Lunch with mayor includes specials

As previously noted, right smack here, Knox County Mayor continues his lunch with the mayor, this time at Bayou Bay Seafood House in South Knoxville on Friday.

County Communications honcho Michael "Big Sexy" Grider told me today that the restaurant will have a couple of specials, including a $6.99 popcorn shrimp with two sides deal, and an order of crawfish etouffee for $6.99.

As usual, Burchett will be there, so if you want to give him a piece of your mind, deliver a fist bump or talk Bigfoot, drop by.

Typically, these events bring out a lot of people, including county officials and school board members. City leaders oddly enough shy away from them.

Too cool for school, I suppose. Heh.

Commission moves April meeting

The Knox County Commission did end up postponing its April voting session, moving it from the 22nd to the 29th, just in case some folks want to head out to the San Diego Wilshire Conference.

(I mentioned the possibility right smack here.)

The work session for April, however, won't change. It's still set for the 15th.

The commission holds its work session on the third Monday of the month and the voting meeting on the fourth Monday. April, though, has five Mondays, so they were able to make this work.

New digital billboards banned in Knox

Hmmmm. This should have been up today. Oh well, here ya go:

New digital billboards are officially banned in Knox County.

The commission on Monday approved the second reading of an ordinance that prevents companies from converting traditional – or “static” - billboards to digital form. Existing ones can stay under a grandfather clause.

Officials have yet to reach a decision on what to do about traditional billboards. Some don't want any new ones, and other board members feel they've done enough.

The commission is expected to talk more about the issue in the next month or so.

In the meantime, the county won't issue new permits for traditional billboards, since legislation to ban them is still pending.

“It seemed that the vast majority of the people who contacted the commission were not in favor of digital billboards and were in favor of the ban,” commission Chairman Tony Norman said. “There were a lot of people at the meetings, a lot of emails and there was a continuous stream of people coming up to us.”

The second reading was approved in a 7-4 vote, with commissioners Jeff Ownby, Brad Anders, R. Larry Smith and Dave Wright dissenting.

Mayor wants security meeting open

So, the county big dogs, like the sheriff, mayor, school lord, Public Building Authority head honcho, etc., etc. are supposed to meet today to talk about school security. 

Last night officials said the media would be allowed to attend. I'm not sure if that means it's open to the public or not.

Regardless, county Mayor Tim Burchett sent out a showboat release, calling on the board of education and chairwoman Karen Carson to “sunshine the planned security meeting in order to allow all parties to be at the table.”

That would mean, the mayor says, more than just a single representative from the school board or county commission could attend. He suggested holding the meeting on Thursday or Friday, which would fall within the county's 48 hour policy or whatever.

This whole thing is giving me a headache. Most of the players were at the county commission meeting last night. This could have been done then.

If people are serious about fixing whatever security problems exist, then they should have stayed late.

Seafood house to host mayor's lunch

Well it's about time. The next "Lunch with the Mayor" will be held this Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bayou Bay Seafood House (7117 Chapman Highway) in South Knoxville. I really dig this place, and I know county communications manager Michael "Big Sexy" Grider has been trying to set it up for awhile, but things kept falling through.

From what I understand, and they're still working out the details, but I think there's a chance that the restaurant might set up a tent outside (it's pretty tight inside) for folks and then have an inexpensive special, like a fish sandwich and fries or something.

Public to pick next cash mob spot

The county is letting the public decide where it will hold the next cash mob, an innovative marketing plan that Emperor Dean Rice hates but has so far been successful.

Heh. (Little inside baseball there.)

Anyhoo, the county will accept nominations through noon Friday. Then it will hold an online voting thing-a-ma-jig for the top five nominees beginning at 5 p.m. Friday through 5 p.m. March 6. The winning business will be announced on March 8.

"We get a lot of feedback from people with suggestions for possible cash mob locations," said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, the architect of the local events. "This is a good way to get the community and local businesses directly involved in deciding the location of the next Knox Cash Mob."

Send you nomination, right smack here.

Please note that nominated business should be locally owned, located in South Knoxville, and cannot be previous cash mob locations or restaurants. That's key.

The county reserves the right to withdraw certain business from consideration if, among other things, the business serves a very limited clientele, according to the spin release.

In other words, don't bother nominating the Asian massage parlor.

Hammond 'to consider' court clerk run

Mike Hammond

The rumor of the day: Mike Hammond will run for the Knox County Criminal Court Clerk seat.

I asked the good county commissioner about this, and he said about a month ago, some folks approached him. He said that "I'd consider it."

Hammond said "it caught fire" today after the KNS reported that current clerk, Joy McCroskey, fired her brother after she was accused of violating the county's nepotism policy.

"Like I said: 'I'll consider it,'" but am I going to? I don't know, but I'm not making any kind of formal announcement," Hammond added.

The election isn't until 2014.

This is actually interesting. For more than a year, folks have been saying that Hammond, a former commission chairman, would take on Tim Burchett for the mayor's seat. That race also is in 2014.

I've called BS on this forever, but you know how these rumors go.

No-shows and cancelled meetings

Looks like there are a number of no-shows today for some meetings.

