According to this Knoxville News Sentinel report, a state audit of the publicly funded "Sportsman's Wildlife Foundation" found numerous problems, but says steps are being taken to correct them. H.E. Bittle, head of the foundation, says "not a single penny was misspent."

The foundation is funded by sales of a specialty license plate. You may recall previous discussion about this here. Apparently, most of the funds have gone to build a luxury hunting lodge and payment of Bittle's salary. (Bittle sponsored the bill that created the specialty license plate and directed the proceeds to his foundation while he was a member of the Tennessee House.) The state audit recommends changes to state law to require better accounting of how such funds are spent.

Earlier this year, legislation was introduced to discontinue funding for the Sportsman's Wildlife Federation and instead allocate proceeds from the specialty license plate to TWRA for hunter education. Another bill would require the Secretary of State to verify the non-profit status of any organizations receiving funds from specialty license plate sales. More on those bills can be found at TennViews.

From the News Sentinel just now:

Knox County auditor releases purchasing card audit

Knox County's auditor released the draft audit of county purchasing card use this morning in a surprising reversal of previously stated policy.
Auditors have said they wouldn't release the long-delayed report, which covers thousands of transactions on purchasing cards issued to county employees, until the county administration has had the opportunity to respond, but the News Sentinel received a copy at the auditor's office shortly after 9 a.m. and is reviewing the initial findings.

UPDATE: Copies of the audit report at the KNS and WBIR, KNS report here, WBIR report here.

UPDATE: By way of KAG, WBIR has created a searchable database of p-card charges.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Worker issue fails on first try

Commissioner Paul Pinkston, however, said, "You're taking rights away, Commissioner Hammond. We're discriminating against these people. You're wanting to push things back to the dark ages when women and blacks could not vote."

Lumpy says it's unconstitutional. Apparently Lumpy and Grumpy are unfamiliar with the Hatch Act.

Anyway, what's the big deal about letting voters decide whether county employees should be allowed to hold elected office?

I found this thread on the Seymour Herald site.

It seems to raise some questions about possible illegal or certainly unethical behavior of the County Mayor and those that he employs.

Some people sure know a lot. I wonder what else others might be able to turn up.

It seems that Knox County may not have the monopoly on questionable behavior by those charged with "working for the people."

An investigative reporter should jump on this. Could be a Pulitzer prize in the making!

Complete text of the Seymour Herald thread follows:

Cynthia Finch and staff have been given a choice of resigning from boards of community groups that receive HUD grants, or not overseeing HUD grants.

And from yesterday, the Knox County auditor's son has been hired by the Knox County Court Clerk's office. Auditor Richard Walls and County Court Clerk Cathy Quist say there is no conflict of interest because Walls is not currently auditing that office and besides they don't use p-cards, and anyway Walls will recuse himself from auditing that department if something comes up. County Commissioner Mike Hammond, who is on the ethics committee, says the hiring is not a violation of ethics policies.

OK, then.

Interesting and varying accounts of a controversial Realtor's Association meeting in the KNS.

Knox County Law Director John Owings has issued a recommendation to the Tennessee Legislature's Open Meetings Subcommittee.

In his petulant response to the recent trial and questions raised, he proposes to basically rewrite the Open Meetings act to make everything that happened on Jan. 31st A-OK.

There's just too much good stuff to single out one best part, but this is pretty good:

Please make it clear that if there is no discussion about a matter at a meeting, but instead, a motion, second, a call for discussion, no discussion, and a vote, that is not a violation of the act.

Why not go ahead and make it "a motion, a second, a recess to go discuss it in the hall and decide you need another vote and get a judge down to swear somebody in and when you get caught doing that give somebody else a copy of the oath and directions to the judge's office to get sworn in and seated and THEN vote" it is not a violation.

(They way it's written, is Owings suggesting that people might think things have already been decided if there's no discussion? Where would they get that idea?)

The whole thing is based on the premise that county business will grind to a halt because commissioners are now afraid to speak to one another. Nobody who has been paying attention is aware of any such prohibition in the Open Meetings Act. Who does The county law director represent -- Knox County and its citizens, or Scooby and Lumpy?

Knoxville City Council will consider a couple of interesting resolutions tomorrow.

