These Amendments were written by citizens. They have had little legal review. They are full of holes and unintended consequences.

I suggested all voters listen to the talk Frank Leuthold had with County Commission last Wednesday in the only Workshop Commission has had on these Charter Amendments.

Frank Leuthold was a County Commissioner for 22 years. He helped write the first County Charter. He amended the County Charter in 1994. He is the Dean of the County Commission. One of the most respected public servants in the history of Knox County government.

Listen to him, or not. But know this, these amendments will have a profound affect on your life. Make sure you understand what you will be voting for.

Part I

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Part II

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You cannot see Frank Leuthold because the camera could not be operated. All you can do is hear his voice from the podium.

Breaking news from the Intergovernmental Committee of Knox County Commission, a call for a Charter Review Committee has been made by Dr. Richard Briggs one of the District Five Commissioners.

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The Finance Committee decided unanimously to place on the Agenda for the full Commission meeting on March 24th a resolution to request County Mayor Mike Ragsdale to convene a Charter Review Committee to deal with the 9 Amendments from the Knox Charter Petition special interest group.

The Charter Review Committee will consist of one Commissioner per District for a total of 9 Commissioners. There will also be 10 citizens on the Charter Review Committee who must be registered voters. Not more than two citizens may come from each District.

There are two Charter Amendments proposed by Sixth District Commissioner Greg Lambert. He said today he would remove those Amendments from the Commission Agenda and submit them to the Charter Review Committee.

Other citizens will now be free to bring Charter Amendments forward for consideration allowing all citizens to have an opportunity to participate in their government. These Charter Amendments will be on the November ballot so they will void any Charter Amendments passed on the August ballot.

This is a wise decision. The rush to judgment from an arbitrary timeline created by the Knox Charter Petition no longer is controlling the course of our County Charter. We are fortunate to have this leadership from the new Commissioners such as Dr. Briggs who have stepped up and calmed down a run away process that was flawed on many levels.

I stand corrected on finger pointing..nothing getting done.

This is a good move by commission.

I still believe Knox County Petition group royally screwed up how they went about presenting the charter changes to commission.

But the Knox County Petition thought the lilly would would die on placing charter changes on the August ballot.

March 25th was the drop dead date & the clock was ticking.

I think thats what caused them to push so hard & created the inflexable rhetoric.

More political spade work would have been my approach.

However,I disagree that these folks are the evil empire.

Trying to hijack Knox County government.

I went to one of the Knox County One Question's meetings,made a comment on the website & talked about what they were doing with people that attended the meetings.

These are good folks trying to do the right thing.

"Rhetoric heated up this week in the battle to get changes to Knox County government."

Screamed the front page story in Saturday's
N-S.

March 27th marks the 2nd anniversary of the Supreme Court Bailey decision & I had had enough .

For nearly 731 days all we had heard in the "debate" about county government.

Was f**ck you..no..f**ck you harder bullshit.

Didn't the county primary election returns mean anything to anybody?

I was pissed...at everybody.

I was ready to go to Monday's Commission meeting & vent.

But then I read 9's post & clicked on the link.

Lo & behold Commissioner Briggs was doing the right thing.

Commissioner Lambert agreed & said "I think we need to be careful about what we do."

The Charter Review Committee passed with flying colors.

The Mayor agreed to appoint one.

Today Mr. McClain said & I quote "The Knox County Petition wholeheartedly supports your effort to do this."

Its simple folks.

When we talk at each other..nothing happens.

When we talk to each other..we move foward.

Good job.