Yesterday I blogged that School Boar Chairwoman Karen Carson had reached out to some local officials about meeting today to discuss school security. The powwow was set for 9:30 this morning, but it was cancelled since no one (or only a few) could make it.

Two people told me that the invitation was sent out Friday around 5:30 p.m., and that they already had meetings set for today.

In addition, state Sen. Becky Massey and state Rep. Ryan Haynes are not going to attend the county commission's monthly luncheon. They were invited to talk about a couple of resolutions regarding whether to elect school superintendents and to hold partisan school board elections.

Both apparently had a luncheon in Nashville today.

Polls conflict on a tax increase

Roughly 10 years ago, I wrote a story about a poll that a controversial mayor – who really did almost bankrupt his city – had conducted. The results? Everything was fine and dandy.

In the story I quoted a fellow out at the University of Georgia. He was professor who studied this kind of stuff. He told me: “Weird people participate in these polls, so you really have to take them with a grain of salt.”

(He was referring to the people who answer the questions - not pay for them by the way.)

So, flash forward to earlier this month when local local businessman Randy Boyd and other Chamber of Commerce-types bankrolled a poll (900 people participated) that indicated broad-based support for improving education in Knox County and a willingness to pay for it.

Presumably the survey will serve as a reference tool for officials heading into this year's budget talks.

Well, I imagine the one released today will, too.

Knoxville Focus publisher Steve Hunley also bankrolled a poll, “using the exact same language as the poll reported by the Knoxville News-Sentinel.” He noted that his poll reached out to more than 1,100 likely voters.

He said they were asked the question: “Do you support a property tax rate increase if all the money goes to fund public education?”

The results? A whopping “Heck No!”

So, which one is correct? 

Who knows?

But never trust a weirdo. 

Trip could affect a commish meeting

It's possible that the Knox County Commission could end up moving its April 22 meeting to a later week, so some board members can head out to a conference in California.

Each year around April, a number of pension board members head out to the Wilshire Conference, which is typically held in sunny San Diego, Calif. (Ok, OK, I won't make any cracks about how they also have the opportunity to spend time on the golf course or at the zoo, since they do – at least this incarnation of the pension board – attend the real conference meetings and the other stuff is during downtime.)

Wilshire gets paid a good amount of coin to handle the county's pension and retirement investments. (And yes, taxpayers do pay for this trip.)

This year's conference is set for April 21-23. The county commission meting is set for Monday, April 22.

During today's pension board meeting, members talked briefly about possibly moving the commission meeting, maybe to the following Monday if enough commissioners go on the trip.

“We'll talk about it and see,” said commission Chairman Tony Norman, who sits on the pension board along with three other commissioners.

Pension Board Executive Director Kim Bennett went around the room asking folks whether they would attend. (By the way, she's not sure, although she will send one member of her staff.)

Commissioner Richard Briggs said he wouldn't; Norman and commissioner Ed Shouse said they weren't sure; Nick McBride said he didn't think so, Casual Chris Caldwell said he wouldn't; Joe Snyder said he wasn't sure.

Steve Glenn wasn't at the meeting, and Commissioner Mike Hammond – heck – I don't think anyone asked him.

The deadline to register is around March 25. My guess is that the meeting won't be rescheduled, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pension board  move its meeting up a week earlier.

Two to return to Knox pension board

Knox County Pension Board members Nick McBride and Joe Snyder were re-elected to serve on the board. (The elections were on Feb. 14. No, seriously.)

Only county employees vote in these things. Joe got 30 votes. Nick received 130.

Hahahahaha. Big turnout.

Anyhoo, Nick's seat seat represents county employees under the traditional retirement plan and the Sheriff's Office plan. Joe's seat represents school employees who are not covered in the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, which covers state employees, public school teachers, etc.

The pension board is comprised on nine members. Four are county commissioners, two come from the school side, two come from the general employee side and one is technically the county mayor, although he typically uses the county's finance director as a proxy.

In addition to the pension board, there were elections to fill three seats on the county's Medical Insurance Appeal Board.

Timothy Wheeler, who got 57 votes and faced no competition, will represent seat C.

Stephanie Minor, who got 27 votes and also faced no competition, will represent seat B.

And, Tom Salter, who received 30 votes, will represent seat A. Tom defeated two others – Dennis Irwin (3 votes) and Jennifer Valentine (25 votes).

Finding Bigfoot or finding sense?

Did anyone catch that whole “Finding Bigfoot” show last night? Lord it was awful. I made it through about 20 or so minutes before I hit the clicker.

Credit, though, still goes to Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett for getting the folks here to film. As bad as the show was (or is), it had some nice highlights of the area and you really can't put enough dollar signs on free advertising.

Heck, ask the folks over at the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation (or whatever they're called now). If officials there had brought the show to East Tennessee, they'd be claiming a $10 gazillion economic impact for the area at this point. That and they'd be cashing their bonuses checks.

Heh.

In the meantime, I did get a chuckle last night. My wife walked in while the show was on. I tried to explain to her what was happening. I said the woman on the show was the skeptic, calling out the others (they're all guys) on the whole Bigfoot thing.

Her response?

“That makes sense.”

Yeah, it does.