Former state Rep. Tindell to run for Knoxville City Council seat in 2017

Harry Tindell

Former Knox County School Board member and long-time state Rep. Harry Tindell announced on Monday his intention to seek the 4^th District seat on the Knoxville City Council.

“I have lived most of my life on one side of Broadway or the other,” said the former 11-term Democrat, who opted not to seek re-election to the state House. “I have been honored to serve parts of central, north and east Knoxville in the past, and I will bring the experience and knowledge I have gained to the city council if elected.”

Nick Della Volpe, who currently represents the 4^th District, is term-limited. The seat is non-partisan.
Tindell, 56, is a life-long Knoxville resident and served on the Knox County School Board in 1986 to 1990 before heading over to the Tennessee General Assembly for 22 years.

The election in November will bring five new faces to the city council, and in 2019 the remaining four council seats and the Mayor will be replaced due to term limits.

“In recent years, we have made tremendous progress in the quality of life and the economic vitality of our community. It will be important to have new city council members with varied experience in this period of change,” said Tindell.

He added: “I look forward to making my case to the voters that I can bring the vision, knowledge and passion to the office that will build on our success and to continue moving Knoxville forward, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen our neighborhoods and communities.”

Tindell has spent time in the private sector as an employee benefits insurance broker and a state government relations consultant.

The non-partisan primary is set for late August.

Knoxville Council member seeks more information on proposed Regal move

Well, at least ONE elected official has publicly asked questions about the proposed Regal move that up until a heavily controlled press conference that included ousting protesters has been about as transparent as mud.

Here ya go:

At Tuesday's city council meeting, City Councilman Nick Della Volpe asked for more details about Regal Entertainment Group's move to Knoxville's south waterfront.

His comments came toward the start of the meeting, when council members may present reports. Discussion of the city's proposed deal with Regal was not on the agenda.
Della Volpe, who represents the 4th District, spoke up about 10 minutes into the meeting, saying he has been receiving comments from the public.

"You know, there's two sides to the coin," he said. "One is, of course, it's great to have a good business like Regal in our downtown and the workers here using the facilities and the restaurants and the businesses that are here and helping to support that and the waterfront."

"The other," he continued, "is sort of the economic wisdom of putting out $9 million to make that happen on the city's part. We are obviously the biggest player in that."

Gov. Bill Haslam and state leaders announced on Friday afternoon plans for the relocation of the site of Regal Entertainment Group's headquarters to the South Knoxville waterfront. The company's headquarters are currently located 10 miles away from that, in the Halls community.

Haslam said Regal has the intentions of adding approximately 70 new jobs with its relocation.
Local and state government are set to give a combined $12 million as part of the move. That includes $1.5 million from the state, $1.5 million from Knox County, and $9 million from the city of Knoxville. Regal will pay an estimated $4-5 million in renovations.

Rest of story RIGHT HERE.

Low voter turn out and the write-in

Unbeknownst to some folks (even now), there is a certified write-in candidate in the Knoxville elections. His name is Carl Lansden and technically he faces off against 4^th District incumbent Nick Della Volpe and Rick Staples.

You can read a kick a$$ story by WBIR’s Jim Matheny (it came out last week), right smack here.

In fact, next Monday’s election commission meeting will focus on the dude as officials certify all the fancy ways a voter can erroneously misspell the guy’s name. (This way if it gets misspelled it still counts.)

And, hey, maybe the guy could win. Say he gets 300 or 400 of his buds to show up in this super-low voter turnout election and he comes in second place (which means he automatically goes to the general election). 

Stranger things have happened in Knox County/Knoxville politics.

In the meantime, 187 people so far have cast votes through the first four days or early voting.

No word on how many of those are for Lansden.

As always, the ol’ Porch doesn’t care who wins. But the folks who sit on it would chuckle if it was Lansden.

Whoever he is.

Heh.

Early voting starts for Council races

Early voting kicks off today for two Knoxville City Council seats, and the county yawns. (Technically, five are up for re-election, but only two - have challengers.)

Nick Della Volpe (4th District) faces Rick Staples and Daniel Brown (6th District) faces Pete Drew.

The two top vote-getters move on to the Nov. 5 general election. The races are nonpartisan and early voting runs through Sept. 19. The primary is on Sept. 24.

You can get the times and schedules, right smack here, (and a copy of the ballot, right smack here), although I'm not sure why anyone will show up as all of the candidates are going to advance anyway.

UPDATE: Elections stud Cliff Rodgers reached out to Knoxviews this morning, letting the site know that since there is an official write-in candidate, there is reason for an election. Cause, you know, a write-in candidate actually has a snowball's chance.

7 local leaders compete to kiss pig

Oh man, this is brilliant. To raise money for the American Diabetes Association, seven local elected officials have agreed to participate in the "Kiss-a-Pig" online fundraiser.

Names? Of course.

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, state Sen. Stacey Campfield, Knox County Commissioner Richard Briggs, commission Chairman Tony Norman, Knoxville Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis, Knoxville Councilman Nick Della Volpe and state Rep. Joe Armstrong.

According to a release issued by Moxley Carmichael (hey, they're doing it for free, so they get the plug), whichever participant raises the most money gets to kiss the pig. Yeah, somehow winning doesn't sound like such a great idea. Heh.

The contest is apparently, the first ever citywide event like this and is hosted by the KCDC Wellness Warriors, which will benefit the ADA's "Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes" event on Oct. 20.

So, head on over to - click right smack here - and vote online through July 28. (One dollar donations equals one vote.)

Then, come to the reception from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on July 29 to see the winning candidate pucker up and kiss the pig.

For more information and to read the entire release, click right smack here.

Local leaders turn out for bocce ball

County Mayor Burchett

As noted, Knox County Mayor Tim “one day I'm gonna catch you, Bigfoot” Burchett and a number of other elected officials participated in an in inaugural game of bocce ball (whatever that is) this morning at Strickland Park off Asheville Highway.

It's apparently the first public bocce ball (whatever that is) court in Knox County, and is officially opening just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend.

The event also included CEMEX representatives who adopted the park and members of the community.

Michael “Big Sexy” Grider's assistant, Jennifer “Lightning” Linginfelter, took some pics and sent them my way, so I figured I'd share.

Knoxville Councilman and former Mayor Dan Brown

Knox County Commissioner Ed Shouse

Knoxville Councilman Nick Della Volpe

Former county Commissioner Tank Strickland

Burchett to play bocce with Nick

Add bocce to the long line of Tim Burchett weirdness. Heh.

The good county mayor, along with Knoxville Councilman Nick Della Volpe, will participate in the inaugural game of bocce ball at the county's first framed, public bocce ball court. Whatever all that is.

I had to Wikipedia the thing. Right smack here.

The game takes place at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Strickland Park (4618 Asheville Highway), according to the latest county spin release.

'Modest Proposal' for hillside debate

The county commission and city council are supposed to hold the final meeting tonight to talk about the nefarious Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan. But let's not kid ourselves - they'll probably hold at least one more.

Workshop topics include costs, commercial development and overlay issues.

Additionally, Councilman Nick Della Volpe this morning sent officials his "modest proposal."

You can click right smack here for it.

It's not on the agenda and I'm not going to rehash it. The whole topic is about as interesting as watching paint dry. (Yeah, yeah, I know, it's important stuff. Whatever.)

But, you should check it out if you are interested. Nick spends much of his focus on the steeper slopes, saying it's too hard to regulate the 65 percent of the less steep stuff, so we should focus on the other 35 percent.

I just hope they make a decision soon.