One would oppose weakening the state "sunshine law". It would be interesting to find out where City Council members stand on the issue. The Knoxville News Sentinel has the details.

I was surprised to learn that the Tennessee Municipal League and the Tennessee County Services Association support weakening the law. The only thing the law needs is a clear definition of "deliberate" in small words for the benefit of Lumpy and Scooby. City Council hasn't seemed to have any problems understanding it and abiding by it.

The second resolution would request the City of Farragut to put up their fair share of sales tax funding for Knox County Schools. Betty Bean has the details at the Halls Shopper. Farragut administrator Dan Olson's justification for not kicking in more funding is pretty funny.

Both resolutions are being introduced by Knoxville City Council member Rob Frost.

Not wanting to feel left out of local County Commission drama, Blount County is having some drama of its own.

You can read all about it here:

TARGET- Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves

More background here:

Commission Democrats under attack

More on County Commission conflicts

The bottom line is that one of the three Democrats (and, gasp, a woman!) on the 21 member Blount County Commission dared question the Good Old Boys of Blount County and now they're going after her.

And in the latest article referenced in the first link, the Scripps owned and News Sentinel affiliated Blount Today "newspaper" is on the wrong side of this one.

But it's no surprise that they're siding with the GOP Good Old Boys without checking any facts other than what they are spoon fed. It will be amusing to watch the backpedaling commence when the facts come out.

The Halls Shopper quotes Julia Tucker:

"We have no investigative powers, we have no enforcement authority, we have no budget, we have no clerical help," Tucker said. "We don’t even have any letterhead to reply to the people who write us, except for our chair (the Rev. Ron Stewart) using his church stationery. We rely on hearsay, or reading it in the newspaper ... we need to keep that in mind. We are just very, very limited in what we can do when we make these broad recommendations."

Betty Bean has more.

In case you missed the KNS article from last week, this sounds pretty outrageous:

When former state Rep. H.E. Bittle Jr. pushed for the creation of a "Sportsman" license plate in 1999, he stipulated that part of the revenue from the plates would go to a familiar foundation — his own.

Bittle was the prime House sponsor of House Bill 584, which created the specialty plate that features an image of a deer. In the years since then, more than $900,000 in revenue from the plate has been allocated to the Sportsmen’s Wildlife Foundation.

According to the article, the "Sportsman's Wildlife Foundation" was founded by Bittle (R-Knoxville) who is the foundation's CEO. Five of its six board members are family.

The money was used to purchase 329 acres in Cumberland County and build a luxury "hunting lodge" currently appraised at $319K to promote "hunter safety instruction."

The article mentions that Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and State Sen. Jamie Woodson helped push the bill through the legislature. Read the whole article to fully appreciate how questionable all this sounds.

According to Tennessee Secretary of State business records (click "search using any part of a business name" and search for "wildlife foundation"), the Sportsman's Wildlife Federation was "administratively dissolved" by the State in Sept. 1999, just four months after the legislation passed. It was reinstated in December of 2001.

Mayor Ragsdale has released the review and final recommendations of the P-Card Review Committee, and says in a separate news release that his office will recommend that "almost all" be implemented. It will require amendments to the current purchasing regulations and approval by County Commission.

UPDATE: Asked about "almost all" recommendations, a spokesperson for the Mayor's office provided the following clarifications.

First, regarding the recommendation for "full oversight by staff in the Finance Department." Two options are mentioned: a new full-time position or a reassignment of duties of two or more staff in the Purchasing Department. The Mayor's office will recommend "the assignment of responsibilities to staff in both Purchasing and in Finance. Purchasing staff will oversee the issuance of cards and monitor the use of them, while Finance will provide a redundant reconciliation. The statements will be reconciled at the department level, then a copy of the statement, with copies of all receipts and supporting documentation, will go to Finance for a second reconciliation."

Second, the recommendation to "Require employee travel to be approved in advance and attach approved request to charge statement" will be partially adopted, because under new travel regulations all travel will be approved in advance but there should be no travel-related charges on p-cards.

Further, "Meals will be on the standard per diem, and travel, lodging, conference expenditures will not be paid by p-card. Those expenses can be paid by requisition or reimbursement. Eventually a limited number of travel cards may be issued and those may be used to pay travel expenses only."

