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."

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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.”

KCSO retirement plan set for vote

A little more than nine months after voters opted to close the Knox County Sheriff's Office pension plan, officials are set to implement a newly crafted retirement program - one that still maintains attractive benefits for law enforcement personnel, but won't cost taxpayers quite as much.

If approved, the Sheriff's Total Asset Accumulation Retirement plan, or STAR, would affect law enforcement and corrections officers hired after next Jan. 1. Current officers would keep their traditional pensions.

The Knox County Commission will talk more about the proposal during its work session next Monday and vote on it later this month.

"Law enforcement is a young man's game," said Commissioner Ed Shouse, a pension board member, who served on the committee that drafted the plan. "Do you want a 60-year-old man chasing down a burglar or a couple of 26-year-old guys? The cost is almost the same, but this plan encourages people to come into (the Sheriff's Office) and work 25 years and hopefully be able to take an early retirement in their mid 50s. "

STAR, a defined contributions plan, replaces the Uniformed Officers Pension Plan, or UOPP, a defined benefit plan that gives those with 30 years of service a pension at 75 percent of their two highest years' salary, plus a yearly 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment.

Voters initially approved the UOPP in 2006 after proponents said it would benefit the lower-paid deputies and jailers who could not afford to retire under the general county plan, which works like a 401(k).

The pension program, though, was costly and critics argued that it included employees not actively fighting crime. The stock market, too, was unkind and the plan's annual contribution costs jumped. This year, the county will put in $8.5 million, three times what was first projected, although $4 million of that will cover the bonds issued to fund the plan at its inception.

Officials, led by Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, brought the pension plan before residents last year, and voters by a 3-to-1 margin agreed to close it and directed the county pension board to create a new one.

"The (pension) wasn't going to be financially feasible," the mayor said."But I think (the STAR plan) is going to be great for our law enforcement. It addresses their future needs and it's also responsible to the taxpayers. And that's what we wanted - something equitable for everybody."

The new plan requires employees to contribute 6 percent of pay and the county puts in 10 percent. In addition, the county puts another 2 percent into a medical reimbursement plan to offset medical premiums and costs for the retirees from the time they leave the job until they're eligible for Medicare.

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Mayor's back to school bash today

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett is hosting a "back to school bash" today, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Knoxville Expo Center (5441 Clinton Highway). 

The annual event is an opportunity for students and their families to get free school supplies and enjoy activities, free food, special programs, vendors and more, according to Michael Grider, the one local PR flack who isn't an obstructionist and doesn't have any plans to leave.

Heh.

According to the "Big Sexy" one, roughly 4,000 people attended last year’s event, so "Mayor Burchett is making the 2013 bash even bigger, with more space and more vendors offering school supplies."

So, why isn't Carter 'owner' listed

In what looks like another edition of Amateur Hour, the school system this morning handed out programs for the Carter Elementary School unveiling.

The problem? Well, yesterday's programs for the Northshore unveiling noted that the school system owned this school. (Click right smack here for that bad boy entry.)

It then went on to list some other irrelevant information on the cover.

Well, today's program included . . .  Nothing. Other than a big white space.

How come no one listed "county" as the owner? Where is the comparable information?

Oh, right, the spitting contest between whose name should be placed on the school deeds - the school system's name or the county's name.

God forbid, the school system let the folks who attended know exactly how this building was funded and who spearheaded the initiative. Or even how much it cost. (Does the school system's $1 million-a-year PR department not want taxpayers to know?)

Bush League. Seriously.

What's up with the 'owner' thing?

So, earlier today the school system held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Northshore Elementary School, a $20 million project that will serve 900 students.

The 128,000 square foot facility is located on Thunderhead Road.

Anyhoo, during the gathering, the school system handed out these fancy pamphlets (pictured above). Well, check out the details, right under the picture of the school. See that? See where someone thought it would be ingenious to write "owner"?

Yeah, that's going over real well with county officials. See, the County Commission and the School Board are in a little spitting match over whose name - the county or system - should be on the deeds to the various schools. (There's no consistency.)

So, a number of county officials I ran into today over at the ol' Death Star felt that the pamphlet - or at least that little piece of it - was a shot across the bow toward them.

Why is it even necessary?

They're not happy.

So much for all that getting along.

Oh, and by the way, what's up with noting Councilman Nick Della Volpe? Nothing against Nick, but is Northshore technically his stomping grounds? Maybe they should have put Commissioner Dave Wright down, too. (Oh, wait, he's down for tomorrow's Carter deal. Or is he?)

Heh.

In the meantime, the school looks pretty nice.

New KCSO cars about to hit the road

Looks like the Man with the Badge, Knox County's Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones, is about to get some bad a$$ cars for his department.

The office just sent over some pictures, noting that the first wave of new patrol cars are about to the local roads very soon.

The Sheriff decided to get Dodge Chargers instead of Chevrolet and Ford.  (The line of Crown Victoria Interceptors that the department used for years was discontinued.)

