BOE member's pal destroys newspapers, then brags about it in public email

Well, this is certainly an interesting development. Well, not really. It's election time and silly season is in full gear.

Cari "Mean" Gervin on some campaign shenanigans (yes this was absolutely political), and the ridiculousness that follows local elections:

You might remember the name Kristi Kristy from a couple of months ago, when she filed an ethics complaint with the Knox County Schools Board of Education because board member Mike McMillan had forwarded an email that Kristy had sent to board member Pam Trainor with instructions to send it to the entire board, which meant it then became public record -- anyway, it was a mess. Kristy eventually withdrew her complaint, which makes sense because McMillan didn't do anything wrong to begin with. Now, however, it looks like Kristy might be the one on the wrong side of ethics -- and, possibly, the law. 

You can find Cari's complete story, and - wow - it's been a talker recently, right smack here.

In addition, someone over at the hippie's blog, posted a link - right here - regarding newspaper theft and why it's not a good thing to destroy them even if they're free. And apparently - right here - you will find some federal case law regarding newspaper theft.

Rountree kickoff set for Tuesday

Amber Rountree

Knox County School Board candidate Amber Rountree, who is running for the Dist. 9 seat, will hold her campaign kickoff and first fundraiser tomorrow at The Roundup from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

She said "everyone is invited to hangout, have a good time, ask questions and enjoy dinner."

The Roundup is located at  3643 Sevierville Pike. Dinner will be available for a donation,
and more information will be posted on the website. For more information and details about Amber's campaign and platform click right smack here.

Amber is taking on incumbent Pam Trainor in May's non-partisan primary.

Just the facts ma'am: Was bogus BOE 'ethics violation' a political ploy?

Hoo-Haw, man they got some funny stuff going on over there on the school system’s side of county government. Heh.

So, get this: The Knox County Board of Education was set to meet on March 5 to talk about “allegations of a potential ethics violation and consideration of possible action and recommendations.”

The supposed violator? BOE member Mike McMillan.

The reason? For being transparent.

Hahahahahaha. Naw, I’m not kidding.

McMillian forwarded a PUBLIC RECORD to a newspaper reporter and a state representative.

Yet, South Knoxville parent Kristi Kristy (and by default BOE member and BOE Ethics Chairwoman Indya Kincannon) wanted to conduct kangaroo court.

However, on Friday the school system sent over a public notice that said the committee meeting “has been canceled due to the withdrawal of the complaint.”

Well wait a minute!

According to the News Sentinel, Kristi Kristy “decided not to file an official complaint.” (KNS story right here if you have money for a paywall.)

Huh? So was a complaint filed or not? And if one wasn’t filed, then why would Kincannon schedule the meeting?  That doesn’t make sense. Right?

Surely this wasn’t a political move against McMillan, the one BOE member who has not fallen in line with the rest of the board?  

Naw. No way!

Heh. Right. This whole thing stinks. The ethics committee isn’t supposed to even bother with these matters unless the chair receives a complaint that is “in writing and SIGNED UNDER OATH by the person making the complaint . . . .”

You can find the BOE’s Code of Ethics right smack here. 

However, the committee was going to go ahead and discuss it anyway. Without a sworn statement!

OK, so enough rambling. Let’s get to what was in that PUBLIC RECORD and what McMillan did and didn’t do.

Without further ado, it’s time for some Porch factoids:

FACT: On Dec. 6 at 3:11 p.m. Kristi Kristy sent District 9 BOE member Pam Trainor an email asking that it be sent to the Board and Superintendent Jim McIntyre. In the email, Kristy touted the good superintendent’s awesomeness and was upset that someone depicted him as Adolf Hitler in a now-viral YouTube video in which “McIntyre” raged about teacher concerns and expressed dismay that he might have to go back to teaching himself. You can find the video right here by the way.

FACT: Kristy wanted Trainor to redact her name from the email because she was concerned that teachers would like go over to her house and/or harass her, or some such nonsense.

FACT: At this point said email was NOT a public record (according to the county law department).

FACT: It BECAME a public record once Trainor forwarded it on – as requested by Kristy – to the school board members and once they received it.

FACT: Pam Trainor did NOT redact Kristy’s name.

FACT: Shopper reporter Betty Bean and State Rep. Gloria Johnson asked McMillian for a copy of that PUBLIC RECORD later in the day and he honored their OPEN RECORDS REQUEST.

FACT: This whole thing is silly. If Kristy wants to be mad at someone, she should be mad at Trainor for not taking her name off the email.

FACT: These facts come from PUBLIC RECORDS. And NO, I didn’t get them from McMillan. Heh.

So, click right smack here for a set of documents that includes an email from Kincannon to Kristy that says the ethics committee will hold a hearing despite the fact that there was no signed-under-oath complaint; and two different emails from Kristy to BOE member Lynne Fugate – one that basically blames McMillan for all the world’s problems, and another that, just. . .  wow.

Further, for another set of bad boys, click right smack here for the original email that caused this whole mess AND a Jan. 10 letter from Knox County Law Director Richard “Bud” Armstrong telling Kristy that she doesn’t have a case! (Hey, I had to get the factoids from somewhere.)

Now, if the BOE really wants to look into a violation, then the board should address a potential solicitation violation committed by a certain political candidate it happens to support.

