Again, note the plaintiff:

"JOHN McELROY, II, a citizen and resident of Knox County, Tennessee".

But if you'll buy another pitcher, I'll vote for your motion. Unless you buy two pitchers. Then I'll vote twice.

And if I buy THREE....???

Come on, say it, say it....

Ragsdale, of course, is an opportunist and might see this as a chance to bury the Tyler Harber scandal once and for all. We're supposed to believe that he's all of a sudden become the champion of the people

Let’s review what has happened. Former Sheriff Hutchison gave the media a 408 page investigation of the Tyler Harber scandal. Mayor Ragsdale looked very bad. For good reason. A few days later the appointment debacle occurred in County Commission.

Scott Moore over played his hand and Lumpy Lambert did what Lumpy Lambert does and today Mayor Ragsdale is a shining Knight because he requested the Commission vote on a resolution to ask the State for a special resolution for a do over, a special Election. Wonder if he had gotten his people in if he would be so Knight like? Then the Mayor appointed a Blue Ribbon committee to study the ethics of the appointment process. Not anything other than the appointment process, just the appointment process. Go figure. You would think the ethics committee could look at many different things.

Mayor Ragsdale’s friend Jack McElroy, the Editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel, filed a duplicate lawsuit of the one that Herb Moncier filed last week. No one cared at all about Herb’s lawsuit but now that the Editor of the daily paper has made a stand the town is safe and pure again.

What kind of Baptism has happened here?

Can someone explain how this washed away the sins of what has come before this?

A few simple questions. The County Commission must pass this requested resolution by 13 votes. Anyone here think that will happen? Not a chance. This is all to create a rage against the County Commission in the hope the election can be moved forward to September to coincide with the City of Knoxville Election in the hope the voters will still be mad enough to remember the horrible injustice at the hands of Scott Moore and Lumpy Lambert and vote out all 12 appointees so God fearing supporters of the Mayor’s can assume their rightful places. Having a friend at the daily paper would make that easier.

But wait just a minute, wasn’t Mayor Ragsdale in the balcony with Mike Arms doing the exact same thing that Scott Moore was doing? Didn’t Mayor Ragsdale and Mike Arms descend into the fray during the Scott Davis versus Lee Tramel debacle? Wasn’t the Mayor accused by Ivan Harmon of blackmail? The only difference being the lack of witnesses? Hasn’t this charge been made many times before also with a lack of witnesses? Isn’t it common knowledge around the City County building?

Do you really want to do something about this? Or do you just want to complain?

The injured party is the Second District. Have a spokesperson from the Second District go before County Commission and ask for a resolution to reconvene the Charter Review Committee in order to add two provisions. The first is petition for recall to be voted on next February 2008 when these 12 appointees must run for election. The second being petition for referendum.

If approved by County Commission these provisions would be added to the ballot in February 2008. If not then proceed to plan B.

Plan B would be to petition for a referendum to add “petition for recall” to the County Charter and add “petition for referendum” to the County Charter to be voted on the February 2008 ballot. In other words go over County Commissions head. But it would work much better to ask for it first and then be turned down. It would make it much easier to get the needed signatures. It would also be important in the “lesson teaching” process. Two can play this game of who can be the victim.

So when the prize is obtained what to do then?

I think you know what needs to be done. Remove one of them and we will never have this problem again.

Baptism is fine but there is always the problem of backsliding. Something more than Baptism is required. Is it time to banish one of them into the desert?

You should have taken the goods to Sandra and Betty.

Tamara, I well remember this incident and your struggle to bring it to light. You soldiered on with no support from anyone, and eventually ended up winning that war -- but you never got much credit for what you did.

I thought about the Jeff Byrd episode when the Garrett Meek annexation issue came up. The legislature has (intentionally)left a great, gaping gap in the law by not giving election commissions the authority to disqualify candidates/voters who are clearly ineligible.
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Betty, I've got to seize on this--and you'll remember the story. When I was trying to force media attention to the issue of this school board candidate in my district not living in the distirct, I went so far as to pick up the public utility records, water from Hallsdale-Powell and electric from KUB, available to citizens under the Freedom of Information Act.

This guy, with a family of four, claimed to be living in a 2000 square foot townhouse during August, yet used only $9.00 or so per month in electricity over a couple of months of that *very hot* summer, then around $20.00 per month after that. His water usage record said that not one gallon had passed through the meter in the full four-month period in question.

I carried both originals and copies of these documents, in person, to WATE-TV, WBIR-TV, and the KNS. Not a peep. I went back to all three, after I filed suit, and left copies of the complaint. Still nothing. The day *after* the shmuck won the election, KNS put my story at the top of page A1. I have never, will never, understand why my husband and I had to spend out of our own pockets to direct any attention to a problem that was media's responsibility to catch first.

And conjecture that followed to the effect that others were helping us cover this legal cost are completely false. We paid every dime.

Nine, I don't think some folks on commission are going to let either the public or Ragsdale forget about Tyler Harber.

With the new appointments, it has gotten closer to having the votes to ask for a Harber investigation, but probably not all the way there.

I'd expect a whole lot of "you say ethics, I say Tyler" coming up.

Technically it wasn't really an election, but I can see what you're getting at since they ask for the appointments to be reversed. That might require a plaintiff represented by the commission.

Sometimes I don't know if you're just an ignorant ass or if you're a really horrid person.

Your upset at me because you blew the joke? Grow up. It was in poor taste regardless of the target.

For someone that holds decency in such high regard you fail to understand that insulting people is not the actions of a decent person.

You are backsliding on your promise. Do you really want to have a discussion about behavior?

Our ethics policy reads that "Questions and complaints regarding violations of this Code of Ethics or of any violation of state law governing ethical conduct should be directed to the chair of the Ethics Committee. Complaints shall be in writing and signed by the person making the complaint, and shall set forth in reasonable detail the facts upon which the complaint is based."

"The County Ethics Committee shall investigate any credible complaint against an official or employee charging any violation of this Code of Ethics, or may undertake on its own initiative when it acquires information indicating a possible violation, and make recommendations for action to end or seek retribution for any activity that, in the Committee's judgment, constitutes a violation of this Code of Ethics."

The document also lists selected state laws with ethics components.

So, it seems certain anyone can file a complaint, once we have the committee and a chair of it named.

Hooties: "Farragut Mike isn't covered by the open meetings act. From the paper's coverage, it has to be two or more folks from the same elected group."

I was aware that the law was directed to meetings of two or more officials, of course, but I can't recall who that second person in attendence was. It must be that someone else was along (a commissioner?), because I'm certain that the allegation leveled was one of an open meetings violation. In that context, the law *would* apply to Ragsdale, or any other twosome. Anybody remember?