The Knox County Commission approved money in this year’s budget to buy 25 new cars.

They are being outfitted with emergency equipment, cameras, laptops, and radios before they go into service.  All the cars are going to patrol.

In addition, Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett agreed to fund another 30 cars with surplus revenues that the county is expected to get. (We reported about that last night. Click right smack here for the story.)

Knox earmarks surplus expenditures

Knox County officials have put together a shopping list for how they would like to spend what is expected to be as much as $6 million in surplus revenues, with roughly half the money targeted for health care, employee raises, new patrol cars and software upgrades.

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett said there’s “nothing fancy” about the designations and noted that they are “basic needs” rather than “wants.”

“I think the departments understand that I’m serious when I say that we need to be fiscally responsible,” the mayor said. “They’re not coming to me with outlandish proposals. They’re coming to me with fiscally responsible ones, unlike what they’re doing in Washington where the politicians continuously spend more money than they’re taking in.”

As it stands, the county’s finance department on Tuesday said the general fund should get between $5 million and $6 million more than what officials projected last year when they put together the budget for fiscal year 2013, which ended in late June. The mayor’s office has earmarked just under $3.1 million of the money for purchases, and expects to put the rest into the reserves.

The Knox County Commission will discuss the proposal during this month’s meeting, and decide whether to approve the expenditures.

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County's credit ratings reaffirmed

Moody's and Standard & Poor, a couple of nationally recognized credit rating agencies, affirmed Knox County’s strong bond ratings of Aa1 and AA+, respectively, according to a spin release issued about an hour ago while I was at lunch by Big "Michael Grider" Sexy.

Here's what he had to add: "Citing Knox County’s 'historical maintenance of strong finances,' S&P went a step further by upgrading Knox County’s financial outlook from stable to positive.  This indicates that Knox County is approaching a AAA rating." 

He also said that Moody's cited the county's "strong financial position and reserves, improved liquidity, sizable revenue base and manageable debt burden as factors in their rating decision."

A number of county leaders, including Mayor Tim Burchett, noted that the county's efforts to pay down debt . . . blah, blah, blah as reasons for the awesome ratings.

No one mentioned that the main reason is because we've got like the super-cheapest property tax rate in the world, which provides a cushion in case stuff goes bad. In other words, if we're in trouble, we can jack up taxes without bankrupting residents. That's key to bond rating agencies.

Yeah, the other stuff helps, too. But not like this.

Still, this is good news, since it means lower interest rates when the school system needs to borrow money. Heh.

Burchett ready to support JWP plan

Yesterday evening we reported a story on Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett's decision to more than likely support plans to extend the James White Parkway - something he was against earlier this year.

We had hoped to talk to Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, but she declined to comment Friday, according to Angela Starke, her PR flack. Guess she was too busy naming her office of sustainability director. Whatever that is.

Anyhoo, the state will make its decision in the coming days to three weeks. Actually, let's not kid ourselves, the state's already made its decision and - at this point - everyone in that City County Building that needs to know, knows just what the decision is.

(Hint: If you're a hippie, you won't be happy.)

Officials work out Leuthold's pay

Craig Leuthold

When is Knox County's top tax collector not actually the trustee?

Well, that's a question some local officials kicked around earlier this week as they tried to determine whether Craig Leuthold should get paid for his first two days in office.

State law says the trustee assumes the position upon taking the oath of office and upon getting an insurance bond. The Knox County Commission on Monday, July 22 picked Leuthold to serve out the remaining 14 months of the term for John Duncan III, who resigned and pleaded guilty to official misconduct a few weeks earlier.

But, here's where it gets a little confusing.

A judge swore in Leuthold right after the commission picked him. However, officials didn't sign his insurance bond until three days later on Thursday, July 25.

But, on Tuesday, July 23, Leuthold stepped down from his job as public information officer in the Knox County Property Assessor's Office, asked payroll to cut him a check for his unused vacation time, and began working in the county Trustee's Office.

About that time, the county's risk management and payroll departments started processing Leuthold's paperwork. Officials there then questioned whether he should get paid for working July 23-24. Was he technically the trustee? They noted that he didn't actually sign the paperwork for his $18.5 million insurance bond until July 25.

Find out what happened by clicking right smack here for the rest of this bad a$$ story.

Another lunch with mayor tomorrow

Looks like Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett is continuing that never-ending request to eat everywhere with everyone (and no he ain't picking up the tab).

The county's spin team of Michael "Big Sexy" Grider and kid sidekick just sent out its latest release, noting that the mayor on Friday (that's tomorrow) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. will host another "Lunch with the Mayor" event, this time at Round Up Restaurant in South Knoxville at 3643 Sevierville Pike. 

The locally owned restaurant will also serve a "lunch with the mayor" special, including a lunch plate with meat, sides and bread for $5.49, all you can eat catfish for $6.49 and $0.99 desserts.