July 6, 2009 City and County: Briefs and Upcoming Posts

A lot has happened locally over the past several weeks.

Democrat State Rep. John Litz announced that he would not run for re-election and said that he was not ready to comment on his future plans.

Democrat Larry Mullins jumped into the vacuum and announced that he is a candidate for state representative. In Mullins' announcement, it was mentioned that his wife Kathy Trent Mullins will not run for re-election as Circuit Court Clerk for Hamblen County.

John Litz later announced that his future plans include a race for County Mayor against Republican candidate Bill Brittain. [I don't think that John will have any opposition in the Democrat primary. There is a very slim possibility that Bill might have some opposition from an elected official who was miffed when current County Mayor David Purkey apparently got a group together and pretty much selected the current Republican candidate line-up without considering or consulting with that individual. The current Purkey line-up for the two major offices is Brittain for Mayor and Purkey's Finance Director Nicole Buchanan for Trustee.]

The School Board is meeting with the Hamblen County Education Committee on June 7 to discuss the Board's plans to spend $5.3 million on environmental and maintenance issues (roof, etc.) at East High. If you can get off work at 1:00 pm on that day, you might want to attend.

City Administrator Jim Crumley has been asked by at least four councilmembers to resign or retire or somehow get the heck out of City Hall. City Mayor Sami Barile hates the possibility of Jim leaving. With Jim gone, Barile loses her right-hand man and the source of her knowledge of city government.

With the prospect of Crumley's exit, Mayor Sami Barile is now telling government officials to act with civility at city council meetings. The local "news"paper has also editorialized for civility. Civility is important, but the Mayor needs to realize that disagreements and discussions are not automatically indicative of a lack of civility. And, hopefully, she will even come to recognize that questions are not micro-managing. If she had been paying attention and asking questions before and after taking office, maybe she would have known of the financial disaster that awaited her after she was sworn in in May 2007. In any event, Mayor Barile needs to worry less about what she considers a lack of civility and start worrying more about learning firsthand what's really going on in city government and in the City of Morristown.

Barile and council need to start addressing the jobs situation, skyrocketing unemployment in the City, the red light cameras, spending problems, the city's huge debt, sewer issues, and the lack of accountability. If and when Crumley is no longer spoon feeding Barile/council with his misleading analyses of the state of the city, Barile and company should set up procedures that will provide for checks and balances on the incoming administrator.

The Mayor and council need to be kept in the loop about city government (pay raises, car allowances, cell phones, contracts, sewer, spending). The Mayor and council need to eliminate the free-rein that Crumley had to spend and shift money around (in bunches of up to $10,000) without explaining the reason in advance and without getting council's permission in advance. Any contracts negotiated by the City Administrator or others need to come before the council for final approval and the contracts should be in final form and available to councilmembers for review at least a week before the contract is placed on the agenda for a vote.

In other news, former Hamblen County Deputy Dexter Morris was convicted in federal court of violating the civil rights of females stopped and detained by him and of lying to federal agents when confronted about the incidents.

There was testimony that a number of complaints were filed against Morris during the tenure of former Sheriff Otto Purkey and that Purkey ignored or dismissed the complaints, eventually promoting Morris to patrol officer. Other testimony indicated that Deputy Ernie Burzell handled a complaint filed by a 16-year old girl who was stopped by Morris without cause. Morris allegedly fondled the girl and apparently admitted to Burzell that he had no reason to stop the teenager and that he had asked the girl "What does a 16-year old do to get those boobs?" Burzell took no action on the complaint and entered nothing in Morris' file about the incident.

I will discuss these items in more detail in future individual posts

A lot more local governmental happenings and revelations are on the horizon.

May 27, 2009 Commissioners Give Extra Sales Tax Money To Schools and Take Away School Property Tax Money for Building Program Debt Reserve

At yesterday's meeting of the Hamblen County Budget Committee, the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend to the full commission that the school system's share of increased sales tax revenues go to the schools (which, of course, is required by law) and that 8-cents of the current school property tax rate be taken away from the schools and placed in the county debt service fund as a reserve for school capital improvements.

