Update on Carter; Sandy Loy's letter

I talked to Emperor Dean Rice yesterday and he said the administration is on track with its plans to have the No. 2 developer building the Carter community a new elementary school.

That is, if the county commission and school board go along with it.

There's been some talk around the Deathstar about whether the county needs the board of education's approval. Regardless of whether it does, it's just plain smart to get it. At any time, the school board could renege the go-ahead it gave the county last month if the right members decide to bring the issue up for vote again.

You know, the whole parliamentary procedure thing.

Anyhoo, in the meantime, local developer Sandy Loy this morning sent the administration an email that pretty much takes a shot at everyone. (It was addressed to emperor Dean.) Along with the email, he had some fancy attachments (those are the underlined things you can click on. Heh.).

Here's his note:

Dean,

Attached is a PDF of a newsletter from the CMAA explaining the CM types which seem to be constantly confused by people with an interest for the topic to stay confusing.

I hope you will read it and keep it for reference.

I don't know the status of the Carter deal but I think the attempt to take the Devon design to Partners as second bidder is a mistake. I think you have opened the door for the BOE to take another look at it and it will get killed.

Maybe I'm wrong, in any regard I hope that the day will come when Tim steps up and actually does something to start saving the County money while building schools. Spending 13mm for an elementary school is not a good start no matter who builds it.

I talked to Cindy Buttry at length this week and she is still being lied to by Dillingham and McIntyre about the schools I built and their respective costs. They keep telling the BOE "That Paulette school in Union Co. isn't up to Knox Co Standards", and it isn't, BUT I DIDN'T BUILD THAT SCHOOL! They don't mention the Claiborne Co. High Schools which they toured and admitted were indeed equivalent or superior to Knox Co Standards.

So when they start this with you and Tim make sure you call them out on it, Union Co CHEAP, Claiborne Co INEXPENSIVE BUT COMPARABLE IN DESIGN AND QUALITY.

Also note the Sweetwater Primary data sheet which I built for 660 kids for 7.6mm!

I am also attaching a letter from the Director of Schools in Claiborne Co stating his opinion as well as a project sheet with pics.

Thanks,

Sandy
Sanford C. Loy, CCM
President
Construction Plus Inc.

Property assessor finances released

On Friday, the good folks at the elections office sent me the campaign financial disclosure statements for Property Assessor Phil Ballard and his opponent, former assessor John Whitehead.

So far, they're the only two to announce their intentions to run for the office. The primary will be next March.

Personally, I don't see anyone else jumping in that has a spoiler's chance, but you never know. I hate calling elections early, but the word - at this point - is that it's Ballard's race to lose.

But, I will tell you, this is going to be a dirty, mud-slinging race. These two do not like each other, and already I've been given a bunch of information about each of them that doesn't paint pretty pictures.

I've checked out some of the rumors and haven't found anything. I still have a list of things to go though. I'm not sure when I'll write an actually story on the race - remember, we've got some time - so, I'll probably throw everything that does pan out into one big story.

Then again, maybe they'll be nothing. Maybe this will be a clean race. I somehow doubt it, though. That's no disrespect to either men. But, again, they are not exactly pals.

In the meantime, the two released their latest finance reports. (I think I already said that, but whatever.)

Ballard has almost $54,300 cash on hand. You can check out his most recent report by clicking right smack here.
Whitehead has a little more than $24, 400 cash on hand. You can check out his most recent report by clicking right smack here.

Mayes calls out Salter. Again.

I guess county solid waste director Tom Salter thinks he’s a funny guy.

You know, supposedly making up email accounts, pretending he’s his own arch nemesis Brad Mayes, then sending a note to an attorney.

Funny stuff, I tell you.

Until you get caught.

And in one of the most ironic/dumbest ways possible (not that emails can’t be traced anyway).

You see, Brad Mayes, pictured above, talked (and still does) some trash about Salter. And Salter, I presume, got tired of it.

In fact, he got so tired of it, he decided to sue Mayes for slander. And therein lies the problem.

Lawsuits require depositions. And attorneys can pretty much ask anything in a deposition, even if it really isn’t that germane to whatever the heck the lawsuit is about. And you don’t want to lie in a deposition. Because then the opposing attorney gets you on the stand and – sort of – asks you the same question later on. And your answer better match up. (Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said if you never lie you never have to remember anything? But I digress.)

