Tue
Jun 3 2008
08:52 pm
Neighborhood lobbying?
By: Treehouse

The News Sentinel today reports, "Alison Wagley, director of the Office of Neighborhoods, was hesitant to explain up to $40,000 in her budget. But, after grilling by commissioners, she finally conceded it was for the county lobbyists." Silly me, I thought the Office of Neighborhoods was to serve Knox County neighborhoods. What are the lobbyists for? Somehow I don't think it's for improvements in my neighborhood.

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Rachel's picture

Yeah, that struck me as

Submitted by Rachel on Tue, 2008/06/03 - 10:25pm.

Yeah, that struck me as weird too. Why is the budget for county lobbyists coming out of the Office of Neighborhoods?

Anonymously Nine's picture

Why is the budget for county

Submitted by Anonymously Nine (not verified) on Tue, 2008/06/03 - 11:59pm.

Why is the budget for county lobbyists coming out of the Office of Neighborhoods?

Consider Nashville one of the neighborhoods.

Factchecker's picture

What the h*ll are we paying for?

Submitted by Factchecker on Wed, 2008/06/04 - 12:36pm.

This sounds sad and ominous. The one time I called the Office of Neighbs I didn't get the feeling they could really do anything to, like, help at all with my neighborhood issue.

Sam's picture

I called the office

Submitted by Sam on Wed, 2008/06/04 - 3:14pm.

I called the office of neighborhood a lot and I've never gotten any help from them. I thought it was another strange thing that they have $40,000 in their budget for lobbyists?

bizgrrl's picture

Well, I guess it's okay that

Submitted by bizgrrl on Wed, 2008/06/04 - 4:59pm.

Well, I guess it's okay that Alcoa doesn't have an Office of Neighborhoods. Doesn't sound very effective.

Rachel's picture

I'm told that that amount

Submitted by Rachel on Wed, 2008/06/04 - 6:21pm.

I'm told that that amount was actually $30,000, not $40,000. The contract is with Pratt, Pratt and Rice, a lobbying/public strategy firm that specializes in federal appropriations. The Office of Neighborhood is working with them on projects such as Seven Islands Refuge, Regional Water Coalition and the Ridgetop Trail Program.

That's really different from what I thought when I first heard it, which was that the $$ was for lobbying the state legislature on behalf of Knox County interests.

It does sound like the $$ is arguably neighborhood related. Which makes me wonder why it was difficult to explain when the question came up at Commission - assuming the KNS is reporting this correctly.

Pam Strickland's picture

Yeah, I would be for this.

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Wed, 2008/06/04 - 7:40pm.

Yeah, I would be for this. But lobbyist in general in the neighborhoods office is another things entirely. Why didn't the neighborhoods person explain this?

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Sam's picture

Yeah, I would be for this.

Submitted by Sam on Thu, 2008/06/05 - 7:28am.

Yeah, I would be for this. But lobbyist in general in the neighborhoods office is another things entirely. Why didn't the neighborhoods person explain this?

The way it appeared to me, she did not want to answer any of the commissioners questions.I think Davis kept after her until she got some kind of answer from her. I think the whole mayor's staff came to this meeting very poorly informed to answer any questions they were asked by the commissioners. One of the standard replies was along the lines of I don't have that information with me, I will have to get back to you on that.

Pam Strickland's picture

Well, that does very little

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Thu, 2008/06/05 - 10:17am.

Well, that does very little good for your public image.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

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