Arts & Cultural Alliance to host photography exhibition by Dean Rice

Dean Rice

The Arts & Culture Alliance will present a new exhibition of photographs by Dean Rice, the county Mayor's Office chief of staff and an avid photographer.

The event will take place from Dec. 4-23 at the Emporium Center. 

These photographs show the faces of Syrian children who now live in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in the desert of Jordan and children who are orphaned living in Amman, Jordan. 

“We talk often of instability in the Middle East, and today we struggle with balancing our national security interests with our humanitarian desires to help the helpless,” Rice said in a released statement. “Through these photographs, however, we see the faces that can bring lasting stability, peace, friendship and gratitude.”

Rice is a member of the national advisory board of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). In the spring of 2015, he traveled to Jordan to visit the Zaatari refugee camp and meet with various Syrians in exile. The photographs of children in this exhibition are some of those he met. Rice is a Global Security Fellow with the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information. 

In 2013, Rice received the Society of Universal Dialogue’s Atlantic Institute "Peace Award" in recognition of his efforts to promote inter-cultural engagement and dialogue. His photographs and paintings have been displayed in multiple exhibitions. A permanent exhibition of his refugee photos is scheduled to open at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC in January, 2016.

The exhibition will be on display in the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville from December 4-23, 2015. 

An opening reception will take place as part of First Friday activities on December 4 from 5:00-9:00 PM with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and chocolate fondue by the Melting Pot of Knoxville. 

The First Friday reception features music by Pistol Creek Catch of the Day from 5:00-7:00 PM. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and Sundays, December 6 & 20, 3:30-6:30 PM. 

Please note, the Emporium will be closed December 24 – January 1 for the holidays. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or visit www.knoxalliance.com.

Board of Ed vice chair Harris says he's turned over school records to mayor; provides them to the Porch

Doug Harris

The other day Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett filed an open records request, seeking information from the school system that he says wasn’t provided. We did a story, RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Keep in mind, school officials did send over some stuff. before the request was submitted. Actually, it was the Board of Education’s vice chairman, Doug Harris, who turn over the information because the mayor and Superintendent Jim McIntyre don’t get along.

So, credit to Doug for stepping in.

Anyhoo, I talked to Doug the other day and he said school officials will give the mayor whatever information he wants. He said he was surprised that Burchett had to file a request, and he was under the impression that he had honored the county’s request.(As of today, I believe he has, but more on that - read on!)

As I recall, Burchett asked for information connected to a K-3 reading program that he’s funded to the tune of about $8.4 million during the past three years. He wanted to look at scores (were there improvements or not?), what schools participated in the program (it was supposed to be a pilot program), and details that show exactly where the money was spent (did it all go to the reading program?).

Doug said Dean “The Emperor” Rice, also known as the mayor’s chief of staff, called him about three weeks ago and asked for some of the information.

“I said ‘I’ll do everything you need,’” Doug told me. “(The superintendent) is open to giving him what he needs, but the mayor won’t talk to him. It took about 10 days to get the spread sheets
together. It’s a lot of data."

Doug said he provided all SAT-10 scores, TCAP scores, etc. He also gave them breakdowns for every grade and some budgetary numbers.

“I sent them the information in PDF form. They said they wanted it in Excel. I said that’s fine,” he told me. “They’ve never given us a detailed explanation of exactly what they’ve wanted.”

Until the open records request. Heh.

(Find it, RIGHT SMACK HERE.)

So, Doug sent me a bunch of emails that detail his correspondence with the county administration and the files he provided.

Here’s kind of the breakdown:

OCTOBER 14

Emperor Dean sends Doug an email:

Doug – Thank you for the additional information. I will review with the Mayor.

I also look forward to getting the past two years of K-3 reading scores for ALL Knox

County elementary schools.

Can you please get me a listing of the 20 schools that received the additional Voyager small group funding of $440,000, as well as, which were the five additional schools that received the 1st grade intervention. ($390,000)

Doug tells him that he’s “on it.”

Dean Rice

Doug then sends a letter to Kelly, who works in the mayor’s office and whom I’ve since renamed “Boots.”

