Large crowd honored former 9th Dist. Commissioner Mike Brown on Monday

Local leaders, movers and shakers and the community met Monday night to honor former Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown.

Brown, who represented South Knox County, opted not to seek re-election last year.

The event was held at Shoney's on Chapman Highway in South Knoxville.

There were a number of guest speakers and Brown will now need a trophy case to hold all the plaques and awards he received.

I'm posting a couple of photos, including some with Brown and his successor Carson Dailey, and Brown and his wife, Jan.

There's also a group photo and a picture of some of the glory Brown received.

The group photo includes commissioner and mayoral candidate Brad Anders, commissioners Carson Dailey, Randy Smith, Michele Carringer, John Schoonmaker, Commission Chairman Dave Wright, Mike Brown and Register of Deeds Sherry Witt.

Dinner to honor Commish Mike Brown

Mike Brown

Local leaders, movers and shakers and the community on Monday will hold a dinner to honor former Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown.

Brown, who represented South Knox County, opted not to seek re-election last year.

The dinner is set for 6 p.m. at Shoney's on Chapman Highway in South Knoxville.

The event is open to the public but I don't suspect that it is free. Heh.

Law to regulate door-to-door sales

Knox County Commission

The Knox County Commission on Monday approved a new law that lets the county clerk deny a door-to-door soliciting permit to someone who has an outstanding warrant issued against them or has been convicted in the past decade of a "crime of moral turpitude."

The move, which was spearheaded by Knox County Clerk Foster Arnett Jr., comes as a thrice convicted drug dealer who was also convicted of murder sought a license. Arnett declined to give him one, but the county's law department said he couldn't refuse.

Arnett then appealed to the commission to pass legislation.

"I think part of government's responsibility is to protect its citizens and I'm not giving someone with that background a license to go door to door," Arnett said. "I don't think it's right. I'm not saying anything bad about this guy, but he's been convicted of serious crimes."

Commissioner Mike Brown agreed.

"It's hard to draw a line in the middle when you're talking about crime," he said. "We have the responsibility of protecting those citizens just as much as (the sheriff and police chief) do."

Commission passed the measure in a 10-1 vote, with member Sam McKenzie dissenting.

The ordinance, which must be approved again next month on a second reading before it becomes official, also gives the clerk permission to revoke a license if it is discovered that there is an outstanding warrant against a license holder or a license holder has been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude within the past 10 years.

State law defines moral turpitude as an offense that contains "elements of fraud, theft, intent to cause great bodily harm, and sometimes lewdness, recklessness or malice."

McKenzie said he was concerned that 10 years was too long a time for some of the crimes.

"We're talking about perjury being equated with murder and that's not the same," he added.
The door-to-door permit costs $55 per month.

'State of South Knoxville' meet set

Forget the "State of the State" address. Who cares about the "State of the Schools." They got nothing on . . . duh, duh, duh . . .

The. State. Of. South. Knoxville.

Heh.

Area representatives from the County Commission (Mike Brown), City Council (Nick Pavlis) and School Board (Amber Rountree) will host a community forum from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Feb. 26 at 115 Flenniken Avenue. Danny Gray, of the South Woodlawn neighborhood, will serve as moderator.

“This is the first time that we have brought city, county, and schools together for a forum to have community questions and input from our district, and I hope many of our constituents take the time to come out for a chat," Brown said in a released statement. "It is near budget time for all three entities, so come on out and tell us what you think. You have three elected leaders who work well together and hopefully we all work together to make 'South' grow in the right direction.”

Said Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis: “I am really excited to continue to bring government to the people. This is an awesome opportunity for our constituents to hear our vision for the district and to ask us questions about what matters to them most.”

Rountree added: “South Knox is all about community. In order for our community to flourish, we must all work together on the same team. I'm thrilled to be a part of the 'State of South Knox' meeting with Vice Mayor Pavlis and Commissioner Brown, as we take this opportunity to hear from the community about how we can join together to make South Knox even better.”

Probably be a long time before school board, commission ever get along

Apparently, it’s OK for school officials to crap all over county leaders and call them out in public meetings, but not for county leaders to ask the superintendent questions.

