Bumpas renews Visit Knox contract

Kim Bumpas

Well, quite frankly I couldn't tell you what Visit Knoxville really does, but they're certainly more transparent than the previous incarnation (KTSC) led by Gloria Ray.

The Visit Knoxville folks shot over a spin release, letting everyone know that the board renewed a contract with Kim Bumpas, the organization's president, to run thought June 2016. She'll get $140K in folding paper a year and some "fringe benefits," according to the contract.

You can read that bad boy, right smack here.

The board appointed Bumpas about 18 months ago, after the local media exposed Ray for doing . . .  well . . . pretty much nothing and getting paid, like, $10gajillion dollars for it. According to the release, Bumpas is credited with leading the organization "through a restructuring process from the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation to Visit Knoxville."

It goes on to say that she "began focusing on reinvigorating Knoxville as a travel destination for leisure travelers and conventions."

Yeah, that's about it. No more other details, so, like I said, I don't know what they do. But at least you know what the president makes. And that's a start.

Finding Bigfoot or finding sense?

Did anyone catch that whole “Finding Bigfoot” show last night? Lord it was awful. I made it through about 20 or so minutes before I hit the clicker.

Credit, though, still goes to Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett for getting the folks here to film. As bad as the show was (or is), it had some nice highlights of the area and you really can't put enough dollar signs on free advertising.

Heck, ask the folks over at the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation (or whatever they're called now). If officials there had brought the show to East Tennessee, they'd be claiming a $10 gazillion economic impact for the area at this point. That and they'd be cashing their bonuses checks.

Heh.

In the meantime, I did get a chuckle last night. My wife walked in while the show was on. I tried to explain to her what was happening. I said the woman on the show was the skeptic, calling out the others (they're all guys) on the whole Bigfoot thing.

Her response?

“That makes sense.”

Yeah, it does.

Mayor appoints four to new KTSC

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett appointed four people today to the board of directors of Visit Knoxville, which used to be called the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp, but abruptly changed its name after the last board got caught doing absolutely nothing other than letting the former executive director run wild and get paid like a gazillion dollars and no one really cared until a former Knoxville mayor started a whisper campaign to get her run out because she made waaaaay too much money for doing whatever she did, and, well, I digress.

Anyhoo the mayor named his senior director of community outreach, Hemal Tailor, Knox County Commissioner Brad Anders, Anita Lane (Hampton Inn Downtown general manager) and Courtney Piper (Piper Communications founding principal) to the board.

Let's hope they pay attention a little bit better than the last batch. Heh.

“Like me, they are all committed to ensuring transparency in the operation of Visit Knoxville, and the efficient use of taxpayer dollars to effectively promote tourism in Knoxville and Knox County,” Burchett said in a released statement.

The city and county recently approved contracts with Visit Knoxville to serve as a “destination marketing service.” No one was surprised.

For more info about the organization, click right smack here.

KTSC duties possibly up for bid next week

The county's administration next week could officially start the bidding process for the duties currently performed by the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp. All of this, of course, was initiated after a member of the KTSC board said Mayor Tim Burchett bullied them into ending their contract early. (The mayor since then has publicly referred to the gentleman as “the big dog.” I'm not kidding.)

Anyhoo, county Purchasing Director Hugh Holt, who by default of his job with the county, has somehow found himself caught in the middle of this pending S-storm in which no one will win. In the meantime, though, he said he's talked to a number of organizations with such fancy acronyms as CVB and DMO and POS and HEH in an effort to put together a document with its own fancy acronym: RFI.

The RFI (henceforth known as a Request for Information) should be complete sometime next week. Holt said he's sought input from a number of outlets engaged in the convention, tourism and marketing something or others and he's “trying to attack it from as many points as possible.”

He also plans to get some input from KTSC – which will also bid on the proposal if necessary – later this week.

Here's the original story right smack here.

County to exert power over state?

Was going back over yesterday's County Commission work session agenda. Saw three items in a row that made me chuckle. Item No. 22-24 as follows:

• Resolution that would direct the commission chairman to send a letter to Big Bill in the Gov's Office and the county's Legislative delegation requesting that they direct the TBI to release the entire (former) Judge Richard “The Creeper” Baumgartner files.
• Resolution requesting that the commission chairman send a letter to the county's Legislative delegation requesting that the members support legislation making the sale of synthetic weed and designer stimulants a felony per some state code.
• Resolution requesting and “encouraging appropriate officials” at TVA to reconsider its existing policies regarding the clear cutting removal of trees, vegetation, whatever.

I mention these because every now and then a controversial issue crosses the paths of county, state, federal, space martians, whatever officials and no side wants to take the reins. It's always: “Oh, they shouldn't play in our sandbox” or “I don't think we should get involved in county business.” Or whatever.

(More recently, for example, the state comptroller's office chickened out when county Mayor Tim Burchett asked it to audit the KTSC. Didn't want to interfere, the chickens said.)