It reads:

I just returned to my office and received your text and wanted to double check the information that Dean is requesting. Here is what I am going to ask from KCS:

1.  Referring to the literacy budget attachment, it looks like we budgeted hiring 25 additional instructional coaches for the literacy program. Confirm the schools that we actually employed coaches.
2.  Additionally, I will ask that for each of these 25 schools we will provide corresponding scores and data on 3 year grant impact.
3. Can you confirm that this will be the information that we are looking for?

OCTOBER 16

This is sent out:

School Board Members,

We have had a number of questions about the Early Literacy initiative, and I thought it would be helpful to share the responses with everyone. You may remember that his initiative, which supports literacy K-5 with a particular emphasis on developing reading skills in K-2, is funded largely through a $3 million annual commitment of Knox County funds that was recommended by Mayor Burchett.

This initiative is examined thoroughly in the annual Return on Investment (ROI) Report that we published during the FY15 Budget planning process. Information is found specifically on pages 21 and 40-49. (You can access the full ROI report on our website at (RIGHT SMACK HERE) click on “April 2014 – Return on Investment Report”)

McIntyre, Burchett

All elementary schools in the district were impacted in some way by the early literacy initiative. The resources were allocated primarily for personnel (25 literacy coaches, 5 early literacy coaches and 20 instructional assistants), with some funds for materials and professional development. (Pages 45-46 of the 2014 Return on Investment Report delineate the schools for the early literacy coaches and instructional assistants.) A specific reading intervention program, Voyager, was purchased for district-wide use from these funds. The decision to purchase Voyager was made by the elementary school and elementary reading departments with input from principals and coaches. Voyager was one of several intervention programs considered, and it was already being used in many of our schools.

Attached, please find two other relevant documents:

1. A spreadsheet that details the FY14 expenditures with regard to the County’s $3 million commitment to early literacy.
2.  An analysis of performance by school and grade level. It is notable that in all three early grades (Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2) in 2013-14 Knox County Schools students overall made gains in the percentile rank against the national norms on the Stanford-10.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks,

(Slim) Jim

 OCTOBER 21

Dean asks Doug: "Do you have the list of the 20 schools primarily targeted by the grant funds?

Doug sends him an email with two reports

1. According to the full-time literacy report there were 15 schools.  RIGHT SMACK HERE.

2. The second report details the entire literacy initiative. RIGHT SMACK HERE.

I should also note (This is the Porch talking) that Doug at some point also gave the administration a report about "early learning expenditures." I can't remember when, but here is that report, RIGHT SMACK HERE.

OCTOBER 27

The mayor files and open records request. In addition, Communications Manager Michael "Big Sexy" Grider sends Doug the following:

Hope all is well.  I understand that you recently sent some district-level reading scores to Dean Rice. Is there any chance that you have the actual spreadsheed/Excel file from which those pages were generated? If not, might you be able to see if you can get it? 

As you know, the ability to sort data is helpful.

Thank you,

Michael Grider

Doug responds that he will get it, and today he sent it over.

You can find that request RIGHT SMACK HERE (It's actually the same as the PDF but in Excel form.)

By the way, here's a few more records that Doug Turned over:

FY 2013 Investment proposal: RIGHT SMACK HERE

2010-2014 Elementary School Reading Trends: RIGHT SMACK HERE  (Now that I've reviewed this post, I noticed that this is the PDF of the Excel file.)

In the meantime, there's a chance that none of this would have happened if the superintendent knew how to speak in sentences, rather than paragraphs. Heh. 

Or if the mayor would pick up the phone.

Either way, this was a looooong post. Hope you enjoyed.

Previous county lobbyist contracts

Amy Broyles

On Monday, Knox County Commissioner Amy Broyles asked the board to postpone a discussion to talk about hiring a lobbyist to keep it informed regarding what goes on in Nashville.

Previous blog post right smack here.

Anyhoo, she noted that the county in the past had a number of contracts with firms and wanted board members to look over them.

Well . . . here ya go:

The county in September 2008 signed an agreement with Pratt, Pratt and Rice. Yes – that Dean Rice, the emperor of the Death Star, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett’s chief of staff. Heh. (Burchett wasn’t elected until 2010 by the way.)