According to Commissioner Sam McKenzie, members of the joint education committee (of commissioners and board of education members) met last week and a “majority” of the conversation focused on “how we talk to each other.”

McKenzie told fellow commissioners last night that committee members (including some commissioners) felt the tone of a recent public meeting with Superintendent Jim McIntyre turned “nasty.”

(That particular meeting by the way occurred on April 21. At the time, McIntyre talked finances with the commission and mostly dodged questions. I blogged about it right smack here.)

McKenzie said the committee agreed that there should be a level of “tone and civility” toward “our elected or appointed leaders” and that last week “we may have missed the mark.”

McKenzie said the commissioners who serve on the committee agreed “probably to varying points,” but told the BOE members that “we can’t legislate tone.”

Anyhoo, it’s obvious that the discussion was focused around commissioners Mike Brown and Tony Norman who took McIntyre to task, and said that he and the school system really didn’t care much for teachers (in so many words).

Brown on Monday said he wasn’t apologizing, and that – in fact – he’s still waiting for answers, which, he added, was typical.

He then took a shot at the school system’s administration, saying “they have some marvelous spin doctors over there,” and that he doesn’t believe any of the numbers that the system provides to the commission or the public.

Norman, for his part, said he was actually disappointed in the “general demeanor of the (school) board – some individuals in particular almost had their backs to the people who were speaking.”

He was referring to a number of public meetings that took place last year in which students, teachers and parents – wearing red shirts – attended the school board meetings to show support for teachers.

Norman said a number of Board of Education members were “obviously dismissive in their posture and in the way they treated the teachers.”

Folks, this isn’t going to end any time soon.

Now granted this is fun stuff to watch, but probably detrimental in the end if neither side can get along and work together.

And let’s face it: Neither side will.

Sure, they formed some lame joint education committee, but it’s comprised of members who agree with each other. Duh! Put members who don’t agree on it.

Further, there’s all this talk – every freaking year – about how both sides are going to meet super early in the year and talk about budgets, so that there won’t be any surprises.

Yeah, sure.

Remind me again when that happened?

It didn’t.

And it won’t next year, either.

Superintendent talks school budget and Commission goes on the attack

Jim McIntyre

Knox County Schools Superintendent Jim “Slim” McIntyre met with the commission (sitting as the finance committee) on Monday to talk about the budget.

Not a whole lot of new info. Or any. But there was some good back-and-forth by Commissioner Mike Brown that we can get to in a minute.

First off, though, Mac said the school board approved a $432.3 million spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. That’s up $12.5 million over the current one (or about 3 percent).

He said it was “tightly aligned to educational priorities,” and was a “no frills” plan within no new instructional initiatives.

He said the budget emphasizes three priorities:

• It will sustain the “educational improvement efforts we’ve put in place,” such as Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett’s early reading program (which the county actually covers).
• It will cover opening new Magnet Career Academy at Pellissippi State
• It will “enhance teacher salaries” by 2.5 percent (which isn’t necessarily true because he didn’t propose a budget that actually had the funding to pay for salary increases).

Mac noted that funding the raises would cost about $6.2 million and it will require the community “to stretch a little bit.” (The school system didn't budget for $4.5 million of it.)

He said officials needed to “reallocate resources to make the budget work,” and that some central office positions would be cut through attrition. He didn’t expect any layoffs.

Mac said they were working to preserve teacher and teacher aide positions.

It’s an “educationally focused and student centered” budget,” he added.

When asked whether teachers would get a raise if the commission couldn’t find the money to pay for it, Mac said the budget does include a step increase that amounts to “a 4 to 5 to $600” range based on the step.

Mike Brown

Overall, the commission seemed fairly unimpressed, especially board member Mike Brown.

He said that Mac has placed teacher priorities “at the bottom of the list.”

“If a general on a battlefield doesn’t feed his troops, he’s liable to get shot in the back,” Brown said.

He reminded Mac that he just asked the community to “stretch it,” but wondered “why doesn’t the school board stretch it?”

Brown noted that all county departments have been asked to trim spending but “it’s always with the school board: ‘Give me more, give me more, give me more.’”

He also took issue with the Parthenon Group’s so-called “smart study” plan, which cost taxpayers at least $180,000. He said UT probably could have conducted it for $800.