Herbert Harville made the motion which gives money to the schools with one hand (sales tax revenues) and takes away the same amount of money from the schools with the other hand (school property tax rate reduction) and places the money taken away into a reserve debt account for school repairs and school capital improvements.

In prior statements and at yesterday's commission meeting, Herbert Harville said that he had encouraged voters to vote "yes" on the May 5 sales tax referendum teling them that the sales tax revenues would be used for the school building program. There was extended discussion on what the school board had said would be done with any extra money.

[Of course, if Herbert read the front-page of the local newspaper on April 19--over two weeks before the May 5 referendum--he would have seen that Director of Schools Dale Lynch described a lot of things that the schools "could" do with one million dollars but Lynch did not say that the money would be dedicated solely to the school building program. Click here for my post on what Lynch said "could" be done with any extra sales tax revenue.]

Herbert pointed out to commissioners that the school board had plugged the new sales tax revenues into the regular school operating budget to spend in the next school year.

Hamblen County Commissioners--at least the 10 who were present yesterday--voted unanimously to take back 8-cents of the school property tax rate and place it in a reserve debt fund for school improvements.

Commissioners voting for Herbert Harville's motion were: Dennis Alvis, Larry Baker, Guy Collins, Stancil Ford, Doyle Fullington, Herbert Harville, Doe Jarvis, Paul Lebel, Tommy Massey, and Dana Wampler.

Not attending the budget meeting were: Ricky Bruce, Nancy Phillips, Reece Sexton, and Joe Spoone.

The effect of Herbert's proposal is to keep the county's maintenance of effort (the county's required contribution to the schools) at the same level as in past years and at the same time to make sure that there is money set aside for needed work at East High. The commission discussed at great length the roof and other problems at East High and the way that the School Board has allowed East High to deteriorate while at the same time just recently purchasing additional property adjacent to the school.

The funny thing was to hear the commissioners "wondering" why the school board was buying property around East High and "wondering" why the school board had not put a roof on East High over the past years and "wondering" what the school board's maintenance plan was and "wondering" where the school board's roof consultant was.

The speculation about what the school board is doing, is not doing, and is thinking of doing is funny only because the school board members are not some extra-terrestrials on another planet.

Why are commissioners "wondering" what's going on with East High. Pick up the phone and call Dr. Lynch, School Board Chairman Janice Haun, or another school board member and find out what the school board is doing and plans to do with taxpayer money.

March 28, 2009 Commission Polled on One High School

According to a little birdie, a county official recently suggested to a Tribune reporter that he "poll" some or all county commissioners to see what their position is on one unified high school for Hamblen County.

I don't know if the poll of county commissioners is complete yet or if the results of the "one high school" poll will be reported to the public.

If the reporter does release the poll results, it will be interesting to see if he includes the identity of the official who suggested the poll and includes the position of that official on one high school.

March 15, 2009 School Board Wants Commission Chair Stancil Ford To Meet about High School Building Program

The Hamblen County School Board has invited County Commission Chair Stancil Ford to attend the board's work session on Monday, March 16, at 6:00 PM in Room 204 at the Central Office on E. Morris Boulevard. School Board Chairman Janice Haun wants Ford to provide the school board with some direction in regard to the high school building program.

It is my understanding that the letter of invitation went out on or around March 11 and was copied to all Commissioners, School Board Members, County Mayor David Purkey, and Trustee Bill Brittain.

As reported in a previous post, the Commission's Education Committee, which is composed of all commissioners, voted 10-3 on March 9 to reject the school board's proposal to purchase property near Wal-Mart and across from Walters State for a new East High School.

It looks like the School Board letter to Ford was not copied to the press, and I haven't seen any mention of the invitation in the main section of the paper. Of course, it could be down inside some other story or I might have just plain missed it.

If it hasn't been reported yet, maybe it will be in tomorrow's edition in the afternoon right before the meeting.