The contract, which you can find right smack here, paid out $1,665 per month ($19,980 a year).

In July 2009, the county entered into a one-year contract, which you can find right smack here, with Farris Mathews Bobango that paid $3,750 per month ($45,000 a year).

I’m not sure how much each company actually received, but Burchett took over in September 2010 and I’m pretty sure that was the end – if it didn’t happen earlier – to any county lobbyist.

In the meantime, Broyles actually wants a lobbyist for the board only, rather than one who represents the commission and the administration.

Burchett, crew headed to Nashville

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, chief of stuff (heh) Dean Rice, HR Manager Col. Richard Julian, top bean counter Casual Chris Caldwell, Knox County Commission Chairman Brad Anders and communications manager of two Michael “Big Sexy” Grider are all squeezing into a car and headed to Nashville this morning to talk to Big Bill.

The mayor wants to convince the zillionaire governor, who mostly answers to the tea party because he’s scared of them, to put up as much as $10 million to pay for a regional forensic center that would serve 22 East Tennessee counties. (University of Tennessee Medical Center folks are kicking the operation out of their facility.)

The meeting is set for 11:30 a.m. slow time. The mayor wants the center to be based in Knox County, but since it will serve more than the folks here, he feels the good gov. should ante up some coin.

From what I understand the crew probably won’t get a response today, but some other top dogs in the state have made a similar recommendation to Haslam.

Mayor Burchett authorizes new raises

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett has authorized new pay raises for almost half the employees under the executive branch purview, with much of the increases set aside for workers who make $30,000 or less annually.

But, three top ranking officials, including the administration’s chief of staff, also will get significant bumps that combine for $29,400 in raises.

The adjustments, which took effect July 1, are in addition to the 2 percent raises for general county employees and those who work in the Sheriff’s Office that Burchett and the Knox County Commission publicly discussed and approved during budget talks this past spring. 

The commission will still have to sign off on the new adjustments when the administration brings the board a set of proposals on how it wants to use expected surplus money the county will receive in late August. If the board declines, the employees will still get the raises because officials have built into the budget “enough negative allocations,” meaning money set aside for positions currently vacant that could cover the costs, said county Finance Director Chris Caldwell.

The raises, including benefits, will cost the county about $1.1 million with the bulk of the costs coming this year and the rest set for next July. Officials say overall increased revenues, like an uptick in tax collections, will cover the additional recurring expense.

On average, the positions received a 5 percent bump in addition to the 2 percent previously approved in the current fiscal year’s budget, which took effect July 1.

Of the 400 jobs that received adjustments, almost 55 percent earned $30,000 or less and just over 75 percent made $40,000 or less.

However, seven employees who make more than $70,000 annually also will benefit. And three of them – Chief of Staff Dean Rice, Finance Director Caldwell, and Purchasing Director Hugh Holt – earn more than $100,000.

You can read the full story, with more details, right smack here.

ObamaCare fees to cost Knox $300K

Looks like the county will have to ante up almost 300K in clams to cover a fee tied to the Affordable Care Act.

I'm certainly not going to get into whether this is a lot of money or not because it would mean debating the merits of ObamaCare and, quite frankly, both sides annoy me.

I did, however, chuckle after reading a letter Mayor Tim Burchett's sent to Congressman Duncan for no apparent reason other than to get some media coverage. He notes that Duncan didn't vote for the measure, then laments that it will cost the county money. (Like he didn't know this. Seriously. It's not a secret.)

Then Burchett tells the good Congressman that if he wants to learn more about it, he can call his office. Er . . . . . .

You can read the letter, which was no doubt authored by emperor Dean Rice and his underlings, right smack here.

The train wreck of a radio interview the two conducted this morning is more than likely somewhere on the Internet. Although it's no where near as funny as this one that has been floating around.

No word yet on how much the city, which also is self-insured, will have to spend. Probably a similar amount.

Pic series: Following Casual Chris

Dan "da freakin' man" Andrews followed Knox County Finance Director Casual Chris Caldwell around for a couple of day (dude must have been bored out of his mind), and took a bunch of pics, wrote a little write-up and all that jazz.