He said the money paid to the Parthenon Group could have “gone a long way to fund teacher raises.”

Brown also asked Mac whether the school system would cover raises if commission wouldn’t appropriate the funds, but the superintendent wouldn’t give a straight answer.

Instead, Mac said he wanted the commission to first look at his proposed budget.

Said Brown: “Wish in one hand and pour sand in the other (and see which one fills up first).”

Commissioner Tony Norman also suggested that more than teachers would get raises.

He also said that Mac claimed that “there were no new initiatives.”

But, he said the superintendent wasn’t “responding to the teacher concerns” that were raised in recent months during long and, often testy, school board meetings. One example, he cited, was the teacher coaches.

Mac said “I think we have in a variety of different ways listened to our educators,” and noted that there is now a committee comprised of officials and teachers “that’s been very productive.”

The two then got into it, but at this point, I’m bored typing.

Brown, Norman meet, talk schools

Brown, left, and Norman met this morning

Knox County commissioners Mike Brown and Tony Norman met this morning to talk about last weekend’s commish-school board retreat. (Brown, who had surgery a few days before missed much of the get-together.)

I’d like to tell ya that a whole lot got accomplished but it was mostly a complaint-fest. (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but there really wasn’t anything new.)

The two talked for roughly 30 minutes about school issues. Brown reiterated that he more than likely won’t support the school system’s budget for the upcoming year and expressed his dismay about Superintendent Jim McIntyre and the Board of Education, suggestion that they really don't care about teacher complaints.

Norman, who also is not a big fan of McIntyre or the BOE, agreed.

Here’s a snippet:

Brown: “I’m not impressed with the instructional coaches.” (He then suggested that they mostly just hang out and use the teachers’ computers to surf the Internet.)

Norman: “There are a lot of questions about instructional coaches . . . and a lot of questions about the use of them . . . and I’m sure there are some that have been beneficial and I’m sure there are some that are helpful.”

However, Norman, a retired long-time teacher, added: “But from my experience it’s an enormous waste of resources.”

Brown: “It sounds like they’re dumbing down teachers.”

Norman: “In a lot of ways, that’s true. You get a third-year teacher evaluating a 20-year teacher . . . or someone evaluating someone outside their discipline.”

Brown: “Why can’t we let the teachers just teach.”

Norman: “Heh. Heh. Heh.” (Evil-like laugh.)

Brown also said he’s “on a campaign right now to get the public’s eyes open to see what’s going on.”

In addition to them, commissioners Amy Broyles and Jeff Ownby also were at the meeting, as was school board member Karen Carson. (Carson and Ownby didn’t say much. Broyles chimed in a few times to talk about what happened at the retreat.)

Smith set to run for school board

Miss me? Bet you did. I’m on vacation, but couldn’t help chiming in on this one. Heh.

In its never-ending effort to remind everyone that term-limited county Commissioner R. Larry Smith will run for school board, the Sentinel again today published another article. Reminding folks just that.

Anyhoo, it really comes as no surprise. Smith for more than a year has told people that he’s mulled running against Sherry Witt for the Register of Deeds post and against Congressman Jimmy Duncan Jr for his seat. When it finally got through to him that he had less than a snowball’s chance, he opted to take his chances on the school board.

(Incumbent Kim Severance has said that she will not seek re-election.)

So far, two other potential candidates have picked up nominating petitions. Both are male, so that could potentially bode well for R. Larry, who doesn’t seem to think that women’s issues are all that important. Heh. Ha ha.

What’s going to cause some potential problems, however,  is that – as the article points out (sorry, I'm not linking to pay walls) – Commissioner Flip Flop said he would vote against extending Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s contract. Well, BS.

Smith voted to approve it during a commission meeting earlier this month. Now, it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway, but – as I noted here – he could have symbolically opposed it, like Commissioner Mike Brown.

Instead, he voted to add it to the commission consent agenda, and then he approved the agenda.

So, technically R. Larry voted to extend the contract twice, rather than once, like the school board.

As someone pointed out on the KNS message board, maybe R. Larry should go back to school rather than serve on the school board.

Heh.

To check out who picked up and turned in nominating petitions, click right smack here.

