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Citizens
for Better Government
Blount
County Tennessee
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6/19/08 Commission Meeeting
Highlights
Many citizens have trouble making it to County Commission meetings. And, not everyone has the patience to sit through the nearly three hour video of the meeting. To help county citizens see first-hand what their elected representative are doing, we will try to place the important issues discussed at each Commission meeting on this web site. The key video clips of what happened at the 6/19/08 Commission meeting, where the 2007 /2008 budget was approved, are shown below.
Citizen Linda King says build roads not jail pods
Ms. King took the floor to ask the Commission to give a priority to fixing our county roads rather than building the expensive, unneeded jail pod being advocated by Sheriff Berrong and Finance Director David Bennett. (Click here for video)
Citizen Harry Grothjahn says the county doesn’t know where
it is receiving it fair share of state road funds
Mr. Grothjahn points out that the county has no system for checking whether it is receiving it’s fair share of state fuel and sales taxes. Since these are the sources of the county’s road funds, this is one of the reasons our ability to finance county road repairs is in crisis. (Click here for video)
Sheriff’s cushy police retirement plan advances
Remember how Sheriff Hutchinson pushed Knox County into a
new retirement plan that cost the taxpayers tens of millions and gave him $85,000
per year. Well Sheriff Berrong is out to do the same thing in Blount County.
Although the resolution at this meeting did not approve the plan, it did
advance it to the next step. Again your Commissioners passively sat by and let
it pass. (Click
here for the video)
Commissioner Ron French continues his quest for fair
taxation of rezoned commercial property
When property is rezoned commercial in Blount County, it often continues to be taxed as commercial property (residential property is taxed at 25% of its full value while commercial property is supposed to be taxed at 40%). Several months ago Commissioner brought this problem to the attention of the full Commission. Unfortunately, since powerful developers and landowners are big contributors to the political machine, no action was taken. However, French has been making sure the Commission does not forget about the issue. He requested that the fee to request commercial zoning changes be significantly increased. Finance Director Bennett tried some slight of hand maneuvers to avoid French’s request for an increase, but French put him back on track and the increase passed. (Click here for video)
Commissioner David Graham tries to protect School Resource
Officer funds
The Commission has appropriated $1 million per year to put SRO’s in each school. Unfortunately Sheriff Berrong has chosen to use these funds activities that are both unnecessary and have nothing to do with protecting our children. Commissioner Graham has been leading an effort to get those funds separated in the budget so that the Commission can assure that the funds are spent for the intended purpose. Finance Director Bennett (he’s also Chairman of the Political Machine) and Sheriff Berrong have been fighting Graham’s effort to demand accountability. (Click here for the video)
Commissioner Wendy Pitts-Reeves tries to get funding for
Morganton road improvements
Commissioner Reeves continues her battle to get improvements to the most dangerous stretch of highway in the county. (Click here for video)
Commission authorizes a 15% increase in the total debt of
the county with little discussion
Very few Commissioners questioned a $30 million increase in the County’s debt. (Click here for the video)
Lots of conflicts of interest in the budget vote
There are so many county employees and people affiliated with the county on the Commission that 9 out of 20 Commissioners had to read conflict statements before voting. In addition, Commissioner Burchfield did not read a conflict statement, even though her husband is a senior member of the Sheriff’s department and she was voting on the department budget. Conveniently, they forgot to turn the microphones on for these statements but you’ll get the idea. (Click here for the video)
Commissioner Melton says if you don’t like it - go back where you came from
Linda King spoke about some new findings by the National Kidney Foundation in the fluoride controversy. This occasioned an outburst from Commissioner Melton against King, and critics of the county in general. It seems as if some of Mayor Cunningham’s bigotry against outsiders is even rubbing off on Melton, a usually decent fellow. Perhaps, if Commissioner Melton would take a closer look at some of the information being produced by county citizens, he would not be so certain that the county is in good hands. (Click here for the video)