The Knoxville News Sentinel has a story about the Ethics complaint on Commissioners Charles Busler and Bob Thomas and their participation on a golf team with a non emergency ambulance provider.
Ole Bud Armstrong, the Knox County Law Director says in the article that there must be first hand knowledge. He says that even with Busler and Thomas posting pictures on their individual social media apps and admitting it to reporters, that is not first hand knowledge.
It has been told to me that Thomas even went to KNS Editor Jack McElroy’s office demanding that he take a $500 check and pay it to whatever charity that KNS chose. I have been told that McElroy declined.
Now the problem IN MY OPINION with Armstrong’s opinion is if admission by the parties is NOT first hand knowledge than the Sunshine lawsuit brought against the Knox County Commission by the Knoxville News Sentinel in 2007 in Knox County Chancery Court was not first hand knowledge. Armstrong says that the Ethics Committee is a “judicial proceeding” well what is Knox County Chancery Court? Isn’t it a judicial proceeding?
The courthouse awaits the day when Armstrong pulls into the City County Building driving a convertible Cadillac, wearing an all white suit, while protecting the good ole boys of the Knox County Commission.