Superintendent contract before commish for perfunctory vote

County Commission meets on Monday. They’ll consider a resolution to approve the contract between the Knox County Board of Education and Superintendent Jim McIntyre.

My guess is it’s a pretty quick rubber stamp. The commission, while it controls the county’s financial purse strings, can’t tell the BOE how to spend its money once allocated. And at some point, the county has to allocate money to pay the superintendent’s salary, whoever he or she is.

(It’s also not worth the headache to a number of commissioners to keep battling the BOE over management anyway.)

However, there could be a few holdouts as Commissioner Tony Norman or Mike Brown might now approve it. More curious, though, will be what Vice Chairman R. Larry Smith does. Rumors once again making the rounds are that he’s again thinking about running for a school board seat (good luck with that one), but the only way to separate himself from an incumbent would be to take an anti-McIntyre stance.

We’ll see. Expect officials to initially place it on the consent agenda, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s taken off for an outright vote.

Quick look at Monday's work session

The Knox County Commission on Monday agreed during its work session to hire an internal auditor.

Officials expect to post the job in the coming weeks.

In other commission news:

The board unanimously recommended Commissioner Mike Brown and Knox County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Carl King to serve as non-voting liaisons to the Knox County Ethics Committee.

In an 8-3 vote approved a resolution expressing support of a national flat fee tax on Internet sales.  The proposal originated from the discussion of the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, which gives states the authorities to streamline sales tax laws and collect taxes directly from online retailers. If approved during next Monday’s meeting, the Knox County Clerk’s office will send a copy of the resolution to U.S. Congressman Jimmy Duncan Jr. Commission Vice Chairman R. Larry Smith and commissioners Amy Broyles and Dave Wright dissented.

Unanimously recommended to transfer just over 391 acres in the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge to the state to use as a state park. More details will be announced on Friday during the Legacy Parks luncheon.

Click right smack here for the entire story.

More on Seven Islands land transfer

The Knox County Commission later this month is expected to approve a resolution to transfer almost 391 acres in the Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge to the state to use as state park. 

The ol Porch initially reported about this right smack here, but we’ve got a little more info.

The land is located in the 8^th and 9^th districts, which are east and south – find some fancy maps right smack here – and the plan will be to build some cabins and a bridge over to the island.

“I think it’s another fantastic feather in South Knoxville’s cap and I think it will bring a lot of folks out to the area,” said Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown, whose area includes South Knox County. “It’s a beautiful area with lots of birds and wildlife. We also should be able to get a lot of traffic off that and traffic means business.”

Commissioner Dave Wright, who represents East Knox County agreed, calling it “a big deal.”

“This is going to be a jewel,” he said. “It looks like the state and county are going to move on with plans that were just dreams a few years back.”

Not all happy with audit committee

A month after the Knox County Audit Committee recommended firing the county's longer-time internal auditor, one member resigned and another local leader publicly berated the panel's chairman.

Mary Kiser, in an often emotional speech during Tuesday's meeting, told the committee that she felt it unfairly suggested to the Knox County Commission the need to terminate Richard Walls.

Shortly after her announcement, Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown, who attended the meeting, accosted its chairman, Joe Carcello.

"I know crap when I see it and you're throwing some here, fella," said Brown, adding that he was "tired" of Carcello's "smug and smiling attitude."

The resignation and the heated discussion came a month after the committee in a 4-1 vote agreed to ask the County Commission to fire internal auditor Richard Walls. Committee members, led by Carcello, said Walls did not do anything illegal or inappropriate, but, rather, it was what he didn't do while performing his duties that made them want to replace him.

Officials called his work "limited" and said he only conducted three audits last year, a low amount for the money spent on the responsibilities. Committee members also said he should better focus on areas where the "county has the greatest risk," including the Trustee's Office, which has a recent history of wrongdoing.

The panel, which makes recommendations to the County Commission, is comprised of Carcello, a University of Tennessee accounting professor; Kiser, a manager for internal audit services at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and county commissioners Ed Shouse, Dave Wright and Amy Broyles.

Kiser, who's served on the committee since its inception five years ago, cast the dissenting vote to get rid of Walls. The County Commission, which oversees the county's internal audit department, will talk more about the recommendation during its Aug. 19 work session.