Anyhoo,Salter sues Mayes. Then Mayes' attorney turns the whole thing around on Salter.

Salter pretty much had to confess that he’s the one who sent out the email that was supposedly from Brad. It was back in 2008, under the fake account: brad@plumbcreek.com.

It was sent to David Draper, the attorney for Natural Resources Recovery of Tennessee, the county’s mulch operator. Mayes, right or wrong, has been pissing off NRRT and solid waste director Tom Salter for quite some time.

So, Mayes during today’s county commission meeting turned over part of that deposition to commissioners. The one where Salter – when asked about the email – said “I just thought it was funny.”

Heh. Heh. Hahahahahahaha.

Oh man. That’s rich.

Here’s the email along with a page of the deposition. You can decide whether it’s funny.

In response to Brad’s presentation, commissioner and good doctor, Richard Briggs, said:

“(Brad) has been criticized by members of this commission as being inappropriate . . . and I’d like to point out that in the (Pam) Reeves report (which laid out all sorts of screw-ups going on in the solid waste department – albeit mostly under Salter’s predecessor) and the audit report we received April 26, we found almost 500,000 the county did not receive that was pointed out by Brad Mayes, and Brad is like a rock in your shoe if you work for Knox County because he’s pointed out a number of things people are uncomfortable with, but he pointed out that there was 500,000 that is owed to the county . . and I know a lot of people make fun of him, but that is a fact.”

Here’s a story I wrote about NRRT and the solid waste department. It details that fairly scathing audit. Most of which Mayes investigated and found on his own.

Also during today’s meeting, Commissioner R. Larry Smith – just as county Mayor Tim Burchett was approaching the podium to address the commission on an unrelated matter – said: “We’ve got some real hard evidence about some things and we’ve had some hard evidence (in the past).”

He then asked Burchett what he was going to do about it.

The mayor, who had nothing to do with this mess because it happened before he took office last September, said: “We’re not stalling and we’re not covering up for anybody, commissioner. I ran on transparency and we’re going to get it. We’re going to get it all resolved.”

Said Smith: “We need to send some messages out to county employees. We’ve had some other things happen during this past week and this seems to be a lot more damaging.”

Yeah. No kidding.

Trading roads for the Beck Center

In yesterday's earth-shattering, trailblazing, groundbreaking interview with the Knox County Mayor Tim “Mag Dog” Burchett (inside joke), we talked briefly about a proposal some commissioners (mostly Sam McKenzie) have about using at least some of the additional $364,000 that went to the engineering and public works department under the administration's proposed budget and sending to the Beck Center, the KAT and commissioner slush funds.

Yeah. The mayor isn't on board with that one.

So, I got some engineering records, the to-do list, the whatever.

Here's the deal (according to interim public works director Dwight Van de Vate):

The county has about 2,000 miles of roads. About 10 percent of them need immediate resurfacing. In 2000, the department resurfaced 95 miles worth. Between 2000 and 2004, the county resurfaced about 86 miles annually. In 2005, that number dropped to 65 miles and has declined ever since. Last year, the department resurfaced about 12 miles. The proposed budget for this year calls for 17 miles of resurfacing.

Nice. No wonder the roads around here suck.

You can read Dwight's memo to the mayor and Dean “The Emperor” Rice right smack here. It also includes another 10-12 pages of street names, dollars, coin, whatever, where work needs to be done. It's actually pretty detailed. I put it up here because I know you want to read it. So, again, click right smack here.

Now, here's where we get into the interesting stuff. Dwight wrote out (hope you can read his writing) a list of streets/roads/drives that are at the top of the to-do sheet. There's 11 of them, totaling a little more than $2 million. Now, the county isn't going to do all of them. But, if ANY additional funding is sliced from the engineering department, two roads - Amberset, located the 5th District and Coppock, in the 8th District - get cut first. They cost $117,000 and $218,000, respectively.

I don't know why those two get the hangman's noose. I didn't ask. Dwight probably has some good reason.

Now if you look at that list, which you can find by clicking right here, you'll notice something else: There are no roads slated for resurfacing in the 2nd District, which Amy Broyles represents, nor in the 1st District, which Sam McKenzie represents.

