Fri
Dec 1 2006
09:07 am
City of Knoxville Community Development roundup
By: R. Neal

Lots of new tag-team KNS reporting about Knoxville Community Development by Hayes Hickman and Scott Barker over the past few days:

Haslam overhauls Community Development Block Grant Process:

Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam said Thursday his department heads will step in to oversee distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants after weeks of turmoil in the city's Community Development Department.

Three Empowerment Zone options on the table:

The third option, and Mayor Bill Haslam's preferred choice, would leave oversight of the zone with the PNI board of directors, minus its three-member staff. That support would instead come from city staffers within the Community Development Division.

Also under that plan, Martin said, a new agency other than PNI most likely would be contracted to run the loan program.

Employee says Kesler tried to alter stats:

Former Knoxville Community Development Director Renee Kesler tried to get subordinates to alter statistics in a report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, employees said in sworn statements.

Kesler's directives, which employees said would have misrepresented the Community Development Block Grant program's accomplishments, weren't followed in the end, though the final report downplays the program's shortcomings.

City gave grants despite concerns:

The city's investigation, however, found other instances in which programs won grants despite incomplete or inadequate applications, or review scores that were lower than other applicants.

[..]

In her interview with investigators, Kesler defended the selections and attacked the probe. She said some organizations "don't have the capacity to complete those full applications, so we have to work with them and we worked with several of the agencies."

She also said the investigation was racially motivated.

The KNS's newly found interest in downtown development is encouraging. Hopefully they will turn these two reporters loose on other stories that the public may not be hearing about in the future.

As for the Community Development situation, it seems to have put Mayor Haslam between a rock and a hard place with regard to Knoxville's minority community, but he appears to be handling it as well as could be expected given the circumstances. And just in time for the 2007 elections, too.

Topics:
StaceyDs Cat's picture

Illegal? Heck, no

Submitted by StaceyDs Cat on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 10:14am.

I noticed in the paper today that again Haslem said nothing illegal is going on.

He's learned to say things like that at Pilot.

I tend to doubt he would ever say publically that there's lots of illegal stuff going on! Kessler has bought him one lawsuit so far.

And I heard that Madeline Rogero was at the EZ workshop last night. Anyone know if that's true? Could she be sizing up a run next year?

Bbeanster's picture

That would be interesting.

Submitted by Bbeanster on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 11:09am.

That would be interesting. As has beeninterated and reiterated on this page, Haslam wouldn't have beaten her in the first place if the leadership of the black community hadn't gone for Haslam. Kessler was Mark Brown's campaign treasurer, right?
Lots of those folks got rewarded.

StaceyDs Cat's picture

HUD report

Submitted by StaceyDs Cat on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 12:13pm.

The HUD report is coming out today about the grants given out. My magic 8 ball says they'll find no problems.

But when employees have been pressured to change numbers and reports, is the HUD look-see really looking at a reliable and unbiased city-prepared report?

Stan G's picture

Speaking of Vice Mayor Brown

Submitted by Stan G on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 12:47pm.

He has been notably absent at the Downtown Transit Center public meetings/hearing given that the Center will be located in his district. I would hazard the guess that a larger percentage of the folks living in his district take advantage of KAT than do the folks living in any of the other five districts.

One of Hooties Blowfish's picture

Speaking of Vice Mayor Brown

Submitted by One of Hooties ... on Sat, 2006/12/02 - 8:10pm.

Speaking of Vice Mayor Brown
Submitted by Stan G on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 11:47am.
He has been notably absent at the Downtown Transit Center public meetings/hearing given that the Center will be located in his district. I would hazard the guess that a larger percentage of the folks living in his district take advantage of KAT than do the folks living in any of the other five districts."

He was brought up in the Community Development investigation a few times (not in a good way) as was discussed on the radio, so perhaps that's why.

But what's amazing for all the charges of racism, who made the complaints? One was made by a black person and another by a white person who is married to a black person and has been involved in 2 realtionships resulting in interracial children. So is there really racism involved, or is it something else?

watcher's picture

Black vote

Submitted by watcher on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 5:26pm.

You know what they say about making a deal with the devil...

I'm still befuddled as to why on earth they'd keep Ms. Kessler on as a "volunteer" to help them "fix" the EZ process. I think she's done enough "fixing" to last this administration a lifetime! Guess they had to justify that beefy $10k+ "severance package" somehow. By the way, who ever heard of a severance package for RESIGNING a position???

Things that make you go hmpf...........

Bbeanster's picture

Back in the day, the frugal,

Submitted by Bbeanster on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 6:09pm.

