Handcrafted in Hong Kong, baby

Saw this in an office over at the ol’ Death Star. I always thought that when a political party yapped about job creation, the politicians meant they were creating jobs here. Not in Hong Kong. Oh well, there's always a next time. Or not.

And just to be fair, if the Democrats have something like this, let me know. Entertainment at the expense of others and all that good stuff.

Have a safe New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Well, it was only a matter of time. I got two lumps of coal for Christmas. Anyhoo, hope you're all having a good time, staying safe, staying out of the clink, staying  . . . blah, blah, blah. Have a good one.

Odds, ends for a slow commish week

Not a whole lot going on lately. On Saturday, we ran a story about the Knox County Commission’s plan to move ahead with a ballot question that would give residents a chance to expand the board’s size. Find it right smack here. 

Later this week, I’ll have something on the so-called education committee. In addition, we’ll have a piece about what a number of West Knox County neighborhoods would like to see down for Ebenezer Road.

I've got the week off, but I'm sure I'll pop up here on the da blog.

In the meantime, have a nice Christmas.

Rogero celebrates one year in office

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, left, celebrated her first full year in office this month.

Gerald Witt has a story right smack here detailing all the excitement.

 Or non-excitement as there hasn’t been a whole lot (if any) of controversy during her rookie year. 

On a side note, I remember when she was running for office and the KNS knucklehead commentators kept saying she’d “divide the community” and she was “anti-business” and the city would just fall apart if she won the election.

Yeah, none of that happened.

I think most of the people who said that crap were either (a) intimidated by her because she’s a woman, (b) intimidated by her because she doesn’t flat out hate like they do, or (c) intimidated by her because she’s smarter than them.

Heh.

Anyhoo, one year doesn’t make a mayor, but she’s certainly off to a good start.

Knox County office closings set

OK, here's the breakdown for Knox County holiday closings:

The executive branch offices will shut down for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

The Knox County Solid Waste Convenience Centers will close at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve. They'll also be down on Christmas Day and Jan. 1. Regular schedule is planned for all other days.

Libraries also will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and all branches will close at 5:30 p.m. on New Year' Eve. They'll reopen Jan. 2.

In addition, the county's senior centers, health department facilities and veterans service office also will be closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Veterans outreach schedule announced

The county this morning announced it's schedule to hold outreach sessions to assist veterans with claims for service-connected disabilities, improved pension, health benefits, insurance programs, education programs, burial benefits and other programs. (That was a mouthful.)

The sessions are conducted by the Knox County Veterans Service Office and held at the county's senior centers.

Any veteran or veteran's spouse who can't make a session also can get assistance by calling the veterans service office at 215-5645. or you can click right smack here.

And to get a list of the January outreach schedule click right here.

County prepares for winter weather

According to my fancy calendar winter start Friday. Nice. Not really. 

AND, according to the fancy spin release coming out of the county's side of the Death Star, the Knox County Engineering and Public Works Department “is taking a proactive approach by preparing its fleet for colder days ahead."

This stuff cracks me up. A news release touting the department for doing something it should be doing???? Oh well. I suppose it could be the worse. You know, bunch of overpaid PR people sitting around doing nothing. And we don't have that in local government. No way.

Anyhoo, the release says the county's highway department is doing some stuff with brine tanks. Click right smack here for all the details.

Knox Commish to get 'magic' budget?

We're still a little ways away but county officials are already making plans for budget discussions.

According to top county bean counter Casual Chris Caldwell, the administration will hold a meeting with department heads on Jan. 10. At that point, directors will get whatever documents they need to prepare their budget requests.

In addition, the administration at the end of January will know just how much they have to contribute to pension funds for the upcoming fiscal year, which doesn't start until next July. (This current year it was $8.2 million for the three pension plans, including two that are closed.)

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett plans to present his budget on May 1 and then the county commission will vote on it June 6.

Caldwell invited commissioners during their monthly luncheon to come hang out with him and his crew early next year. He said he'd provide a brief overview “about what we do in this process, what we do from start to finish and go over the projection process, so you can see what we do.”

He added: “I don't think it's bad to have too much information, and seeing how the process works may give you a better understanding of what we go through and let you see how some of the decisions are made.”

The Casual One was more than likely suggesting that maybe the board won't be so hard on the administration the next time revenue projections are off by, oh say, $24.2 million.

Caldwell later said: “Once we get all the requests in we're out $11 million to $15 million, so you'll get to see how we get there (balancing the budget), how we make that work. It's magic.”

Said Commissioner Mike Hammond: “So, I guess we can start calling you Magic Chris.”

Chris: “No, cause you're Magic Mike.”

Heh. Magic Mike. Heh. Hahahaha.

You had to be there.

County to recycle Christmas trees

Knox County won't offer mulch pick-up this year, but folks can drop off their unwanted, live Christmas tress throughout January at one of the six participating convenience centers for free, according to the latest spin release issued by the county by someone not named Michael Grider.

Just make sure you clean the tree of all ornaments, lights, wire, string, blah, blah.

Click right smack here for a list of the “treecycling” locations.

'Casual' county coin report Part II

Chris Caldwell

Knox County's finance guru and head bean counter Casual Chris Caldwell met with county commissioners today to update the coin flow through the county coffers. Looks like we're in the red by about $8.1 million, although Caldwell says don't hit the panic buttons just yet.

He pointed out that general fund revenues are down about $432,000 compared to this point last fiscal year. The debt service fund also is down almost $13.7 million, although Caldwell noted that money hasn't been transferred to cover the school system's piece of debt.

Also, school spending is up almost $6 million compared to this point last year. Caldwell suggested that was mostly because of timing and because the system received all that extra coin from the county commission during last spring's budget process.

The brief discussion comes after commissioners in September said they were surprised to find out that the county had a $24.2 million surplus. (It's a long story, click right smack here for details.)

Stay tuned as most of this will balance out.

County develops app for codes folks

This in from county spin doc Michael “Big Sexy” Grider (and I thought I was long-winded):

"Rather than a clipboard, carbon copy forms and a digital camera, Knox County Codes officials now go to building and code inspection sites equipped with an iPad loaded with a special app developed by Knox County's Information Technology Department.

The app is being used in the inspection of new construction, as well as in codes enforcement efforts.

The app gives inspectors the ability to submit inspection reports and photographs from a single device in the field. By using the new iPad app, inspectors will be able to conduct more inspections and back-office staff can process them more quickly, increasing the efficiency of the inspection process overall."

You can read more from the release right smack here. 

From what I understand, county officials have shown their counterparts in the city this app. Not sure at this point whether they'll use it.

Cook lawsuit cost county $200,000

Apparently, the Barbara Cook lawsuit cost the county about $200,000, pension board members were told this morning. Or, rather: Attorneys for the pension board made $200,000 off the Barbara Cook lawsuit.

Heh.

As you might recall several years back, Cook, a former employee, accused the county and its retirement board of of holding employee pension deductions a lot longer than neeed before depositing them into retirement accounts. At issue was whether the coin belonged to the county, the pension board or the employees.

She filed the lawsuit in December 2008, seeking to recover the interest on behalf of the employees. In late 2010 a judge ruled in favor of the county. (Her legal team dropped the county pension board from the lawsuit. I'm not going to get into how ridiculous a move this was, according to what some local lawyers have told me.)

Anyhoo, the issue was discussed because the pension board is looking to increase its insurance coverage. The board didn't take any action this morning, but its administration will look at it in the upcoming months.