State law states that if a member of the county legislative body accepts a nomination for a position that’s filled by the legislative body, that person must resign from the legislative body. The following Commissioners 2nd District Mark Harmon (Vice Chair), 3rd District Ivan Harmon, 5th District Mike Hammond, 6th District Greg Lambert, 8th District Dave Wright and 9th District Paul Pinkston (Chair) on September 1, 2008 accepted positions on the Board of Zoning Appeals. By state law they were to IMMEDIATELY resign their seats from Commission. So, they have been illegally serving on County Commission for over 5 months.
An acceptance by these Commissioners to serve on the BZA is a violation of state law. A law that went into effect in May of 2008. Knox County Law Director Bill Lockett JUST DISCOVERED the law. The following Commissioners 2nd District Mark Harmon (Vice Chair), 3rd District Ivan Harmon, 5th District Mike Hammond, 6th District Greg Lambert, 8th District Dave Wright and 9th District Paul Pinkston (Chair) should be REMOVED from office for being in violation of the State Law. I don’t like losing Ivan Harmon, Greg Lambert and Paul Pinkston. But the rewards for Mark Harmon and Mike Hammond in jail stripes will be worth it.
Let’s all remember the Commission candidate interviews for the vacancy of Scott Moore’s seat. Mark Harmon asked every candidate if they would serve as a member of BZA. All the time he asked 7 Knox County citizens to violate state law.
I don’t know anything about the background of this law.
What is your take on this law?
Is it your impression that these were always intended to be citizen committees?
Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Knox County to have boards comprised soley of citizens?
I guess I think of those who volunteered for the non-profit review committee and basically had most of their work challenged by the commission.
Pamela Treacy
My take is that this law passed last year because of wide spread ethic violations from across the state.
It is my impression that in light of TN Waltz and the Knox/Shelby County Supreme Court ruling that it is NOW designed to be citizen committees
It is a wonderful thing to be comprised solely by citizens.
Commission is the checks and balances of the citizen review panel. They should NOT be expected to rubber stamp what the citizen review panel said. It should have been a good give and take and the ultimate decision in the hands of the individuals that were elected to make such decisions.