Well then, apparently McKenzie has nothing to lose by cutting the engineering department's street resurfacing coin. It's not like he's getting any help.

Heh.

I'm curious, though, about what Dave Wright (8th District) and Richard “The Good Doctor” Briggs (5th District) think about the proposal. They've been usually quiet so far.

And they're the ones who could end up riding on those never-to-be-resurfaced bumpy, broke roads. Forever. Along with their constituents.

Something to chew on, I suppose.

UPDATE: Commission Vice Chairman Brad Anders pointed out to me that the reason there are no road projects in the 1st and 2nd Districts is because they are all in the city. Makes sense.

Beck Center, emails and race cards

Apparently if you criticize the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, then you’re a bigot.

Whatever.

I guess some people can’t get past race. They forgot to get on that plane. You know, the one that flew (most of) the rest of us into a place called the 21st Century.

I figured it would come to this. I hoped it wouldn’t. But it did.

Last week, Sentinel reporter Rebecca Ferrar wrote a story that said county commission Chairman Mike Hammond will ask his fellow dais mates to consider auditing the Beck Center. Because the organization's accounting just isn’t adding up. That and folks have a heck of a lot of questions about how some county money the center got was spent. Or reported.

Anyhoo, in the story, Rebecca cited an email from Mrs. Terry Caruthers – a library worker who was assigned to the center when it operated under the auspices of the county library system – to the county commission.

Caruthers, who is white, had some fairly damning accusations about the center.

(The story is right smack here. And yeah, I know this is last week’s news, but I’m going somewhere. Hold on a second.)

Rebecca asked Beck Center Executive Director Avon Rollins, who is black, about his thoughts on Caruthers’ claims.

His response? Let’s say it was really classy.

“Blah, blah, blah,” said Rollins. “Ms. Caruthers is non-African American. I don’t know what her ulterior motives are. She might have a bias.”

Really?

Heh.

Hahahahahahaha.

Apparently Rollins’ ability to understand Caruthers is about as spot-on as the center’s ability to correctly file an IRS 990 tax form.

Cause, er, well, Mr. Caruthers happens to be black.

Here’s Mrs. Caruthers response to Rollins’ remarks in another email she sent to the county commission. (By the way, in the beginning of the email, she wonders how Rebecca got her first email. I gave it to her. And it's public record.)

Anyway, click right smack here for the new email.

And by the way, I have nothing against Rollings. But seriously, the whole race card - or even insinuations of it - is starting to get a little old.

Election chief resumes right here

OK, i finally got the applications/resumes/letters of interest that folks interested in the administrator of elections post submitted to the county's human resources department. (Just click on the names for them.)

We've got the former guy, Greg Mackay, the interim guy, Scott Frith, and then the usual suspects – Victoria Defreese and Steve Hill.

In addition, we've got Clifford Rodgers, a local attorney. I didn't have him in today's story.

Also, I talked to Mark Hancock again this morning and he sent me his resume (click here) and a statement about it (click here). He has not yet formally applied but he is interested.

Note, that for a job that will pay anywhere between $96,000 and $110,000, some folks didn't really take their time applying themselves.

Some of these cover letters are really half-ass.

But, you can decide.

Actually, the three Republicans on the five-member Knox County Election Commission can decide next Wednesday.

Update: Mackay submitted a formal resume right here.

Here's what a salary suit looks like

A lot of folks have made a big deal about whether the salary lawsuits that detail staffing levels and salaries that the fee offices file are not transparent enough.

Others, though, say they're less confusing to read than the county budget, which is a zillion pages long and can be found right here.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about – this whole fee office mess – then you can read the original story I wrote about it right smack here.

Anyhoo, most of the fee offices essentially sue the county mayor in Knox County Chancery Court. Typically, the mayor signs off on them. No reason to micromanage, I suppose.

So, as a public service, I'm providing copies of the most recent salary suits filed by the six fee offices – criminal court clerk, circuit court clerk, trustee, registor of deeds, clerk and master, and county clerk.

Note, that each one will be slightly different – not only because the officers draw them up differently – but because I'll show you various stages of the suits.

I wish I could be a little more literate here, but I'm kind of busy.

