Blount County Tennessee - Citizens for Better Government

New Feature - 6/19/08 Commission Meeeting Highlights

Many citizens have trouble making it to County Commission meetings. And, not everyone has the patience to sit through the nearly three hour video of the meeting. To help county citizens see first-hand what their elected representative are doing, we will try to place the important issues discussed at each Commission meeting on this web site. The key video clips of what happened at the 6/19/08 Commission meeting, where the 2007 /2008 budget was approved, are shown below. (Click here for more)

Why the Blount County Political Machine is attacking Judge Meares

The Political Machine is pulling out all the stops to try to defeat Judge Meares in the August 7th election.

To understand why, you just have to follow the money. For years the Machine’s judges have controlled the civil cases in the county, while allocating the criminal cases to the one judge from the opposition party. The civil cases are where the big money decisions are made, where hundreds of thousands of dollars are often at stake. Some of the big time lawyers in town contribute generously to Machine candidates, especially the judges who hear civil cases. The Machine judges know well who these contributors are, but claim their court decisions are unaffected by all the money that came into their campaigns. Many lawyers and citizens are not so sure. (Click here for more)

Berrong / Bennett federal prisoner scheme will cost taxpayers millions

Buried in the new budget to be voted on by the Commission this month is a $7 million addition to the jail. But, wait a minute, the jail is not even at half of its capacity with county prisoners.

Finance Director Bennett and Sheriff Berrong want to build a new $7 million pod for the County jail so they can take in more Federal prisoners. The County is under no obligation to house these prisoners. Sheriff Berrong says: “Financially, it has a lot of advantages for the taxpayer”. Finance Director Bennett claims the new jail pod will generate “$1.2 million over cost”. Bennett’s and Berrong’s numbers are pure nonsense.

Don’t get too excited when Sheriff Berrong talks about numbers. After more than a year, he is still trying to explain how many vehicles he has, and where the 36 vehicles missing from his fleet, disappeared to. Similarly, Finance Director Bennett is the official who recently failed to notice that five Sheriff’s vehicles, sold ten years ago, were still on the County books.

Not surprisingly, their great “deal” for the taxpayer does not stand up to the simplest financial scrutiny. (Click here for more)

Blount County’s Future is in your hands

The Good Lord blessed Blount County with majestic mountains, sparkling lakes and a lush countryside. Some of you were lucky enough to be born here. Others are here by choice. Regardless of origin we care very deeply about the future of our county. Unfortunately, there is a seamy side to our county that is overshadowing what should be a very bright future. It is not pleasant, but we must talk about it and DO something about it. Let me provide a sampler of disturbing facts about the threats to the future of our County.(Click here for more)

Will Court decision mean more threats from the Sheriff?

You have worked for an organization for years. One day your boss calls you in. He tells you he has a tape of a conversation where his wife, suspicious about his extracurricular activities, asked you to confirm her suspicions. He tells you that: “your ass is fired, you get out of here”. He then tells you: “I’ll burn your house down, set your dog on fire and there won’t be a member of your family left, do you understand me?” Then he adds “I won’t hire it done, I will do it myself! Do you understand me?” Would you feel that your rights have been violated? (Click here for more)

Incompetent accounting means no answer on missing cars

For several years now, Sheriff James Berrong and County Finance Director (and political machine Chairman) David Bennett have had trouble answering what should be a pretty simple accounting question. How many cars, trucks, motorcycles, vans and SUVs does the Sheriff have in his taxpayer financed fleet?

Consider these facts. (Click here for more)

The Vote on the Senior tax freeze

The Tax Freeze for Seniors was passed by the County Commission. Voting FOR the tax freeze were Commissioners Ballard, Burchfield, French, Graham, Harrison, Hasty, Helton, McCulley, Murrell, Pitts Reeves, Samples, and Walker.

Voting AGAINST the freeze were Commissioners Farmer, Hargis, Keeble, Kirby, Lail, Lewis, Melton, Proffitt and Ramsey.