Rountree sets BOE campaign kickoff

Amber Rountree

Knox County School Board candidate Amber Rountree, who is running for the District 9 seat, officially announced her candidacy today (although she had already set up her website).

Rountree, a librarian at Halls Elementary, also said today that she will host her kickoff and first fundraiser on March 4 at the Roundup from 5:30-7:30 p.m. You can find the complete release right smack here.

Rountree is challenging incumbent Pam Trainor in the May non-partisan primary. (A general election if needed will be held in August.) District 9 comprises South Knoxville.

As always, if you’re running for office, shoot stuff my way and I’ll post it. The deadline to qualify for county races is noon Thursday.

Dist. 9 BOE candidates' websites up

Amber Rountree, who is running for the 9^th District BOE seat, launched her campaign website today.

You can find it right smack here.

Rountree, a South Knoxville resident and a librarian at Halls Elementary will face Pam Trainor (here's her website) in May’s non-partisan primary. At this point, a couple other folks have picked up nominating petitions, but they’re not expected to run for the seat.

Petitions are due at noon Feb. 20. (The county general election is set for August.)

Expect this particular race to focus closely on teacher and student needs, and Superintendent Jim McIntyre. Rountree is not a huge McIntyre supporter, and Trainor is. 

As always, send me your election stuff.

Hopson endorses Rountree for BOE

Lauren Hopson might not run for office this time around, but it certainly looks like she’s endorsing a fellow educator.

Hopson, the third grade teacher from Halls Elementary who kicked off the whole so-called “revolt” last October by having the guts to say what probably almost every teacher in this county thinks, is currently serving as the political treasurer for Amber Rountree. (If this isn't an endorsement I don't know what is.)

You can find the appointment right smack here.

Rountree, so far, is the only South Knoxville candidate to turn in a nominating petition. At this point four others, including incumbent Pam Trainor, have picked up the paperwork to run but haven’t completed it.

However, two of them – Larry Clark and Jim McClain – have suggested that they won’t run. (I’m not quite sure anyone has even heard from William Hiscock, who also picked up a petition and coincidentally lives in Rountree’s neighborhood.)

I’m guessing that Trainor is in, since her website now says “re-elect” her. Still, she’s in for a tough race. Trainor lost a ton of support in the 9^th District, particularly after her episode in Bizarro World.

Was McClain's BOE candidacy a ruse?

Word I’m hearing now from several sources is that Jim McClain, who picked up a nominating petition on Dec. 27 to run for the 9^th District School Board seat, did it for show, rather than to actually run.

Funny.

Anyhoo, Georgiana Vines over at the Slantinel wrote a column about his possibility as a candidate – right smack here for the pay wall that mostly features information that you can read elsewhere for free – and, well, quite frankly, at the time I wondered what his intentions were.

As Vines noted, he didn’t really distinguish himself from Pam Trainor, the incumbent whose campaign he actually managed four years ago. In her column, McClain suggested that he “sees the reasoning for Common Core standards” and didn’t “blame McIntyre for the mixed feelings in the community.”

So what were his motivations? Well, maybe he will run. Or maybe he just wanted to get the juices flowing, maybe get some other folks invigorated enough to run.

Whatever the case, two others since then – retired teacher Larry Clark (as noted by the rogue blogger Brian Hornback right smack here) and librarian Amber Rountree – have also since picked up nominating petitions.

Those two, I suspect, will distinguish themselves from Trainor who (from the way I’m hearing it) pretty much ignored the overall will of South Knoxville residents when she approved the superintendent’s gazillion dollar school budget a few years ago and then most recently agreed to give the superintendent another year on his contract.

The biggest beneficiary if McClain does pull out, however, will more than likely be Clark if he does decide to run. I suspect that the two of them would have split each other’s votes, allowing Rountree and Trainor to slide into the August general election. (This is assuming it would have been a four-person race.)

Now, it’s going to be a little harder to predict.

Well, not really.

But that’s for another time.

For the latest on who has picked up petitions, click right smack here.

Superintendent contract the talk of tonight. What's going to happen?

So, the school board tonight will talk about whether to extend Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s contract through the end of 2017.

It’s part of his annual performance review. He currently makes $222,800 and gets an $800 per month travel allowance and almost five weeks of paid vacation. His contract runs through late 2016.

A number of things could happen:

• The board extends the contract and subsequently turns the matter into a major election issue.
• The board opts to set aside the extension part of the discussion  for up to another year. (Members possibly suggest another review a little after the elections.)
• McIntyre, after the performance discussion, suggests to the board to set aside talks about an extension, thus not making the matter a major election issue.
• The board votes to not extend the contract, thus giving them a shot at re-election. (Smart money is not on this one.)

My guess is that the school board approves the extension. It will probably be 7-2 vote. Mike McMillan and Pam Trainor will probably cast the dissenting votes. I say this only because – and you can take this to the bank – if Pam supports it, she is done in the election.

The meeting is at the AJ Building, which means there are like three seats available because the County Commission is holding court around the same time in the Main Auditorium of the City County Building. So, get there early.

I’m saying this to anti-McIntyre people and pro-McIntyre people.

Obviously, one of the big things to come up tonight will be focused on McIntyre’s classroom, or lack thereof, experience.

I blogged about it here, and Eleanor had a story on Friday night about it 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.