Former State Sen. John Ford sentenced to 5 and 1/2 years. Michael Silence has the details.

Commissioner Tony Noman just finished making an impassioned plea for a strong Stormwater Ordinance. His amendment would enhance enforcement. Mine would align Knox County's rules more closely with Knoxville's. Commissioner Lambert's amendment would weaken the ordinance in several key areas.

The commissioners as well as the noted reporters received their subpoenas in the Open Meetings lawsuit.

--Mark Harmon

The KNS reports that Knox County is funding another local non-profit "linked" to Cynthia Finch:

Knox County is funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to a church-affiliated development corporation that’s linked to Mayor Mike Ragsdale’s community services director and is delinquent on its own taxes.

According to the article, the link to Finch is that the development corporation made a $33,000 grant to TennCorp, the other non-profit in the news that was founded by Finch and has offices in a building she owns and is run by her sister.

We were out shopping yesterday and passed by the local Wal-Mart near our house three or four times, even turning around in their parking lot once to go to Target to pick up something we remembered.

In a moment of weakness, I muttered that "I wish we could just stop at Wal-Mart. It's right here." The Mrs. wouldn't have any of it, so off to Target we went.

On the way, I said "you know, it would be nice if you could buy some sort of shopping offset or credit, like those carbon offsets, when you're in a hurry and it would be more convenient to just go to Wal-Mart."

And right then the idea for my next big business venture hit me: Socially Irresponsible Shopping Offset Credits™. Each $10 offset credit coupon would cover $100 worth of liberal guilt relating to purchases from a socially irresponsible merchant.

$8 of the credit would go to charities and other organizations that promote social and environmental responsibility. $2 would go towards administering the program (i.e. to pay me) and for postage and handling of a nice Socially Irresponsible Shopping Offset Credit™ coupon. (Ratios subject to change pending an actual, you know, business plan and stuff.)

This is a breakthrough free-market solution to the growing problem of liberal guilt shopping inconvenience.

• Running low on gas and the only nearby brand available is Exxon Mobile? No problem. Half of one SISOC™ coupon will cover a $50 fill up!

• Forgot your niece or nephew's birthday and there's a Wal-Mart right on the way to the party? No problem. With your SISOC™ coupon, you're covered for up to $100 in video games or cheap plastic Chinese imported gift items.

• That designer top is tres chic, but you're worried about reports that the company uses sweatshop labor in Malaysia. Whip out your SISOC™ coupons along with your credit card, and worry no more.

• You really, really like that teak outdoor furniture set, but you're concerned about the loss of old growth teak forests in Indonesia? No problem. Five SISOC™ coupons and you're covered for up to $500.

The possibilities are endless.

In fact, you never know what the next targeted company or product will be, so the safest bet is to purchase $10 worth of SISOC™ coupon for every $100 you spend on consumer goods and services monthly. That way, even if you didn't know that a certain shampoo contributes to clear cutting in the Amazon rain forests or that a certain dairy producer is using banned hormones, you're covered.

They make great gifts, too. Conservatives who don't know what to get their weird liberal friends and relatives for Christmas (or Saturnalia or whatever) can load up on SISOC™ coupons for the holidays - problem solved!

Watch this space for the launch of Socially Irresponsible Shopping Offset Credit™ coupons, coming soon. Don't leave home without them, and enjoy guilt-free shopping wherever you go.

What do Renee Kesler, Requitta Bone, and Cynthia Finch all have in common? They are all successful black women, and at some time have all been under intense scrutiny with regard to local government shenanigans, resulting in two of them leaving their posts and a third most likely updating her resume.

How is it that the press brings out the torches and pitchforks for these women, but can't seem to get the goods on any Rich White Guys in the Good Old Boys Club (with the possible exception of Werner, who Ragsdale threw under the bus himself)?

Not that anyone should get a free pass because of their race, but might it have something to do with who has the power and who is feeding the media their info and where they would rather divert attention?

UPDATE: Margie Loyd, another successful black woman, has resigned.

While Lumpy and Scooby are yammering about getting buffooned by the Spanish Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!) and calling for the District Attorney General to get involved in the Knox County p-card scandal, Mayor Ragsdale was already way ahead of them on compliance.