Anyhoo, you can check it out, right smack here. Below is one of the pics. Note how Emperor Rice makes Jennifer Bodie, a senior accountant (in the background), lug all that stuff around. Should start calling him: "Hands free, care free Dean da potentate", cause that's how he rolls. Heh.

From left: Dean Rice, Jennifer Bodie, Casual Chris and assassin and chief budget overseer Jason Lay

Public to pick next cash mob spot

The county is letting the public decide where it will hold the next cash mob, an innovative marketing plan that Emperor Dean Rice hates but has so far been successful.

Heh. (Little inside baseball there.)

Anyhoo, the county will accept nominations through noon Friday. Then it will hold an online voting thing-a-ma-jig for the top five nominees beginning at 5 p.m. Friday through 5 p.m. March 6. The winning business will be announced on March 8.

"We get a lot of feedback from people with suggestions for possible cash mob locations," said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, the architect of the local events. "This is a good way to get the community and local businesses directly involved in deciding the location of the next Knox Cash Mob."

Send you nomination, right smack here.

Please note that nominated business should be locally owned, located in South Knoxville, and cannot be previous cash mob locations or restaurants. That's key.

The county reserves the right to withdraw certain business from consideration if, among other things, the business serves a very limited clientele, according to the spin release.

In other words, don't bother nominating the Asian massage parlor.

Hang with the mayor at Nick & J's

The county on Friday will continue its “lunch with the mayor” series, this time at Nick & J's Cafe at the Lovell Road exit off Pellissippi Parkway. The event, as always, is Dutch treat, and the restaurant – according to its website – will serve “southern comfort food in a delightful diner setting."

The luncheons are an offshoot of the mayor's “cash mob,” a concept that encourages people to show up at a small business at the same time and shop. It appears that the luncheons will move to a once-a-month schedule and the mobs will become a quarterly event.

In the meantime, Burchett still makes fun of his chief of staff for trying to shoot down the whole (so far successful) concept when he first proposed it.

Mayor hospitalized with pneumonia

Mayor Burchett

Knox County emperor Dean Rice is now in charge as Mayor Tim Burchett recovers from pneumonia. No really.

The mayor is in a local hospital (he asked that I not say which one). He's not sure when doctors will release him, and his staff has canceled his appointments through the end of the week.

Short story right smack here.

The dude sounds pretty bad. I talked to him briefly. He tried to joke that he put Casual Chris Caldwell in charge and then he trailed off. 

(In the meantime, Big Sexy Michael Grider has taken over Dean's office. He's kicked back with his feet on the desk as I type.)

No word on how the mayor caught pneumonia. Might have been Bigfoot hunting or metal detecting. Regardless, da Porch wishes him a speedy recovery.

Burchett talks cash mobs with Time

Check it out: Time Magazine quoted Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett in a two-page story (with fancy graphics) about the cash mob “ bona fide social phenomena.”

Click right smack here for a pdf copy of the article that Screams from da Porch is bootleggin' cause we didn't want to pay it.

(Little inside baseball: County Emperor Dean Rice told the mayor – when he first proposed the idea – that it was stupid. Burchett reminds him of it all the time. Heh.)

Knox County Mayor and Cash Mob Organizer Tim Buchett, right, at the county's first cash mob in February at Emery's 5 and 10. The event drew 700 to 800 people. (Photo by Jon Gustin)

Anyhoo, Time says cash mobs are a “perfectly timed tonic for a sour economic moment.”

Burchett, in the article, says: “People are struggling all over the country. This is an opportunity for everybody to join hands.”

The story also notes some history and rules for cash mobs.

The county's next cash mob is Nov. 8 at New Harvest Park Farmer's Market.

Cash Mob heads to S. Koxville again

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett's latest cash will be held on Saturday (this is a change), Oct. 27 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Stanley's Greenhouses and Plant Farm.

(A little inside baseball: The mayor's chief of staff, Dean Rice, told Burchett when he thought of doing these things that it was a dumb idea. Heh. Tim never fails to remind him of how successful they've been so far. Plus it doesn't hurt that these things are also pretty good re-election tools.)

