After today’s newspaper story, I met with Bo Bennett the Knox County property Owner, taxpayer and citizen that swore out the ethics complaint on the actions of Knox County Commissioners Bob Tomas and Charlie Busler.
Q: So, tell me again why you filed the complaint?
A: Well, let me get this out of the way first. I had no intention of going to the paper, someone disclosed my information to them. Also, with respect to the investigator and the process, I won’t talk about anything that he and I have discussed. I was conflicted about filing the complaint, I didn’t want to do it. As a matter of fact, I happen to like Bob a lot, but at the end of the day I couldn’t help but have this nagging feeling that I should file the complaint. It’s one thing to play golf, another to play golf for free on a team comped to an agency that has sought and will continue to seek Knox County business, and then to not disclose that prior to voting on a contract related to such an issue? Again it is pretty plainly written in the ethics policy, and if we are going to be a county ran by law and order, what is written is our rule. Let me make this clear, I filed a complaint, an investigation is being conducted, I believe in our system, and I believe in right and wrong, innocent until proven guilty is still the way we are supposed to work. Though my opinions are obviously strong, I have to accept whatever is ultimately concluded by the ethics committee.
Q: I read in the KNS article you expressed that this was not politically motivated, is that true?
A: You know, a few people found out I filed this complaint, every one of them asked me if I was going to run against Charlie for the 7th district. No, I have no interest in running for that seat at this time.
Q: What do you think about the “First-hand knowledge” comments?
A: That’s a tough one for me, if the way it has been portrayed is accurate, that would mean I could host a private event at my house as an agent of some entity seeking or doing business with Knox County, invite commissioners over, spend $10,000 dollars on dinner and entertainment and give everyone a new car…As long as I didn’t say anything, then there isn’t an issue! Obviously, that is an extreme example, but, the same principle that is being argued. If that scenario is the case, then maybe we need to look at our process a little more closely. One of the reasons I ultimately filed the complaint was because they had admitted to participating in the tournament on the comp team in an earlier KNS article. Bob later tried to make right the gift voucher portion by donating that same value to charity.
Q: Talking about the process, what do you think about it?
A: Man, the KNS asked me the same thing. It’s cumbersome, the amount of information and specifics you have to cite on the form might be overwhelming to some people. Addresses for the offenders, which I had to pull from the election commission from their reporting as those are public record, specific policies or codes violated, documentation, several things that I doubt most people would take the time to deal with. I certainly feel like it probably discourages more complaints being filed. As far as once it is filed, I think there is some confusion on where it goes and what happens and in what order. Law department, ethics committee, how should it flow? Anyway, it seems silly to me that the ethics committee can’t launch their own investigation… By the way, I was told prior to any of this, by an ethics committee member, that in essence their hands are tied until someone files a complaint… So lets look at that for a minute. Lets say an article gets written about another locally elected official, in which they admit that they did x,y, and z, the ethics committee still can’t investigate it. Does that seem ok to anyone? The entire system is set up to protect the people who are in power, and I get it, it makes sense, that’s how you stay in power. But at some point, in todays world, we have to step back and go, is this right? is this ok? should we not have more accountability and transparency?
Q: How would you change the process if you could?
A: I’d streamline it. If you had an ethics complaint, you would fill out a form, an easier form. Go before the ethics committee to voice the complaint, they would then conclude if an investigation should be launched or not. If an investigation was launched, I believe they should have the ability to do it themselves or to call upon the Law Directors office for assistance if they do not have adequate resources. The investigation would conclude and the ethics committee would make a ruling. They would also have the authority to launch an investigation on their own will by a vote of the majority of the body. I just think that makes sense, maybe other people disagree, but it seems reasonable to me.
Q: Well, I don’t have anything else, do you?
A: Not really, I hate that there is so much swirling around about this. It should be real simple, a complaint was filed, an investigation is underway, a resolution will be found.
Busler with his caddy at the golf outing provided to him from Priority Ambulance. Why could he not carry his own bag? Source: Busler Facebook Page
