Past Knoxville annexations at stake

Gov. Bill Haslam says he is concerned about a controversial bill that would let neighborhoods annexed after 1998 vote to leave their cities.

The State House approved the deannexation bill Monday night by a vote of 65-24.  The Senate could vote on the bill later this week.

The growing deannexation debate could ultimately shrink six cities in Tennessee, including Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis, Johnson City, Kingsport, and Cornersville.

For more than six decades, communities across Tennessee could simply pass an ordinance to forcibly expand their city limits, whether the people who owned the annexed property liked it or not.  In 2014, the state passed a law requiring residents to vote in favor of joining a city before their property can be annexed.

Knoxville voluntarily stopped forcible annexation more than a decade ago when Bill Haslam was mayor.

However, the 1990s and early 2000s were a time of rapid expansion under former mayor Victor Ashe.
Knoxville grew by 26 square miles during his time as mayor, mostly through what was nicknamed "finger annexation" that extended the city limits in the shape of fingers along the interstates.

Map of Knoxville city limits.

Knoxville mayor Madeline Rogero said she opposes the deannexation bill and believes it goes too far by trying to turn back the clock 18 years.

"These are properties that have been part of the city for a couple of decades," said Rogero.  "We have not heard an outcry for deannexation, so we're a little puzzled why this is actually making its way through the legislature.  Plus, Knoxville already stopped forcible annexation more than a decade ago."

Rogero said deannexation would present a large problem because the city has installed water, sewer, and other services in those neighborhoods.

WBIR 10News searched our archives for stories about residents upset with annexation in Knoxville after 1998.  One neighborhood was the Mount Pleasant subdivision near Clinton Highway and Schaad Road in the summer of 2000.  We contacted the same people in those stories from 2000 and none of them still lived in the annexed neighborhood.  We also visited the neighborhood and spoke to several residents, but all of them moved to the subdivision after it was part of the city.

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero

 The same way many people may have bought property because it was in the county before annexation, today's residents may have purchased the same property specifically because it was inside the city limits.

"You have so much turnover, a lot of people may have moved into an area expecting it to be part of the city where they enjoying police protection, fire protection, 311 services, brush pickup, all of those things we provide that you don't get outside of the city," said Rogero.

Deannexation means the city would also lose out on some property taxes.  Rogero said if every annexed neighborhood left the city, it would add up to around $377,000 in annual property taxes.  That figure is actually much smaller than you may expect based on how much property Knoxville annexed in the late 1990s.  Rogero noted only residential property would be eligible for deannexation and much of Knoxville's annexed property was zoned for commercial use.

"We would lose some tax dollars, but it could also potentially cost us more to provide services because there would be a patchwork of houses that are in or out of the city.  You have these donut holes and the city would not be contiguous, so it would be an inefficient way to provide services," said Rogero.

State lawmakers in favor of the bill say the law would give people an opportunity to make a decision that was made for them.  They also point out residents would be able to vote to stay in their respective cities.

The bill says a referendum could take place if 10 percent of an area's population petitions for a deannexation vote.

Full details on the deannexation bills can be found at the links below:

House Deannexation Bill 0779 - Tennessee General Assembly

Senate Deannexation Senate Bill 0749 - Tennessee General Assembly 

Ashe added to Open Government board

Victor Ashe

Well, this could be interesting. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has added former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe to its board of directors.

Victor, a columnist for The Shopper, has been feuding recently with current Mayor Madeline Rogero. In fact, it's gotten to the point where she's making any of his record requests go through the attorney's office, something she's not requiring for other members of the media (Rogero has stated that she doesn't consider Ashe a member of the media).

In addition to Ashe, the following also were added to the board:

• Braden Boucek, litigation director and representative for The Beacon Center of Tennessee
• Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU-TN
• John Williams, attorney with Tune, Entrekin & White, P.C.
• Larry Wood, general manager of WNWS-FM, NewsTalk 101.5 FM in Jackson

TCOG, according to its website, is a non-partisan organization founded in 2003 whose mission rests on the belief that citizen access to government information, through public records and public meetings, is crucial in allowing informed participation in a democratic society, and is an essential component in government accountability.