Anyhoo, what I'm getting at here, is that we got three resolutions that can be broken down as follows:

• The county wants to tell the governor about what he should do with da Creeper.
• The county wants to tell the state legislature about what to do with drugs.
• The county wants to tell the TVA about what to do with trees.

The commission ended up withdrawing the Creeper proposal (I'm talking about the judge, not the weed). But, it approved to its full voting board/meeting/whatever the drugs and trees resolutions. They'll talk further about the issues next Monday.

In the meantime, I'm thinking that now is a good chance for the county to weigh in on Afghanistan.

Heh.

Did the ETDD take a shot at the KTSC?

Awhile back, I asked the East Tennessee District to put me on its mailing list. You never know what the executive committee, which is comprised of county mayors throughout the area, might talk about at a meeting. (Before you ask, county Mayor Tim Burchett who is a member, typically avoids these things. Heh.)

Anyhoo, I was just reading through the minutes of the committee's February meeting. Here's the end part:

In other business, Executive Director Terry Bobrowski tells the committee that he'll probably be taking a few trips this year. (Big surprise.) He said the total travel and conference registrations “should be in the neighborhood of $6,500 for this calendar year.”

He noted that no action was necessary, but rather he wanted to “inform you of my travel plans.”

By the way, it looks like he has plans to head to Washington, D.C. four times, but I'm not positive.

He added:

"I am sure everyone has been reading about some of the problems that a prominent Knoxville non-profit organization has been having. I just wanted the committee to know that the salaries of all ETDD personnel are open to public scrutiny – if you would like to know our salaries, please give me a call or email me and I will be happy to provide them to you. Also, our audits are available to you at any time as are our bank records. We are completely transparent in terms of our financial records and I will always be happy to provide you with information that you might be interested in."

Then, in a touch of irony, he promptly introduced former county administration Chief of Staff Mike Arms.

MP's 'mean one' says KTSC is full of it

Cari “Mean” Gervin over at da Pulse is calling out the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp., saying it took credit for events that the non-profit had nothing to do with, like the Big Ears Festival and the Furrow Auction Company’s Great Smokey Auction, among others.

Now why doesn't that surprise me? 'Course, you can probably find bogus claims made my these types of groups throughout the state. Not that they're bogus, you know. Heh.

Anyhoo, the mean one writes:

There is no question that KTSC has brought events to town, and there is no question that those events have had an economic impact. However, there are questions over whether all the events that KTSC claims as examples of its success at driving economic impact are ones that it actually had anything to do with. Despite just picking a sampling of events at random from KTSC’s list, we found a number of organizers who say they had no assistance at all from KTSC.

Click right smack here for the story.

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.

KTSC hires spin team, board chair quits

OK, so let me get this straight. The Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation has hired Moxley Carmichael, a PR firm. In other words, tax payer money is now paying a company whose business is public relations to hire a public relations business????

This makes as much sense as the News Sentinel, which puts out an advertisement every day, paying a PR firm. Oh wait, crap, we already do that.

Anyhoo, Cynthia Moxley sent the media a note, letting us know that KTSC board chairman David Duncan resigned (more on that in a moment). She said: Your next question will be, "Where are the documents?"

No, actually (and I emailed this to her), my next question was: How much are they paying you?

Seriously.

OK, with that said, here's some excerpts from the KTSC spin release:

David Duncan has resigned as chair of the board of KTSC. “I have been very concerned over the past few weeks about how we can be responsive to the concerns that have been raised and to restore the reputation of KTSC as an organization and confidence in its leadership,” Duncan said in a letter of resignation. “I believe that KTSC would be better served by different leadership of the board.”

Susan Brown, the vice chair of the board, is now the interim chair, in accordance with the organization’s by-laws.

“The KTSC has received dozens of requests for information and documents regarding this issue over the past few weeks and we have been trying to respond to those requests with sensitivity to both the legalities and certain privacy issues,” Brown said. “Upon the advice of legal counsel, we have determined that all the documents are, in fact, public records. Rather than release the documents in a piecemeal fashion, we have decided it is more efficient to release them all at one time to anyone who has asked for them.”

The board also plans to meet Friday to discuss “this and related matters.

Stacey defends comments on Huffington

Ah, nothing like a good ol' dose a Stacey Campfield. I know a lot of people – even some of my peers in the media – don't like the guy. I, however, do. He makes me laugh.

Anyhoo, the good state senator gave an interview to the Huffington Post about bullies, AIDS, and gay people, and whatever. (Click right smack here for the link.)

Here's just one classic Campfield:

"Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community -- it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. It was an airline pilot, if I recall."

"My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex...very rarely [transmitted]."

Now, he's busy responding on the message board, defending his facts.

And he should. Anyone who know anything about AIDS will tell ya, Stacey, that it wasn't a pilot who spread the disease, it was a steward.

Crazy.

On a side note, I kind of chuckled today when I saw that a story (as of this posting) about a guy who fell asleep while guarding key ingredients to a nuclear bomb now has about six comment under it while a story about the KTSC chairman and his email has more than 50.

Priorities.