Anyhoo, according to the spin release, which was no-doubt written by county communications manager Michael Grider, who has returned from his vacation at the middle-Tennessee nudist colony, this cash mob will have a "fall festival-like atmosphere, which will include hot dogs, hay rides for kids, cemetery tours, games and cash mob specials."

Stanley's is located in South Knoxville at 3029 Davenport Road.

Next cash mob on Sutherland Avenue

The county's next Cash Mob will be held tomorrow (that's Friday) from 5-7 p.m. At Strawberry Fields Market and Red Onion Pizza & Subs, both which are on Sutherland Avenue and not too far from the Metal Shed on da Hill.

According to Michael “Big Sexy” Grider (the county's most underpaid spin doctor), the two businesses will have cash mob specials.

Friday's mob will be the third one that the Tim Burchett administration has held in recent months. They've all been pretty successful, so it's a good thing officials ignored Emperor Dean Rice. Cause he thought holding a cash mob was a dumb idea.

Heh.

Dirty lots, spin, sin and typical ramblings

Couple things.

You folks see what happened on the emperor's property? Man, that sucks. And, yeah, the Web site disabled the comment section so the peanut gallery can't weigh in. Too bad. Because, you know, so much freakin' wisdom gets espoused during the riveting conversation over there and now we're deprived of it.

The latest edition of Spin County, or as Michel “Big Sexy” Grider likes to call it - “Knox Happenings” - is out. You can find it right smack here. County Mayor Tim Burchett talks briefly about the budget and reflects a little bit on outgoing finance minister John Troyer.

Banned AGAIN from the KNS peanut gallery/comment section, Brian Paone has said the heck with it and is back to reporting. You can find the latest satire right smack here. (Other links are at the bottom.) Some funny stuff.

Madame Mayor Mad Madeline (I just like saying that) and her posse will participate in a “codes enforcement neighborhood sweep” tomorrow, according to the city's zillion dollar public affairs department, which still costs less than the school system's zillion dollar public affairs department (as opposed to the county's ten cent office). I'm not holding my breath on this whole enforcement thing. Former KNS reporter Rebecca Ferrar wrote a whole series about "dirty lots" back in 2010.

Crap like this costs money. But it sure looks good for the TV stations. You know, going around and fighting the good fight. Whatever. They should just bulldoze the crap and dare someone to sue them. Heh.

I'm sure I'll find some other crap to ramble about later.

As always . . .

Cash mob continues to draw customers

UPDATE: I added in some more numbers

The good county spin doc, Michael “Big Sexy” Grider, sent over some numbers from Friday's cash mob – an event, by the way, that Potentate Dean Rice said was a foolhardy venture. (Or something like that.)

Anyhoo, this time county Mayor Tim Burchett threw what is becoming an regular thing at the Disc Exchange and Wee Care Shoppe in South Knoxville. According, to BS, the record shop had three times as many transactions all Friday, compared to previous Fridays. (Or something like that.) He said during the “official mob time,” which is 5-7 p.m., the store had 100 more transactions in the two-hour period that the store usually averages on Friday during the same time.

According to the store, Disc Exchange averaged 151.5 transactions on Fridays between Feb. 10 through March 2. On Cash mob Friday, the store had 477 total transactions with 254 during 5-7 p.m.

The owner of the Wee Care Shoppe told BS that her business had “at least 114 transactions all day” Friday, which is about five times the normal number of Friday sales. She didn't have the numbers for the 5-7 p.m. time frame because they were using a borrowed registered that is a bit older than the register they typically use, Grider said.

Recent cash mob hits MSNBC, Facebook

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett's cash mob has garnered a little bit of national attention. MSNBC picked up the story. You can find that by clicking right smack here.

Also, note, however, that it appears the county didn't oblige by the suggested rules of the cash-mob society, or whatever.

Rule No. 8 states: The business (in the case Emery's 5 & 10 on Chapman Highway) must be within one block of a locally-owned watering hole.

Rule No. 9 states: Cash Mobbers must join us for celebratory drinks after the successful mob.

(Starting to wonder if soccer hooligans came up with this whole cash mob thing.)

Anyhoo, the local cash mob Facebook page has also garnered a little bit of activity after Burchett revealed that his chief of staff, Potentate Rice, thought the event was a bad idea.

