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Sevier County ethics
Submitted by afriqueart on Sun, 2007/11/04 - 2:52am.
This is an open letter to public officials in Sevier County.
Recently, The Knox County Ethics Committee recommended a policy that would ban city, county, state and federal employees, including school system employees, from serving in elected county offices.
I respectfully request that the Sevier County Ethics Committee pursue a similar policy to address nepotism and cronyism in Sevier County government.
I believe the citizens of Sevier County will be better served by a local government that operates completely above board with officials - elected and appointed - who have no conflicts of interests.
I further believe that all efforts should be made to ensure that there is not even the appearance of any impropriety or conflict of interests in regard to the operation of Sevier County government.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2007/11/04 - 3:54am.
Many of you may not know just how many developers sit on our county and planning commissions - they are well represented and dominate every vote. They routinely vote to approve other commissioners' development projects; sometimes approving projects that don't even meet the current zoning codes. Commissioners that work for the school board vote on their own salary increases and those that work for the sheriffs department recently voted to hire their new boss. Almost every vote by the commission raises numerous conflict of interest questions. It is business as usual and it is wrong. The commissioners take it as a personal attack if they are questioned at all about a possible conflict of interest and our mayor doesn't seem to care. It needs to stop. A strong ethics policy that includes nepotism and cronyism language shouldn't have to be in place to prohibit this type of behavior; the commissioners know it is wrong. How can they possibly defend this type behavior?
Many of you may not know just how many developers sit on our county and planning commissions - they are well represented and dominate every vote. They routinely vote to approve other commissioners' development projects; sometimes approving projects that don't even meet the current zoning codes. Commissioners that work for the school board vote on their own salary increases and those that work for the sheriffs department recently voted to hire their new boss. Almost every vote by the commission raises numerous conflict of interest questions. It is business as usual and it is wrong. The commissioners take it as a personal attack if they are questioned at all about a possible conflict of interest and our mayor doesn't seem to care. It needs to stop. A strong ethics policy that includes nepotism and cronyism language shouldn't have to be in place to prohibit this type of behavior; the commissioners know it is wrong. How can they possibly defend this type behavior?
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