it.

So let's get to it, shall we?

Do you favor or oppose reducing the size of Commission?
That's a decision that should be put to the voters, not decided by commission. As an individual voter, I would oppose it and recommend against it because the job is too much work for one person.

Under what circumstances would you vote against an MPC staff recommendation to amend the sector plan?
(being the first responder to this question, I spent some of my answer explaining this issue to the audience, which I think threw Sandra off. I had two people from the audience thank me later for doing this...)
- Commission is far too eager to amend the sector plan. In cases where there is no local opposition or potential harm, Commission should use this opportunity to require the developer to take steps that will reduce future County obligations (low energy development, additional stormwater improvements, sidewalks, etc), in exchange for amending the sector plan.

Given that the question was "under what circumstances," a "yes" or "no" was insufficient.

Should small branch libraries be closed?
I took the opportunity here to discuss how our budgeting process should be fixed (see web site, blog, etc)- in brief, we should only cut the "fatter" departments and leave "lean" departments alone. If the library system is fat, they get cut and it's up to the director Larry Frank to determine how to deal with those cuts- Commission shouldn't micromanage. If the library system is lean, then no cuts, the branches stay open.

Thanks again to all of the journalists that covered the Forum, in particular the in-depth question by question coverage provided by the Shopper and the Focus. And thanks to all of the citizens who attended!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Fourth District Forum Recap

Did you miss it? The Focus newspaper has a great detailed recap- click here.

Coverage starts on page 6.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Knox County Cars

Remember when I said it would be really powerful if the County Car lists and such were available for EVERYONE to review?

Car List 1.pdf (most of the executive branch)

Car List 2.pdf
(CAC, KCSD)

Just as a note- you'll find that the KCSD has 1.5x to 2x the cars they have for each car-related position (more patrol cars than patrol positions, more detective cars than positions, etc). But many of these cars have high mileage- municipalities generally replace patrol cars in the 65,000 to 80,000 mile range.

It would seem that the KCSD simply doesn't dispose of its old cars, but why keep them? If those are assigned as take-home cars as perks, are they being filled up with Knox County gas? 150 surplus cars x $4000/year in fuel = $600,000.

I don't know if that's the case, but if it is... well, there's some savings to be found. And, of course, in other officials that have both cars and car allowances. That can't be allowed in these tight times.

(Interesting....I saw one detective's Crown Vic had 70,000 miles a year put on it. That's some serious driving, like 7 hours a day continuous!)

So, enjoy.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Some interesting little threads regarding this election

Apparently, there's a debate as to whether new Commissioners elected in August must/should take office immediately, or wait until the traditional September swearing-in.

see the latter part of the comments at: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/09/public-hears-from-hopefuls/

My particular response on the site:

I'm going to go against my better judgment and go out on a limb here (as a candidate).

Yes, in normal election cycles, the swearing in is September. Why? That allows for a normal transition of an Agenda/Committee/General Meeting cycle, as well as some time for some transition for the new Commissioners. It makes sense.

Yes, since this is an election to fill in an unexpired term, it's a slightly different animal. I can see the case being made for immediately taking office...

BUT....

Given the former rationale, I don't think it's a good idea. Politics aside, I think it would be good to 'follow transition' in order to allow for a more reasonable transition time and not to disrupt the August meeting cycle. Heck, what would it mean to sit in a meeting voting on a bill that no longer has a sponsor sitting on Commission?

If the law director (current? former?) tells me waiting until September is illegal, obviously I have no choice. But I would want the law director to say without reservation that's the case before accepting an August swear-in. It's just too disruptive to the process. That 'tradition' is there for a good reason.

Inside TN - If you missed it

You can watch it here (9 minutes). I wish WBIR would offer these on their web site....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmx9UioH6fk

Interestingly, if you search YouTube for "Drevik", it suggests film clips of "Dr Evil" from Austin Powers...... :)

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Fourth District Forum Complete

The LWV had some very good & very interesting/tough questions. I'm hoping that PoliticalKnoxville.com puts a video up for people to review.

Coverage on KNS here. Additional coverage based on KNS editorial interviews can be found here.

We went to the new Mexican restaurant near the old Bi-Lo in Bearden (El Mezcal). Very good, great service.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Bearden Area to Get Knoxville's Second Earth Fare?

Next spring. And they're not even asking for a TIF to do it. :)

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/04/bearden-earth-fare-in-works/

Sam's Club / WalMart Could Get Some Competition

Could Knoxville get a Costco?

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/flory/2008/07/who_wants_costco.html


Costco, for those who aren't familiar, is like Sam's Club, but they tend to be more popular in some markets because they pay/benefit their employees much better (reducing turnover), doesn't squash unionization attempts (although most stores are not unionized... the benefits are good enough that there's often not a desire to unionize), and still manages to offer the same prices (for arguably better goods). A cashier starts at $9.50 and can be making $40k in four years.

I got turned off from Wal-Mart when they built themselves on "Made in the USA" goods and in the blink of an eye turned into a giant pipeline for Chinese-made goods. That's not to say Costco doesn't sell overseas manufactured goods (it's hard for buyers to find U.S.-based suppliers now for shoes, textiles, etc), but Costco didn't hoodwink the country and didn't actively seek to shift its suppliers away from the United States.