Course, as one commenter said: Rice rarely agrees with anything on MSNCB

Heh.

Knox County bond rating toes the line

(Earlier, I posted some more about the KTSC mess.)

In the latest spin job released by Big “Michael Grider” Sexy, the administration says Standard & Poor has recently affirmed the county's AA+ bond rating. Click right smack here for the deep spin.

County Mayor Tim Burchett in a quote no doubt written by his chief of staff, Potentate Rice, says: “S&P offered proof of the success of our efforts when they affirmed our AA+/stable long-term bond rating. We are doing the right things: reducing the amount of money government spends, increasing efficiencies, paying down our debt and shrinking the size of local government in general.”

Don't get me wrong, a strong bond rating is a good thing. But, the county earned it because of our low tax rate. Not because of “increasing efficiencies” or “shrinking . . . local government.” In fact, look at the past administration. I think it's safe to say that efficiencies weren't increased and government wasn't shrunk. Yet, that's when the bond rating got to where it is now.

But, fist-bumps to everyone, I suppose. It could have been lowered.

Still, local government as always is mostly ridiculous. The glass is half full. And all that.

UPDATE: Big Sexy, or BS for short, sent me a quote from S&P's report: “We consider Knox County's financial position very strong due to tight expenditure controls and conservative revenue estimates.” He also sent me the original report, which is right smack here.

Inside baseball on the KTSC mess

So, at this point is there anything left to say about the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp. mess that hasn’t already been reported in the paper, on TV and over at the blogs? Ha ha. Of course there is.

I wrote this entry on Sunday while watching the Stupor Bowl and the suck commercials that accompanied the game. But then I got caught up and didn't get a chance to post it.

Wow, rambling already and only a few sentences in. OK, I suppose there are a few things worth mentioning that haven’t been touched on yet. Note, that most of this is inside baseball.

First off, I posted a few days back about the KTSC hiring local spin team Moxley Carmichael. I called KTSC a public relations group. Cynthia over at the real PR firm pointed out that they’re actually a “marketing” group. At this point I don’t think it really matters. But, in the interest of fair play . . .

Anyhoo, Moxley Carmichael is charging KTSC $200 and hour. That’s a discount from the usual $250 an hour. Cynthia told me that in 10 years I’ll probably be in public relations myself. After seeing those numbers I don’t disagree.

But, first I want a job running KTSC. Heh.

(Oh yeah, for disclosure’s sake, The Knoxville News Sentinel has Moxley Carmichael on retainer. Or under contract. Or however all that works. Regardless, the company handles spin for us.)

Next up: Ward Phillips.

Ward is the attorney KTSC hired when the media started looking into how the non-profit spends money. I’m super impressed with Ward. You know, typically when a group hires an attorney, the lawyer represents the members of that group. Reality check: The attorney is supposed to represent the operation as a whole – not just the director, the chairman, the whoever.

Ward hasn’t pulled any punches in the last week or so. He – it appears at least – is acting in the best interest of KTSC and not one individual. Case in point: He pretty much said CEO Gloria Ray’s contract was illegal. (Heck, he practically begged the board to fire her during last Friday’s meeting.) And, he also noted that board members probably violated a few rules.

It’s always a relief to see an attorney do what they’re supposed to do. Cheers to him.

(I hope all this makes sense.)

Moving on . . . .

Ray’s future: Well, she’s a local icon and institution, and despite what you might think about her, no one at this point has proved that she’s broken the law. Yeah, she probably did draft her own contract and fax it down to Florida to board chairman David Duncan to sign (all this under the radar of the other members of the executive committee), but . . . well, whatever. Unless, it's proven he got kickbacks from this – and I mean proven – then . . . .

Maybe if the board members were actually paying attention. But, again, whatever.

And no, I don’t buy the argument that Ward made (I believe it was him) about how they’re all volunteers, so they can’t be expected to know everything. You know what? Quit then. Get off the board. I mean, come on. Don’t you want to know what your boss makes? And if given the chance, wouldn’t you take a peek? They should have looked. They didn't. End of discussion.

Sooooo, The board says Gloria owes KTSC $96K in folding paper. If it lets her go without cause, then it owes her about $55K in coin and some incidentals, like expenses, travel, whatever. I’m sure all of it will add up to be a lot. Like a lot, lot.