So, let's start right here with Criminal Court Clerk Joy McCroseky's petition to sue. This is pretty much the first stage and goes immediately to the mayor and the law director.

For Hogan, I have the actual suit he filed in Knox County Chancery Court. Note, that Hogan's suit is extremely detailed compared to the others I'll put up, detailing job descriptions and naming contractors.

The document I have right here for Circuit Court Clerk Cathy Quist is the final judgment. It looks pretty much like the initial salary suit, but some of the legal mumbo-jumbo has been taken out. Additionally, it includes a letter to county Mayor Tim Burchett. Note, the final page - “Exhibit A - lists her deputy clerks and salaries. It includes the staffing levels but no job description. This is one of the issues some commissioners and Burchett have with the suits. They don't feel there's enough so-called “transparency.”

For Register of Deeds Sherry Witt, I've also included the final judgment of her most recent salary suit, signed in October 2010. Additionally, Witt post her salary suits, dating back 2007, on her website right here. Still, that's not going to stop the aforementioned county officials from trying to gain control of her operating budget. Good thing for her she hired local attorney John King to fight it.

County Clerk Foster Arnett doesn't actually file a salary suit. You see all this talk about these suits isn't really necessary, according to county Law Director Joe Jarret. You can also file a “Letter of Agreement Compensation of Employees” instead.

No, this is not the same thing as turning the budget over to the mayor and commission. It's more like a salary suit, but without the lawsuit part. And, yes, the county clerk is the only one of the six fee offices to do it this way.

Check out what Arnett's looks like right here.

Finally, I have a salary suit for Trustee John Duncan III. The example I have for him, however, is an amended judgment. You see, Duncan filed a regular salary suit like his peers.

But, he forgot to give his employees longevity bonuses, which are not necessary, but pretty traditional around some of the fee offices.

So, Duncan had to go back and sue again. I think it was for an extra $3,500. It's not actually mentioned in the suit.

Go figure. (Although it probably doesn't matter since the trustee - along with a couple other fee officers - plans to turn over his budget anyway.)

Anyway, here's the final suit right smack here.

Elected folks and their workers' coin

For absolutely no reason, other than people always like to know what county folks make, I asked the Human Resources Department to send me a list of the top five money-makers employed under our local elected officials. (The county people, that is. I don't care about the city.)

Additionally, I asked for Howard Hogan's people, too. Hogan, clerk and master of the chancery courts, isn't elected, but rather appointed by the judges every six years. I included him because his department is one of six county fee offices. The other five are elected. But, I figured that was fair.

In addition to Hogan, I've got County Clerk Foster Arnett, Attorney General Randy Nichols, Trustee John Duncan III, Criminal Court Clerk Joy McCroskey, Circuit Court Clerk Cathy Quist, Law Director Joe Jarret, Register of Deeds Sherry Witt, Property Assessor Phil Ballard, Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones, Public Defender Mark Stephens and Mayor Tim Burchett.

I didn't ask for the commissioners because they have three underpaid (if only because they have to deal with commissioners) folks in their office. And I forgot about the judges.

Also note: Under Burchett, the folks are actually employees under his overall purview - not necessarily in the "Mayor's Office."

On just a quick glance, it appears that Hogan's workers make the least out of the officials. Not surprising since he's not elected. Go figure.

Heh.

Burchett's workers came in at the most. But, most of them are department directors, not deputies (with the exception of his chief of staff.)

Next up was Jarret. But, attorneys make a lot of money. Unless of course, you work in the public defender's office.

Anyhoo, the document is right here.

Some officials to get major back pay

A few days ago I wrote a story about some state-mandated pay raises 12 Knox County elected officials. (You can read the masterpiece right smack here.)

What I didn't get into, however, was that three fee officers actually get some retroactive coin.

A lot.

I didn't have the space.

But I do now.

So, here's the deal:

Officials with the six fee offices – criminal court clerk, circuit court clerk, clerk and masters, trustee, register of deeds and county clerk – are supposed to get paid the same now. That would be $106,906.

Good money.

But the three judiciary office holders – Criminal Court Clerk Joy McCroskey, Circuit Court Clerk Cathy Quist and Clerk and Master Howard Hogan – get an additional 10 percent because they also have additional court responsibilities.