The KNS said last week that Mayor Ragsdale had reported the credit card abuses to the State Comptroller. It probably had something to do with this.

The new state law, which went into effect in May of 2007, requires public officials "with knowledge based upon available information which reasonably causes him/her to believe that a theft, forgery, credit card fraud, or any other act of the unlawful taking of public money, property, or services has occurred shall report such information in a reasonable amount of time to the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury."

Which is exactly what Ragsdale did. Instead of grandstanding for the cameras, maybe Scooby and Lumpy and Pinkston could have simply filled out this form. The question now is, why didn't they? Seems like they are required by law to do so. Not to start a witch hunt or a McCartney hearing or anything.

(Thanks to alert reader M for bringing this to our attention.)

UPDATE: WBIR has this document dump re. the p-card scandal. Page 18 is a fax from the Knox County DA's office dated July 5th regarding the state law. Page 19 is the Fraud Reporting form. The only employee mentioned is Requitta Bone.

Knox County Finance Director John Werner has resigned in the wake of the county credit card controversy.

Mayor Ragsdale also transferred his executive assistant, who, along with then Commissioner Diane Jordan, dined on lobster at Regas and ordered two lobster tails to go on a county credit card, to another department.

WBIR files this report, with a link to the formal response...

A couple of weeks ago there was an odd story about a possible civil rights violation regarding the new location of the Burlington Library.

Aside from the fact that I had no idea there was any such thing as the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, or that they could bring a civil rights action, I didn't understand how it could be a civil rights issue.

Then I looked at a map of the new location as compared to the old and proposed alternate location and I could see what they were talking about.

Today's front-page headline story sheds a little more light on the site selection. It seems the PBA was involved in selecting a site owned by a PBA board member and big time Ragsdale supporter.

I don't recall seeing anything in the paper about it until after the fact. A recent editorial decries the lack of public input, again, after the fact.

Big news in the Knoxville News Sentinel today regarding the ongoing government ethics controversies in Knox County Government. Everybody gets piled on this time.

The front page news today is about the credit card controversy. Ragsdale and most of his top aides have paid back nearly $6500 in unauthorized credit card charges.

According to the KNS, Finance Director John "Smoothie King" Werner paid back over $2000 in charges and was reprimanded. It seems like the Finance Director ought to be setting an example. Oh, wait. He is! Community Services Director Cynthia Finch was also admonished to tighten control of credit card spending.

Earlier in the week, the KNS reported that Community Services Administrative Assistant Requitta Bone resigned after paying back nearly $3000 in personal credit card charges.

The problem is worse than it first appeared. It's hard to understand why government employees think it is appropriate to use government credit cards for personal expenditures. You don't need an ethics committee or a bunch of ethics workshops to know it's just plain stealing from taxpayers. What's not clear is where they got the idea this was OK, or why they thought they would get away with it. There appears to be a serious lack of supervision and oversight, which suggests a breakdown in leadership somewhere.

Then there's this guest editorial today from county IS Director Dick Moran, with a long, pathetic explanation about a $500 gift certificate he received at a "charity" golf tournament.

According to his convoluted mea culpa, he actually called the county law director to ask about the nuances of ethics policy before deciding if he should donate the gift certificate to charity. What a prince. With everything else going on, the administration would have been better off without this self-serving "excuse" that reveals more about the greedy and selfish mindset of public officials than it does about their concern for ethical behavior.

To make sure nobody feels left out, the KNS also has this front page report about yet another possible sunshine violation involving a lunch meeting of several County Commissioners. Lumpy says they talked about fishing. Bolus says he doesn't know what they talked about. You'll have to read the whole thing to fully appreciate the absurdity.

This Dutch reality show sinks lower than snake-dung to attract an audience. The sad thing is it could become as popular as American Idol. If it does I'm going to build a homemade spaceship and go live on the moon.

The Society of Professional Journalists is hosting an open town hall meeting on Knox County Government ethics, Tuesday, May 1st at 7 PM at the East Tennessee History Center Auditorium on Gay Street (across from the Tennessee Theater.

WBIR News Anchor John Becker will moderate. Participants include Rev. Ron Stewart and Commissioner Mike Hammond from the Knox Co. Ethics Commission, David Moon from the Public Trust PAC, and John Schmid and Tom Salter from Reforming Knox Co. Government.