I’m guessing – that because of the work Gloria has done in the past – the board calls it a wash and lets her go “without cause,” and wipes the slate (any payments) clean. Now, whether she’ll stay on as a consultant is another story. Personally, she probably should, at least for a year to head up a transition. Of course that would mean paying her $150K. Unless that can be worked out.

One a side note, firing Gloria with cause might not be the smartest thing. If KTSC really wants to take the focus off the recent problems and get on with doing whatever it’s supposed to do, then it needs to work out something. If it doesn’t, Gloria will take them to court. I guarantee it. She didn’t get to where she is by lying down and taking it.

(On a side note, we’ve reported that Gloria makes more than many of her counterparts in other major Tennessee cities, but did you know she also make more than Susan Walker, the state commissioner of tourist development? Yup. Walker makes $152,400 per year. Thanks to ass-kicking KNS state reporter Tom Humphrey for pointing that out to me.)

OK, let’s get to some good stuff.

County Mayor Tim Burchett. A lot of folks think he and the good Emperor, Dean Rice, were behind this mess, that they were the two trying to get out the information to the media, since Burchett wants to sell the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Nope. (I’ve taken my shots at both of them, but neither was behind this.) Don’t get me wrong, they’re not upset about what’s going on and I imagine there was some fist-bumping going on, but they weren’t behind the information drive.

You see, Burchett announced a long time ago that he wanted to sell the Hall of Fame. That was no secret. And if he knew about Gloria’s salary at that time, then it would have gone public then. It didn’t Also, Burchett wants KTSC – if the hall of fame is put on the market – to buy it and run the operation. Heck, I’m pretty sure that when the purchasing department got done with the bid it would have been written in such a way that KTSC would be the only logical buyer. And really, at this point they might be. So, the mayor doesn’t need this outrage. And yes, I know, that sounds funny. Because sometimes I think Burchett wakes up in the morning, looking for controversy.

With that said Burchett’s call for Gloria’s resignation on Thursday was straight spontaneity. Here’s what happened. As KTSC announced that David Duncan had resigned the previous evening, KNS reporter Josh Flory received some records that he had asked for wile back. He wrote the story and, using the documents, was the first to report the retention bonuses Gloria is/was set to receive. Burchett read the story Thursday morning and was none too happy. The same morning, WBIR, which also received the records, showed them to the county mayor.

And that was it.

Ticked off about the situation – and because he had asked Gloria about her total compensation weeks prior and wasn't told about these incentive bonuses - Burchett immediately called for her resignation.

No one on the city’s side of the Deathstar had a clue about this. So, when they heard that Burchett made the announcement, some on that side – I won’t say who – at first resisted. There was also talk about forming a committee to look into the KTSC issue. (Like this county/city needs another committee.) But, the writing was on the wall.

Then they opted for a spin conference. My understanding is that Burchett's people reached out to the Rogero camp and asked if they wanted to hold a joint press conference. At least one of Madeline's top adviser's was on board, but Madeline wanted to go solo. So, last Thursday’s spin conference was Madeline’s first as mayor.

I wasn’t there, but I heard Madeline did a pretty good job and made it clear that she wasn’t standing for Gloria to make some $600K in coin in her final year of her contract. (Now, if the city's mayor will just look at her own spin team, which makes more than a combined $200k salaries while the county's spin doctor makes about $54,000 . . . but I digress.)

So, who did leak the information (yeah, I know it was public but no one bothered to look) that got the media looking into this whole mess? Well, there could be some truth to the email that the KTSC Chairman David Duncan sent and which I wrote about (click right smack here for that bad boy). Or maybe not.

David Duncan – no relation to Trustee John Duncan III or his family – blames former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, Liza Zenni, executive director of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, and Caesar Stair, a local attorney who serves on the alliance board.

Well, Victor certainly wrote about the issue – although he didn’t name names – before anyone else. And yes that includes WBIR, which continues to erroneously note that it reported about Gloria’s salary first (more on that later). I don’t know anything about Caesar’s role. I do know that he knows Liza. And I know that Liza and Victor don’t hang out.

