We have the complete audit available at WBIR.com

-Katie

The audit only addresses what was without sufficient receipts or sufficient purpose. The taxpayers of Knox County would be horrified to see the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by this administration, with little or no county purpose associated with the expenditure.

The travel vehicle allowance is coming, same song second verse, with absolutely nothing to show for it other that Ragsdale's gradiose comments "moving the community forward".

Law director should resign and let the new law director be sworn in and let him initiate his own review of all of the p-card statements and formulate what he thinks are appropriate charges and demand/initiate proceedings to recover the rest.

Link (pdf)

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Read the audit details. They are very interesting. It appears that some employees regularly used the p-card at grocery stores and some filled up their car every few days, and they all took lots of trips, ate a lot, and bought lots of flowers...

The list of "questionable charges" beginning on page 19 is fascinating. I found all those monthly charges to Club LeConte (pg 28) especially interesting.

It's disturbing that these people thought they had a mechanism in place to assure them that the taxpayers would never get wind of all this extravagance.

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Looks like some folks are going to need legal representation.

It also looks like there was little to no oversight on who spent what. I have never worked any place like that. It is difficult to understand why they would think this wouldn't eventually come to light.

SHAZAM!!!

Just casually going through these receipts is AMAZING.

A whole lotta eatin' and a whole lotta motels.

Travel Policy Sect. 1.4.9a: "Charges for alcoholic beverages will not be allowed in any circumstance."

What part of that is not clear?

Furthermore, an individual identified by Ms. Finch has indicated he created false invoices for her.

Wow. No wonder she's been forced into resignation, not that those other scroundrels have much room or credibility to ask her to do so.

Will Randy Nichols step up to the plate? False receipts is fairly cut and dry.

Usually Thursdays are read with me days and he steps up to the plate to read a book or two to the elementary school kids.

I hope he was reading the Emperor's New Clothes as there is nothing he can provide in the audit response that will justify the wholesale looting of the county coffers by the people in his office.

Reimbursements for purchases at J's Mega Mart. Oh, that's funny.

And, J. Crew and the Gap. Gotta scratch your head over those.

Will the IRS be looking into unreported income for any of these folks?

This would seem to undermine the case for having the mayor appoint fee holders. Cannot possibly imagine how the voters would approve that with images of this p-card abuse in the mayor's office still fresh on their collective mind.

If anyone thinks Randy Nichols office will consider theft or fraud charges in this matter, they haven't been paying attention to local matters for years. At best, Owings uses the threat of asking the DA to investigate in an attempt to force some "pennies on the dollar" reimbursements. Ragsdale is running out of scapegoats to fire, but I bet, after the jockeying and claiming all these matters have been cleaned up, he ultimately passes the collection plate up and down the office pews. I bet Lewis "showboat" Cosby is chuckling this morning, and good for him.

Is this enough? I think so.

If you feel this has reached the point where an ouster lawsuit is called for, you can contact your County Commissioner here:

Commission Office: commission@knoxcounty.org City/County Bldg., Suite 603, 37902

215-2038(fax) 215-2534(o)

District 1, Seat A - 524-1458(h) 241-8054(o)
District 1, Seat B - Thomas Strickland, Chair 540-4005(h) 215-2048(o)
District 2, Seat A - Mark Harmon 524-4026(h) 974-5122(o)
District 2, Seat B - Mark Campen 414-5593(h) 215-2534(o)
District 3, Seat A - Tony Norman 524-4301(h) 594-4477(o)
District 3, Seat B - Ivan Harmon 584-3286(h) 215-4625(o)
District 4, Seat A - Elaine Davis 560-1573(h) 215-2534(o)
District 4, Seat B - William Daniels 470-8216(h) 696-2870(c)
District 5, Seat A - Mike Hammond 470-8599(h) 212-4516(o)
District 5, Seat B - Craig Leuthold 37922 694-8671(h) 966-6611(o)
District 5, Seat C - Richard Briggs 966-5125(h) 215-2534(o)
District 6, Seat A - Robert Rountree 947-1234(h) 215-2534(o)
District 6, Seat B - Greg Lambert 938-7737(h) 938-7737(o)
District 7, Seat A - R. Larry Smith 688-0323(h) 922-5433(o)
District 7, Seat B - Scott Moore 922-7926(h) 215-2534(o)
District 8, Seat A - Phil Ballard 933-5045(h) 215-2534(o)
District 8, Seat B - Dave Wright 687-6677(h) 215-2534(o)
District 9, Seat A - Victoria DeFreese 577-7045(h) 215-2534(o)
District 9, Seat B - Paul Pinkston 577-8761(h) 215-2534(o)

Commissioners’ Email: firstname.lastname@knoxcounty.org Commission Website: (link...)

I liked the "Blue Skies Car Wash" charge on Van de Vate's list. We'll probably hear that he was washing the car of some exec of a high-tech conglomerate looking to relocate to Knox County.

Looks like Owings may go after this. He does have a motive- Bill Lockett was law partner with Ragsdale's personal attorney, so Ragsdale's fingerprints are all over Owings' loss. Without Lockett in the race, no one else was running and Owings wins. My bet is that Owings has a bit of a grudge, hence his request to County Commission that they give him authority to take action. Note the language of Owings' request- it is very broad- and technically might encompass even an ouster suit.

Ragsdale might shouldn't have involved himself in the law director race, but then discretion isn't his forte.

Clarence Darrow himself could not have achieved a favorable outcome for the county commission in the sunshine lawsuit with Scoobie and Lumpy as clients/witnesses. Blaming the lawyer for the result in that case is ridiculous.

www.herstonlaw.com

Lockett was apparently up in ragsdales office for at least part of the day today. Not a good signal from the incoming law director.

jb

there will be some fine tooth combing, so as to speak..some of the missing receipts will be located, found stuck away in various locations, Ownings will force the fired/resigned employees to make restitution,the others mentioned in the report still employed will willingly pay up.... no one will be be prosecuted criminally either by the DA or the state AG, Ragsdale won't resign but won't run for re-election, and will go off into private business after the next Mayoral election and the whole thing will blow over.....in time........