“These board members reflect a diversity of background and experiences, but each has a rich history in Tennessee and share a common viewpoint that transparency in government in our state is essential,” said TCOG Board President Doug Pierce said in a released statement. “TCOG’s educational programs have been growing, and we hope to continue to improve understanding of the rights of citizens to know what their government is doing, and to promote a culture of openness in government at all levels.”

You can read more about the appointments RIGHT SMACK HERE.

Burchett opposes forced annexation

Two weeks ago, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett sent the governor and state officials a letter, suggesting that they oppose forced annexation by municipalities. You can find it right smack here.

The recap: State Rep. Mike Caret, R-Ooltewah, earlier this year introduced legislation (House Bill 2371) that would abolish forced annexation by cities. Some folks are privately calling it the Victor Ashe Bill. (OK, I made up that last part.)

Anyhoo, the mayor sent everyone a letter that urged each of the members of the local Legislative delegation to co-sponsor the bill (or its counterpart in the Senate) and “to work to ensure that your constituents have the voice they deserve in the annexation process.”

The County Commission, which can pretty much do about nothing in the matter, will talk about during Tuesday work session.

Commish, elections, managment style

Couple things on this Friday afternoon that I noticed during the past week. 

A number of folks were talking about Joe Sullivan's column over at the Metro Pulse. The one in which he skewered Knox County Commissioner Dave Wright.

Find it right smack here.

Sullivan says Wright has a tendency to ramble like a mental, and he takes exception to a number of resolutions tied to school-related election issues that Wright sponsored.

I'll give da Pulse this: Wright like to ramble. That's true.

But to say there's no consensus in the 8^th District for an elected superintendent? Yeah, you're kidding yourself. And while I like Lisa Starbuck (she's a great activist and has a cool last name), she's kidding herself, too.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that countywide – if you put to vote whether to have an appointed or an elected superintendent – we'd be voting for a new one next year.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. But you can take that vote to the bank. People in Knox County like to vote. Heck, the charter review committee had a chance to fix this and didn't bother.

Over on da Rogue's blog, Brian Hornback calls out Knox County Property Assessor. (These two have no love for each other by the way.) He says Ballard is violating all sorts of campaign laws and has the picture to prove it. Click right smack here for that bad boy.

Ballard, though, says he's not doing anything wrong. He said that he was putting together a booth that he will set up tomorrow for a home builder's association at the Expo Center. He said the sign that bears his name doesn't include the phrases “vote for” or “elect.”

“I'm term limited,” he said. “I don't need to campaign.”

He didn't mention the rumors that he'll seek another elected office when his time is up.

Finally, we got former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe and his column in the Shopper – click right smack here. Ashe talks about the managing style of county Mayor Tim Burchett and city Mayor Madeline Rogero. And he appears to be dead on about that South Knoxville stuff, which has left me scratching my head for awhile.

I really thought the city was going to take the initiative on this. Well, there's certainly still time.

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.

Francis leaving election commission

Dennis Francis (photo by Metro Pulse)

Denis Francis is apparently stepping down from the Knox County Election Commission when his term ends in two months. As you might recall, Francis, a local attorney, was appointed to serve out the term for the seat held by Democrat Cameron Brooks, who left in April 2011 to take a new job (but is apparently back, so that didn't last long, but I digress.)

According to former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, who writes a column over at the Shopper, State Rep. Gloria Johnson will make a recommendation for his replacement to the state Election Commission.

Ashe also said that former Knox County Commissioner Mark Harmon and attorney Tammy Kaousias are possible replacements.

I talked to Dennis a little while ago and he said that he doesn't want to stay on board. He said representing the Sevier County Election Commission and dealing with that whole Pigeon Forge liquor mess is keeping him busy.

Plus, he said: “I'm not having that much fun. They horse- (insert bad word here) Mackay, so it's hard to get warm and fuzzy with them.”

Heh. Hahahaha. Nice!

Dennis was referring to commission's April 2011 meeting when, voting along party lines, the commission fired Greg Mackay, the longtime elections administrator, and one of Dennis' close friends.

I asked him: “It's cool, I use that quote, right?”

Dennis: “I've told them that so many times, one more would probably be redundant.”

Hah.

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.