July 2011
Report
The GOOD
One good thing happened at the Commission
meeting this
month. The proposed ban on citizens applauding at Commission meetings
was
defeated. Many citizens spoke against the ban at the beginning of the
meeting.
Their presentations were often eloquent and emotional in defense
of their
Constitutional right of freedom of expression. (Click
here
to
see
video clip1) (Click here to see
video clip2)
Chairman Melton made sure that
the ban was the last item on the agenda. Thankfully, reporters and
cameras from
all three TV stations stayed for the entire meeting.
The applause ban was included in the same
resolution with
three other good changes to the Commission rules. (Click here to see video clip of debate on
applause ban).The first allowed
Commissioners to yield additional time to citizens speaking at a
meeting. This
used to be common practice, until Chairman Melton took over and decided
he would no longer
permit it. The second positive change to the rules was a requirement
for a
summary of the background of a proposed appointee be made available to
the
Commissioners before a vote on the appointment. This seems like common
sense,
but several appointments have been put before the Commission with
nothing more
than a name. The last of the good rule changes would have permitted any
Commissioner to add information to the packet for a meeting. This used
to be
done routinely, but Chairman Melton has recently been dictating what
will,
and will not, be made available in the Commission packet.
The political machine immediately tried to
ram the
resolution through in its entirety. Commissioner Hasty introduced made
a motion
to consider each rule changes separately. Commissioners Burchfield,
Burkhalter,
Kirby, Lail, Melton and Helton voted AGAINST this common sense
approach.
Commissioner Moon, a former editor of the Daily Times, who might be
expected to
be a forceful defender of citizens’ free speech, boldly
abstained,
and
Farmer
joined him. Fortunately, the other
12 Commissioners voted YES (Caylor was absent) and the motion passed.
Commissioner Samples then made a motion to
approve the three
positive changes to the rules. Unfortunately,
Commissioners
Burhalter,
Kirby,
Lail,
Melton, Helton, Farmer, Harrison and
Hasty voted AGAINST these common sense rule changes, preventing the
two-thirds
vote needed for their adoption. Moon again boldly abstained.
When it came time to vote for the applause
ban, with the
cameras from all three TV stations rolling, no Commissioner was even
willing to
make the motion. Helton and Melton, who pushed it through the Rules
Committee,
stayed silent. Carver and Hasty, who sponsored the resolution, stayed
silent.
Common sense prevailed. The audience applauded.
The BAD
The Blount County PBA held several meetings
in June. It was
discovered that documents covering hundreds of millions of dollars of
bond
offerings are missing. To emphasize the continuing incompetence, the
members of the PBA board proceeded to sign the signature pages of
documents more than a hundred million dollars of bond related
transactions, without
even reading the documents.
It appears that Commission meetings will no
longer be
broadcast on Charter and Comcast cable channels. It seems Chairman
Melton
quietly deleted the funding for videoing the meetings from the
Commission
budget. He seems to be much happier operating in the shadows, rather
than in the
sunshine of public scrutiny.
Chairman Melton showed a disappointing lack of respect for an 83 year
woman trying to tell the Commission about her mistreatment at the hands
of the Property Assessor. When she ran slightly over her three minute
limit, he refused to let her finish her remarks and graveled her down
despite the protests of Commissioner Murrell and others. (See video clip here)
The UGLY
The Mayor decided several months ago to combine the vacant
Human Resources position with another, and save the taxpayers $100,000
per year.
This did not suit the HR Committee, where 8 of the 10 members are
employees or
close relatives of employees. They insisted the $100,000 remain in the
budget.
This month the HR Committee voted to take
the HR Director
position from the Mayor and put it directly under the control of the HR
Committee. (Click here to see
the video clip).
This means a Committee, where 8 of 10 members are county employees,
or have close relatives who are, will be setting benefits, benefit
costs,
personnel policies, time-off policies and salary policies. There was
much
discussion in the HR Committee about how this will be good for the
county
employees. It probably will. Any group of employees, given the
opportunity to
set their salaries and benefits, would undoubtedly make sure they had
the best,
regardless of the cost. There was no discussion about who represents
the poor
taxpayers in this scheme. In fact the taxpayers were never mentioned in
the
discussion. In checking, I was unable to find any other County, or
large private
organization, who has this kind of wacky organization. Several
organizational
experts I talked to, suggested this is equivalent to putting the
inmates in
charge of the asylum. None of this seemed to bother the members of the
Committee. Sheriff Berrong, Highway Superintendent Dunlap, Registrar
Crisp,
David Murrell and Commissioners Farmer, Lail and Lewis voted for this
nonsense.
Commissioner French was absent and Mayor Mitchell abstained.
The HR Committee then got around to
discussing raises. (Click here to see
video clip).
First they put some bad information out, saying that 54% of county
employees make less than $30,000 per year. This counts the hundreds of
part-time employees who work for the county. Actually, more than 70% of
county employees make MORE than $30,000. The HR Committee then passed
another resolution authorizing
a salary survey to justify employee raises.
Only YOU can change YOUR government
If you do not favor letting your county employees select their own
Human Resources Director; if you do not favor having county employees
set their own salary and benefit policies; if you do not favor the
removal of County Commission meetings from the cable channels; PLEASE come to
the Commission meeting Thursday, August 18 at 7:00pm. The
citizens made the difference in defeating the ban on applause. The
citizens can do it again.
