Here is the item I have added to the agenda today for Knox County Commission

Knox County Commission agrees to the following
proposal for the County Law Director to present to
Jack McElroy (Knoxville News Sentinel) and his
attorneys:

1) This agreement takes the form of a consent
agreement where Knox County Commission admits no
violation of Tennessee Open Meetings law, but in the
interests of public confidence, quick resolution of
disputes, and reduced legal costs agrees to a voiding
of the appointments that took place on January 31,
2007.
2) The appointees chosen for office that day will be
considered de facto office holders, just as those who
had to replaced pursuant to the Tennessee Supreme
Court decision were considered part of a de facto
government. Their official acts will be respected
under that de facto status.
3) To avoid the great difficulties associated with
commissioner voting privileges under this agreement,
Knox County Commission will interpret the Charter
passage "by the remaining commissioners" to mean that
neither those eight commissioners who had to be
replaced pursuant to the Tennessee Supreme Court
ruling nor the replacements selected January 31st,
2007, will be eligible to vote in this second
appointment process. Thus, only the remaining eleven
commissioners may vote in this second appointment
process.
4) This second appointment process will begin with the
successful completion of the law director's
negotiations with McElroy and his attorneys. No
sooner than two weeks after the law director informs
commission that these terms have been agreed upon, and
no later than four weeks after such notification, a
special called meeting of the commission will occur to
make the needed appointments.
5) The meeting to make the appointments will include
the following steps:
a. prior to the meeting, the voluntary submission
to the Knox County Commission office of resumes and
other deocuments by those seeking appointment to the
positions; this may take the form of candidates for
these positions simply indicating their desire that
previously submitted items should be considered.
b. The appointments meeting will begin with a
candidate statement period where persons seeking
appointments will have no more than three minutes to
make statements in support of their candidacies.
c. The candidate statement period will be followed
by a workshop-style discussion where the voting
commissioners will be free to discuss individual
candidacies or what combination of appointees would
best serve the overall interests of the county and/or
individual districts.
d. The workshop-style meeting will be followed by
votes on the countywide offices (sheriff, trustee,
register of deeds, and county clerk), then the
individual commission districts.
e. This agreement further recognizes the reality
that a voting group of eleven commissioners with a
majority set at ten quite likely could lead to several
deadlocked votes. These deadlocked appointments then
will be moved to the end of the agenda. Then by
unanimous consent, and only by unanimous consent, will
commissioners be able to vote on compromise slates of
candidates comprising two or more of the positions for
which a majority of ten could not be reached.
f. All these steps (candidate documents, candidate
statements, workshop-style discussions, and all votes)
shall be open, public, and in full compliance with
Tennessee's Open Meetings law.
6) The Commission further pledges in all future
business to be faithful to the spirit and letter of
Tennessee's Open Meetings Act.