During Tuesday's meeting, Kiser said she was stepping down, but not before defending Walls and suggesting that the Audit Committee could have done more to guide his work.

She said the "overall" audits that he's conducted during the past half decade "have been satisfactory and some even more than satisfactory."

"I believe Richard, as a long-time county employee, has been treated unfairly," said Kiser, who represents the East Tennessee Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors on the committee. "He has uncovered fraud and identified controls that needed to be strengthened."

Click right smack here for the rest of the bad a$$ story.

Audit Committee member steps down, commissioner rages, fireworks fly

Talk about an insane Knox County Audit Committee meeting this morning. The fireworks were a flyin'!

Committee member Mary Kiser resigned and Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown, who is not on the panel, let the committee Chairman Joe Carcello have it. (All this, by the way, is in response to the committee suggesting to the County Commission that the board fire county internal auditor Richard Walls.)

I posted a very short story earlier today and will have the full length, full brawl up later today. Good stuff. Heh.

In the meantime, the Knox County Commission will take up the matter during its work session on Monday and - if no deal gets worked out - will vote on whether to keep Walls.

In the meantime, here's an excerpt (that will no doubt be tweaked, edited and refined) from tonight's report:

Brown, a county commissioner who has long supported Walls, disagreed, pointed at Carcello and said: “We’ve got a failure to communicate and the biggest part of it is sitting right there in that chair. Why did you wait five years to wait do something about it? You have an axe to grind and I don’t like your attitude and I won’t stop until you’re out of that chair, fella.”

At one point, Carcello told Brown he was “acting inappropriately,” but continued to let him talk. The two bantered back and forth somewhat for a number of minutes, before panel member and Commissioner Dave Wright cut them off, saying: “Please we’ve got daylight to burn.”

Brown then warned Carcello: "You will hear some more next week (during the commission work session). This is just a preview.”

Carcello, responding sharply to Brown, yet addressing the committee, said: “Mike is free to say whatever he wants to say next week and we’ll have evidence with us that will refute anything you say. So think long and hard before you do.”

Fueling the fire for Trustee 'fix'

So at some point during yesterday's Knox County Commission meeting, a number of board members were leaning toward postponing the vote to select a trustee. One key argument was that Commissioner Mike Brown wasn't there.

Members suggested waiting anywhere between 14 days and next month's voting session. Eventually, they opted to vote instead.

This is actually a head scratcher and is only going to (cliche alert) fuel the fire that "the fix was in." (And no, I don't believe there was a fix, but whatever.)

So, think about it.

During last week's work session, the board agreed to hold off the vote on whether to fire county internal auditor Richard Walls. The reason? Brown wouldn't be there to vote.

You see, word going around is that there are enough commissioners (you need six) to vote out Walls. Yet, Brown is a Walls' supporter. So, that was the excuse: Give Brown a chance to weigh in. But, what difference does it make if the other side has its six votes? None.

However, yesterday's trustee vote - which is certainly a  more important matter - was a heck of a lot closer. It went four round until commission Chairman Tony Norman said the "heck with it" and broke the 5-5 tie, switching over vote for Craig Leuthold.

Too bad we'll never know what would have happened had Brown been there. It certainly would have made sense to wait for his return. I guess.

I mean, the board was going to wait for him on the Walls vote, which a lot of folks say is a done deal. (I hope not - Walls is a good guy.)

Like I said: What's the hurry? The board postpones practically everything else. Heh.

Anyhoo, in the meantime, congrats goes out to Leuthold.

For all the trash talk going around, I'm sure he'll do a good job, and his appointment will certainly make for a spirited race if Commissioner Ed Shouse does decide to run against him in next May's Republican primary.

Smith polls Trustee Dept on new boss

On Thursday, Knox County Commissioner Vice Chairman R. Larry Smith met with workers in the Trustee's Office and asked who they wanted to lead them.

He said he asked workers there to write down three candidate names. He also asked them to write down the person they would not want in the job.

"They were tickled to death - they were glad someone wanted their opinion," he told me, adding that he is still visiting the department's satellite offices and should finish the poll by Monday when the commission makes its pick.