But, here’s what else I know.

Back around November, Gloria and Liza got into a spat about the 5 percent of hotel/motel tax that is typically allocated to the smaller non-profits (think Beck Center, Ramsey House, symphony, blah, blah. Blah).

Some members of the Arts Alliance (Liza’s group) felt Gloria wanted the money to run the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame – if KTSC ever bought it. (Gloria denies her organization needed this money.)

There was plenty of internal bickering and the Arts Alliance board told Liza to step down from the KTSC board (yes, she was on both boards). The arts folks felt it was a conflict. They also saw the potential for a feud. So, did Liza leak the information out of spite?

Well, a lot of people think so. I will say that she did not give me the information. I heard about this elsewhere, and at this point I don't remember who first told me.

And: Does it really freakin’ matter who leaked what? No, it doesn’t!

(Also, the feud is now moot as county Mayor Tim Burchett decided late last year that he was going to make organizations bid on that 5 percent. They'll now have to submit “requests for information” and then a team will figure out who gets the money. At this point, the Arts Alliance has put together a group and will go after the money. KTSC isn't expected to.)

Now, let’s get down to who first broke this story. I get kind of annoyed with the whole “you heard it here first” or “as we first reported” or whatever. Hey, I get it. The media – KNS included – likes to toot its horn. Fine. Just make sure you know what you’re talking about.

So, I know a lot of people aren’t going to like this and I’ll probably catch some heat for it. But I got news for you: I don't care.

Rogue blogger Brian Hornback was actually the first to write about Gloria's salary with any detail and name names. You can find if by clicking right smack here.

Again, that’s also probably going to tick off some people over at the local TV channel that’s been bragging about this, but . . . whatever.

Finally, what does the future hold?

I don’t know. I think more crap will come out about the contracts and how they were hammered out in the middle of the night. Or not. Maybe the new executive committee will keep a better eye on things.

I hope.

Anyway, I’m out.

Merry Christmas, best wishes and all that

Good morning, folks, and Merry Christmas. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then "happy holidays" and all that.

I was going to go for something witty today, maybe invent a Christmas wish list for all those public figures out there.

(You know, Superintendent Jim McIntyre wishes for $7 million, county Mayor Tim Burchett and Chief of Staff Dean Rice wish for a third man - or woman - Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero wishes for a new flak - because she doesn't have enough - etc., etc.)

But, I'll play it straight (other than that funny picture someone sent me this morning). So, I hope everyone enjoys the day, stays safe and (fill in the blank cause I ran out of thoughts).

Take care.

No matter what, taxpayers get the bill

We at Screams from da Porch sometimes like to provide all two readers with some insight on a story. The most recent one ran Saturday, called “Trustee’s Office mistake to cost taxpayers $12,500.”

You can read that bad boy by clicking right smack here.

Now, this post isn’t really about the “reporting error” (or whatever they’re calling the screw-up over at the Trustee’s Office); it’s just a little inside baseball about what happened during an interview.

OK, so I’m talking to county Mayor Tim Burchett about an email from the county’s auditor, KPMG, and how officials want to bill the county some additional coin for what they say was extra work on their part to complete the audit. (The audit was completed on time by the way.)

The mayor tells me that he’s going to ask the Trustee’s Office to pay for it. He was very, very adamant about this. When I asked if it really mattered who paid (the Trustee’s Office turns over additional money it collects to the county, so technically it’s all county money), Burchett said that yes, it would be “symbolic.”

Anyhoo, I write that down and later I’m talking to Emperor Dean Rice and he’s going on about something that I can’t recall and at some point I tell him that the mayor wants the Trustee’s Office to pick up the tab.

Rice is kind of surprised. I think. That’s how I took it anyway. About 20 or 30 minutes or so later, the mayor calls, letting me know that he misspoke about wanting the Trustee’s Office to pay the bill. I asked if he had talked to Dean about this. He had. I asked Dean later if he had talked to the mayor about this. He did.

Strange.

Like I said: It doesn’t matter which office pays for it. Cause it’s really your coin.

But, I don’t expect this to be the last time the tab is mentioned.

The Audit Committee meets in late January. It’s going to be brought up again.