The Intergovernmental and Finance Committees met this morning. I serve on Intergovernmental. All our scheduled business (including adoption of an ethics code and requesting opening of the parking garage) was put on the consent agenda and passed. The remaining time was spent on two motions regarding replacement of the term-limited office holders.
Read more after the jump...
Commissioner Phil Guthe pressed for a special election. Law Director John Owings insisted we had no state authority to do such. I asked him to look at him from the perspective of not what state law allowed, but whether any state law prohibited. He was unmoved.
Commissioner Greg Lambert, unfairly pilloried in some posts, is pushing for quick state legislative action to allow for a special election that would permit winners to serve until 2010. He believes the prospect of running two or three times in quick succession will deter good candidates.
We have an honest disagreement on that. I propose a plan (details follow) for a quick, non-binding public referendum. Commissioners would get around the law director (and supporter) objections by still voting to appoint, but we would ignore the public's stated preferences at our peril. It's far from perfect, but I think better than waiting six months of more for a possible special election and better than a direct appointment scheme. More follows.
Mark Harmon
MOTION BY COMMISSIONER MARK HARMON
Pursuant to the Tennessee Supreme Court decision in Jordan et al. v. Knox County, Tennessee, et al. the legislative body of Knox County, the Knox County Commission, must select eight new county commissioners to replace those who are term-limited. The commissioners also must select new persons to serve as sheriff, trustee, county clerk, and register of deeds because those persons also have been declared term-limited by the Court decision.
To accomplish these tasks we will enact the following process:
For a period of two weeks, beginning January 23rd, persons interested in these vacant positions in Knox County government, may submit written nominations of themselves specifying which position they seek. In the case of the Fourth County Commission District it will be sufficient to state County Commissioner without indicating seat A or B. Applicants also may submit a summary of what they believe to be their qualifications for the position sought. These applications and summaries will be available for inspection on the county web site and in the county commission office.
All applications and supporting material must be received by the close of business on Tuesday February 6th. During the next ten days, February 7th to the 16th, the Commission will have one or more public forums during which the applicants can answer questions from the currently serving commissioners, including those serving until their replacements take office.
From February 17th through the 24th the Election Commission will conduct and supervise a plebiscite at the usual early voting locations and hours in Knox County. Voters will be presented with a ballot allowing them to express a candidate preference in all four county-wide offices (sheriff, trustee, county clerk, and register of deeds) as well as a preference in the commission district in which they reside. Voters in the Fourth District may indicate a preference for two commission applicants. In the other commission districts with only one commission seat to be filled each voter may indicate a preference for only one applicant.
A special called meeting of the Knox County Commission on February 26th the Election Commission will present the results of the plebiscite, indicating for each office the preference vote totals for each applicant. At that time a motion would be in order for appointing the applicants with the greatest number of preference votes to the offices sought, and in Commission District Four appointing the two applicants with the greatest number of preference votes. County Commission would be free to amend the preference vote motion (though this is strongly not recommended), but in no case could appoint a person who was not an applicant for the position.
The persons selected through this process shall serve in these positions until the next Knox County general election in 2008. They and others can seek election to a full-term through the normal mechanisms.
OTHER QUICK NOTES:
My proposal and that of the special election request both went forward to the full commission with no recommendation. I believe the same thing happened at the Finance Committee meeting.
Wednesday the 17th (tomorrow) is the Cable TV committe meeting, 8:30 a.m. Room 640 of City County Bldg. Mike Hammond chairs. I'm vice chair. I expect issues like: franchise renewal, full payment of franchise fees, incomplete and behind-schedule builds (especially Knology), pending state and federal changes that could further weaken franchise agreement rules. If you know of others, please contact me (markdharmon@yahoo.com).
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During the next ten days,
More good 'ole boy bullshit politics. I don't think the currently null and void commissioners should have any say so in the matter...my two cents...
including those serving
including those serving until their replacements take office.
In Mark's defense, the TN Supreme Court ruling was pretty explicit that these people get to serve (and presumably carry out the functions and duties of their office) until they are replaced. Maybe not an ideal situation in this case, but it is what it is, or at least so it seems.
Interestingly, Ragsdale did not seem to interpret it that way initially. As I recall, his remarks indicated he thought it would be the remaining, non-term-limited commissioners who would decide.
Mark, what's the deal on
Mark, what's the deal on this closed meeting between Ragsdale, Moore, and Owings?
(The KNS article about it seems to have disappeared off their website. Probably a technical glitch...)
Isnt that a violation of the
Isnt that a violation of the Sunshine law? (silly me...thinking that Dear Leader Ragsdale would want to be straight with the public...)
Isnt that a violation of the
Isnt that a violation of the Sunshine law?
I was sort of wondering about that myself.
It's not a violation of
It's not a violation of state open meetings laws since the meeting didn't include more than one member of any elected body (one mayor, one commissioner, one law director).
Well, that explains that.
Well, that explains that. Thanks for clearing it up for us, B.
(Luckily, there can't be more than one mayor or one law director. Convenient how that worked out, eh?)
If I understand the
If I understand the proposal, it's a non-binding plebiscite with an open nomination process. Commission should set ground rules for nominations and/or candidacies before rushing to a vote of this magnitude, and an informal polling process is a good concept.
I'm not sure the election commission can spring to action on short notice. Did you ask Greg Mackay whether a month's notice is adequate to program the machines and staff the early voting stations? Since the results can be amended by the commission, perhaps something less formal like old-fashioned signature collecting would do.
We learned the hard way last year that the election commission is duty bound to obey public notice schedules and ballot deadlines during regular elections, even regular elections that become highly irregular. Are there guidelines for conducting a "plebiscite" you might need to adhere to? It's a litigious lot.
I am concerned about everybody being replaced in an omnibus vote. It introduces too much room for horse trading. Writing "amendments strongly discouraged" is not likely to work. I think multiple votes, perhaps separate motions for each constitutional office and another for the new slate of commissioners, might be better than a single motion up or down for the whole lot.
Actually, the order in which things happen is also important. The de facto commission should be made whole before constitutional officers are replaced.