Smith said that so far he hasn't peeked at the names, but he will by Monday.

(Here's the Rogue's take on the matter, right smack here.)

OK, couple things about this selection process:

Whoever is picked is going to need six votes. I'm assuming Ed Shouse will recuse himself since he's looking for the gig. Also Mike Brown will not be at the meeting. (By the way, the Mike Brown that applied for the job is not the same person as the commissioner.)

There's a good chance the board comes to an impasse, and has to redo the whole thing in August. (Right now the frontrunners are Shouse, Craig Leuthold and Bill Curtis.)

Another thing. Someone sent the local media and the commissioners a note, talking crap about Curtis, the office's former manager and a candidate for the position.

It's BS. I looked into it. That, however, doesn't stop someone from disparaging another candidate a few days before the "election." I'm not going to bother posting the letter here.

A few weigh in on term limit plan

Heard back from a couple of folks regarding today's story about Knox County Commission Mike Brown's call for school board term limits.

Board of Ed member Pam Trainor, who also represents the county's southern district with Brown, said a resident asked about her thoughts.

She said:

“I really don't see a problem with term limits for any elected body, personally. However, I do find it odd that "my" commissioner hasn't seen a school board member in his district for more than a normal "term limited term" in probably twenty or more years...since the days of Mildred Doyle.

Pam Trainor

It is also of note....that we are not now, nor have we ever been, a subset of County Commission, as my commissioner would like to believe. We exist by State Constitution .... not County Charter. Meaning that, it would take a change to the state constitution in order to enact term limits for us. That might ruffle a few state legislator feathers, because it could directly effect them, as well. It is also somewhat strange that he raises this issue post session. And his math is extremely fuzzy.... He says "we have twice as much responsibility to the people of Knox county, because we are in charge of twice as much money, as the commission is. That doesn't add up.

Knox County Schools is approx 60 percent of the county's budget. Not to mention....we have NO budget unless approved by commission, nor does the mayor. So the the way I see it they are in COMPLETE control of the county's monies.

And as a taxpayer myself....and a South Knoxville citizen, that is watching in real time, it's main corridor of Chapman Hwy die an exhausting death, I would hope that my commissioner could find more productive ways to occupy his time."

Phil Guthe

Next up, I got a note from former county Commissioner Phil Guthe. (Always good to hear from him by the way.)

Phil asked whether the commissioners were serious.

Then added: “The issue was decided January 12, 2007. Tell these folks to read my book. I'll gift a signed copy if they'll contact me. They are wasting time and resources even threatening to talk about term limits in public.”

Sweet. As always, you can find Phil's book “Term Limits” right smack here. I also wrote a story about it, right here.

School robocall causes minor flap

So, here's the deal: The principal at Bonny Kate Elementary School sent out a robocall to parents whose children attend the school, asking them to call Knox County Commissioner Mike Brown if they want the school to be able to pay for the School Technology Challenge thing-a-ma-jig or whatever. (Brown's southern district includes the school.)

In the call (right smack here), she noted that her school was chosen to participate in the deal and said the funding is built into the proposed school budget for next year, which the board of education and the county commission must approve. (The BOE already did.)

She “strongly encouraged” parents to contact Brown “if this is an opportunity that you would like your children to be a part of,” according to the message. She also provided the commissioner's county email address and a phone number to reach him.

Well, some folks aren't happy, and one person even sent an email to county officials, school officials, all officials.

You can find it right smack here. Essentially the writer is somewhat apologetic but suggests that the phone system was used for political purposes and questions whether anyone would be allowed to use it. The writer talk about hypothetical cuts that could be made in the upcoming budget.

Then the writer starts yapping about Obamacare, and, well, quite frankly, well. Unoriginal.

Anyhoo, I talked to a couple of commissioners, and they weren't pleased, but they weren't going to make an FBI case out of it, either.

More importantly, though, Mike Brown didn't seem to mind. He joked that no one called him, other than the robocall.

Brown, who attended the school man, many centuries ago, said he has a good relationship with the principal, and wasn't concerned.

KNS reporter Lydai X. McCoy talked to School Board member Pam Trainor, whose district also includes Bonny Kate, and Trainor said that she didn't have a problem with the call, adding that she felt it was a “civic lesson” about the budget process and one of many ways a principal can reach out to parents. (Man, that was a long sentence.)