Or something like that. I can't remember.

The issue is that they essentially all have the $106,906 base. Or they should now that the county's population increased. (It's a state thing. Just click on that initial link to the story if you need to know more.)

They're all going to get that now, if they don't already have it.

But there's a catch.

Three officers – Register of Deeds Sherry Witt, Quist and Hogan – weren't paid what they were supposed to get under this formula, which is retroactive to last April.

So, they all sent notes to the mayor, payroll, the law director, whoever the heck will hear them out.

And they're going to get their money. One big lump sum.

Witt is down for $22,493. Here is her letter of request.
McCroskey gets $21,501.67. Here is her letter of request.
Hogan also should get $21,501.67. Here is his letter of request.

Yes, all of this is legal. The real question is why the others were making a higher class of pay. Nothing said they couldn't. But, they probably should have received less pay prior to the county's population jump.

In the meantime, the administration – never afraid to weigh in – had some thoughts.

“They're entitled to it, but it's an odd time to ask for $22,000 in back pay,” said administration Chief of Staff Dean Rice, taking a shot and reminding everyone just how much some folks want more control over the fee office budgets.

Heh.

Fee office tour, salaries, more mess

The good doctor and Commissioner Richard Briggs told me the other day that the move to bring the fee office budgets under the mayor and commission would be as big – if not bigger – than the proposal to enforce term-limits for some elected leaders.

Privately, I scoffed at the suggestion.

But, it's certainly picked up some steam since Monday when the commission initially talked about it. (I wrote about it here.)

A lot of local papers and bloggers have touched on it, looking at all the angles, the perspectives, the whatever.

Anyhoo, Commissioner Amy Broyles asked some of the fee officers – Criminal Court Clerk Joy McCroskey and Circuit Clerk Clerk Cathy Quist – if they'd give her a tour of the offices. (The two clerks noted to commissioners that they didn't know squat about how to run the departments, so they shouldn't be meddling with their budgetary affairs.)

The meeting was sun shined and Broyles was the only commissioner who made it. As McCroskey said: “No one has bothered to ever come up here and see what we do.”

Broyles asked McCroskey to “show me what you think I need to know about how you run things and what the differences would be be if we changed (the budgetary process).”

I give credit to Broyles for attending. Other than that, it was pretty boring.

It's like, uh, well, here's the pretty office. There's the fax machine, there's a zillion old, yellow files (guess they haven't heard of electronic systems), there's a person clicking away on the computer, there's a nice room with a view, there's a stapler and there's a telephone.

Fascinating stuff.

I took off after 10 minutes, wading through some potential jurors in the hallway, listening to them talk about an upcoming criminal trial that they probably shouldn't have been discussing.

But I digress.

I'm rambling. I know.

I also recently asked the county bean counters to run me some numbers I wanted to know how much the fee offices requested in their recent salary suits and what the current salaries are. I also wanted to know about vacancies.

I got some back. Not everything. There's six fee offices. They listed five, but one was blank. Heh. What's up with that?

Anyway, for the number nerds:

• County Clerk: Filed a $3.65 million salary suit and has $2.83 million on the books with four vacancies.
• Trustee: Filed a $2.22 million suit and has $1.93 million on the books with four vacancies.
• Criminal Court Clerk: Filed a $6.36 million salary suit and has $2.98 million on the books with 11 vacancies.
• Register of Deeds: Filed for $1.58 and has $1.11 on the books and six vacancies.

The commission is set to vote on this Monday. I think they will. This will probably be the rare occasion where officials don't form one of those silly sub-committees that never gets anything done. (Or at least makes recommendations that never get approved.) They want to fast-track this bad boy. Why give opponents a chance to rally?

Still, that's not going to stop folks from trying.

This Saturday, the county's GOP party will apparently talk about a resolution opposing the issue, according to Brian Hornback. Click here for more. He's also got some other stuff about about the fee office debate.

There's also a post over here at the site run by my favorite hippie.

Joe Sullivan has a piece here.

And I blogged the other day about it here.

If I left anyone out, it wasn't intentional.

I've got to run. There's someone in the county Deathstar ducking me. And if they don't think I won't sit outside their office all day and haunt the staff, then they're really not paying attention. Which wouldn't surprise me.