The SPJ promises a lively discussion regarding the fallout from the term limits decision and where to go next, and invites the public and potential candidates to attend and participate in the forum.

More details after the jump...

Ethics coming to Sevier County soon. An ethics policy is required to be in place by June 30. The requirement for counties to adopt an ethics policy is part of the Ethics Reform Act of 2006, which came about after the Tennessee Waltz scandal involving the arrest of some state lawmakers.

I, for one, welcome ethics to Sevier County. I hope that the Ethics Committee in Sevier County is successful. They have a tremendous amount of work to do.

I am excited that our elected officials stand on the precipice eager to leap into the realm of ethical behavior! I sincerely hope they succeed!

Let's all wish them luck!

Is the new mea culpa strategy working for the Republicans?

Every time you turn on the tube these days you see someone caught doing something illegal or amoral admitting they have done wrong---then they promise to do better. After Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security did it. Last week, the Veteran’s Administration went before a congressional hearing and tried it. Yesterday, the FBI confessed their wiretapping abuses. Now, even George W. Bush, the original Mr. Never-Admit-Anything, has jumped on the bandwagon. The formula goes something like this: cop a plea, say seven hail Mary’s and admit you sinned. Then, once you have been absolved, make a statement saying the situation has been examined and that changes are being made. Once you have done all that, everyone is supposed to admire you and forgive your sins.

The right-wing Christian coalition, a group that sometimes has trouble thinking for itself, is being told it is noble to confess, that Jesus forgives all sinners, and that once you have done this, you’re absolved of all responsibility. Fox News commentators also push this belief. “Well,” they say, “Bush has admitted he made some mistakes. But, he acted on bad intelligence. He said the situation in Iraq is intolerable, and he’s doing everything he can to make sure things will be better now.”

Oh, yeah! Great! Amen! But with more than 3,000 soldiers already dead, Bin laden chuckling somewhere in a cave, and Afghanistan beginning to boil over again, is just saying “I’m sorry” enough?

There’s an old saying: Sorry in one and spit in the other. Historically, the word sorry hasn’t carried much weight, but lately strategists in Washington have raised its status to one of biblical importance.

Next time you listen to the news, just count and be dazzled. Every day some new illegal or immoral act is being discovered. These incidents are rising faster than bones in a Louisiana graveyard. And, the first word you will hear out of the mouth of the guilty will be mea culpa, mea culpa—I’m sorry.

There is something noble about confession. Assuming responsibility for your actions has always proven better than hiding them, but if the list of things you have done is long and continues to grow after you’ve knelt in the corner to delivery your obligatory Hail Marys, even God might grow weary of listening to your hollow words.

The fact that the Bush administration has discovered a new strategy to avoid being held accountable for their many sins won’t save them in the end. Like all their other calculated but stupid moves, this one will soon be seen for what it is—just another clever attempt to bamboozle their constituents into thinking they are honorable men.

Lying, corruption, war, secret prisons, the Katrina disaster, Abu Grad, billions of dollars worth of contracts in Iraq not cancelled when the work wasn’t done, the FEMA trailers still sitting empty in a field of mud, veteran abuse—just how much forgiveness can these guys expect?

Sorry in one had and spit in the other--someone ought to say that to the next government official who tries to wiggle out of responsibility. Does anyone really give a darn if everyone connected to Bush is suddenly sorry? If those known liars assure us they are being truthful now? I don’t think so.

The KNS reports that Tommy Schumpert was never asked if he wanted to be on the newly formed Knox County Ethics Committee and that he won't serve. Scooby has an entertaining explanation for the faux pas: It's all Jack McElroy's fault.

Scott Barker reports five possible violations of state mandated ethics rules adopted by County Commission.

Those contacted for the article have some great excuses. Scooby says: "I think a reasonable person that comes to commission every month would realize my wife works for the sheriff because y'all have printed it so much." Leuthold said he disclosed his job with the trustee's office in his campaign materials.

Senate Republicans filibuster ethics reform. It's the dawn of a new era of bipartisanship in Congress!

Don't let the GOP rain on our parade.

Read more after the jump...