“This is not a political thing. She was just trying to help,” Trainor said. “Our go-to would be Mike Brown. He's one of the 11(commissioners) who will make the decision.”

Trainor said the principal was excited that her school was one of 11 that had been chosen to participate in a technology initiative that would put instructional technology at her school.

“This is an opportunity that a lot of Knoxville never gets. Three of my schools are in this mix and it's a huge boost to the South Knoxville schools,” she said.

Burchett to again help South Knox

Being all cryptic, like Bigfoot or something, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett's spin team of only Michael "Big Sexy" Grider just sent out a release, saying that the mayor will make a "South Knox announcement" at 5 p.m. today (presumably so he can be on TV) at Emery's 5 & 10 on Chapman Highway.

Commissioner Mike Brown and a number of local business owners will be there for the "exciting announcement about an upcoming event."

My guess is that they're going to hold a larger than usual cash mob throughout the South Knoxville area sometime soon.

No word on whether the city's administration will attend. They got all cagey when former Mayor Victor Ashe asked them about throwing some support toward South Knoxville for his weekly column in the Shopper-News.

Commish to address South businesses

Commissioner Mike Brown

Earlier today I noted that Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett was the only local leader so far to (at least appear) to take an initiative to help bring tax relief to some South Knoxville businesses.

Now, county Commissioner Mike Brown, whose district is in the south part of the county, has jumped on board.

During today's commission work session, Brown said he's talked to a number of merchants who borrowed just enough money to make it through the end of this June, which is when the Henley Street Bridge was supposed to reopen. He said they now need to take out another loan because of further delays, which wree just recently announced.

Brown said that state lawmakers have set precedent in the past by helping Nashville businesses during that major flood some time back. He also mentioned some other place but I don't recall it now.

He then asked the county's law department to draft a resolution that mirrors the mayor's request – right smack here for that bad boy – that he'd like the commission to address during next Monday's voting session.

Then, he yelled: “Shop South!”

Heh.

Tony Norman: They're drinking what??!!

Sometimes the county commission meetings crack me up. Like yesterday's meeting. Or all of them actually.

Yeah, I'm rambling. OK, during yesterday's work session – as commissioners were reading through the consent agenda (those are the issues they rubber stamp) – Commissioner Tony Norman, also a teacher, asked about a school item.

Apparently, the school board is set to approve an annual contract for $750,000 “with Coca-Cola Refreshments for water, flavored water and low calorie isotonic beverages.”

Huh? What the $&!! is a “low calorie isotonic beverage? And no, I'm not going to Google it. It was a rhetorical question. But I still don't know the answer.

Anyhoo, Norman asked why the board wants to spend money on flavored water and “not just water.”

I don't think he knows what a low calorie isotonic beverage is, either. Heh.

But, Lord Jim McIntyre, superintendent of the Knox County school system, was on hand. And he knows the answer. I think.

McIntyre explained that the contract is part of the Schools School Nutrition program (whatever that is) and it includes soda, water and sports drinks. He said the program is funded by a variety of things that I didn't bother to write down because the guy talks super fast.

(He said something about Powerade, which is a Coke product, so I guess students drink that. But, I digress.)

What's key here, is that whole thing is self-financing so it's not a major cost to the county or the school system.

And, heck, it's all about variety. (kind of like my liquor cabinet.)

Norman, however, wasn't so sure.

“It sounds like water to me and we probably have some of the best tap water in the United States,” he said. “And regardless of how it's funded, it's still money.”

Commissioner Mike Brown, at that point, chimed in: “I just want to go on record as saying I favor RC Cola.

(Heck yeah!)

Commissioner Amy Broyles also chimed in. I can't remember what exactly she said, but it sounded like she hates strawberry and chocolate flavored milk as much as Norman doesn't like Powerade. Or she doesn't want the students to have them. Or something.

Referring to water, she said she'd rather see the students “turn on the tap.”

The whole mess was eventually recommended for approval.

I know feel a little dumber telling you all about the commission's drinking preference. Or how what they think others should drink.

Or whatever.