Back in the day, the frugal, no-nonsense Dwight Kessel told me that it wasn't legal to pay severance to public employees. Makes sense when you think about it -- using taxpayer money to pay for work not done.

And this is compounded since this employee's work was vital to the workings of city government, right?

So someone else will be paid to do the vital work that was formerly hers, right?

And, yes, I never heard of anybody getting severance pay after resigning.

Somebody REALLY wants her to go away quietly.

Number9's picture

Somebody REALLY wants her to

Submitted by Number9 on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 6:13pm.

Somebody REALLY wants her to go away quietly.

Enquiring minds want to know who that somebody is.

watcher's picture

It's all about Anderson

Submitted by watcher on Fri, 2006/12/01 - 10:20pm.

It's tit for tat...they're trying to preserve Sam Anderson at the same time.

Rachel's picture

I've been reluctant to jump

Submitted by Rachel on Sat, 2006/12/02 - 8:30pm.

I've been reluctant to jump into this because it's so sensitive, and I will be happy to concede that I'm not privy to all the facts.

But based on what I do know, it appears that Rene Kesler was an incompetent and abusive manager. That has absolutely zero to do with race. The question of why she was allowed to run amok for so long may well have something to do with race, unfortunately.

As someone (beanster?) pointed out, Haslam owes his victory over Madeline in large part to the support of the elected officials in the black community - Mark Brown, Sam Anderson, Tank Strickland etc. Rene Kesler is evidently part of this circle, and that makes it difficult for Haslam to really do anything about her (hence, the resignation with "severance" pay). In fact, it probably weighed heavily into the decision to hire her in the first place.

Also, it appears that if anyone has acted in a racist manner in this entire mess, it's Kesler.

IMO, based on what I know.

That's not to say that the Knoxville black community doesn't have many valid complaints about City policy, both past and present. They certainly do. This just isn't one of them.

One of Hooties Blowfish's picture

well

Submitted by One of Hooties ... on Sat, 2006/12/02 - 9:23pm.

if the Urban League is complaining about Kesler to the administration, gemini is right, it isn't about race.

bill young's picture

did he??

Submitted by bill young on Sun, 2006/12/03 - 4:15pm.

did councilman brown go with mayor haslem?? my thought is he stayed neutral..but i could be wrong...

spintrep's picture

Patronage, race bias, program goals

Submitted by spintrep on Mon, 2006/12/04 - 3:14pm.

Not sure where these irregularities are due to patronage more than race bias, but that seems a separate issue.

I'm more interested to see an accounting of the money and projects on a case by case basis to determine the merits of each. The waste and malfeasance of any case seems more important outside of these other questions.

The idea was to lift and jump start the EZ area, but this fiasco represents a potential loss to our entire city (and with Federal funds, nationally) in not directing these funds to purposes outlined for the grants, not just for consideration of those within the EZ.

Just speculation on the severance thing... to get Kesler to cooperate (without being compelled legally,) in sorting out the mess during this interim period? Makes it harder to say "I'm gone"??

Isn't there a member of Knoxviews and recent candidate for a Commission district within the EZ that posts around here? Maybe he is informed about the issues here.

___________________________
we're living in a pathocracy!!

Number9's picture

Not sure where these

Submitted by Number9 on Mon, 2006/12/04 - 3:25pm.

Not sure where these irregularities are due to patronage more than race bias, but that seems a separate issue.

Interesting take on this. I agree based on what we know today it seems more patronage than race bias. Has anyone read the 1200 page manifesto on this? I would think some answers would be revealed in that document.

secretsquirrel's picture

1200 page manifesto

Submitted by secretsquirrel on Wed, 2006/12/06 - 1:40pm.

Many people have read this document - just NOT the right people on the 6th floor - and if they have read it they are hiding their heads in the sand - this whole administration has been about patronage, black AND white. I expect there will be more "issues" coming to light............

Pickens's picture

I've had some limited access

Submitted by Pickens on Wed, 2006/12/06 - 11:23pm.

I've had some limited access to part of the investigation. Ain't no way at this point I'll check out all the bills, receipts, documents, etc, other than I saw personal cell phone bills being paid, $1,000 and $5,000 tables being paid for at events, letters from big wigs at HUD inviting Mark Rigsbey to speak at a HUD event and Kessler saying no, me, Sam Anderson and Mark Brown are going, Rigsbey isn't going (Rigsbey is the guy Anderson suspended for filing a complaint), department score sheets for grants given out where some of the groups that got the grants scored real real low, and docs showing that Kessler made it known to her department that her church would be where a program seeking funding would be held.

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