Knox County Commission Chairman Larsen Jay and Vice Chairman John Schoonmaker “sunshined” an afternoon meeting to “discuss and review the County Commission Rules and Procedures. Commissioner Randy Smith and Kyle Ward also attended and Commissioner Carson Dailey called in.
Chairman Larsen Jay and Vice Chairman John Schoonmaker
The discussion is about potentially changing three Commission rules. The Rules Committee will meet at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday October 20 in Room 640 of the City County Building . The Rules Committee is Charles Busler, Chair; Dailey, Vice Chair; Dr. Dasha Lundy; Terry Hill and Jay.
- Consent Agenda Items: Jay has asked Knox County Law Director David Buuck why are consent items read twice. The consent items are read at the work session and then read at the Commission meeting. Jay says he has not gotten a good answer. Dailey said that the TCSA Lawyer said it doesn’t have to be read into the record because it’s online. Commissioner Ward said it being read into the record twice as a transparency issue, Jay said he views it not being read twice as an efficiency issue, Smith and Ward said it is really just 5-7 minutes.
- Public Forum: There are two public forums at every work session and commission meeting. One at the beginning of the meeting and one at the end. There was discussion about separating the public forums, the one at the beginning for only public forum comments for items on the agenda and the public forum at the end of the meeting for any comments not on the agenda.
- Public Forum: There was discussion about limiting public forum only to Knox County citizens. In September a doctor from Johnson City came and spoke. Additionally, there was discussion about requiring individuals to provide their address, in September many people refused to provide addresses. Commissioner Smith said that he has been asked to get rid of that requirement. According to the current rules, Knox County employees are not required to give their addresses just name and title. It was also discussed that a good compromise would be that they give their address when signing up, but not be required to say it at the podium during the public forum. Additionally, it was mentioned to do what the Board of Health does, give 3 minutes per individual for a maximum amount of 30 minutes.
Commissioners Randy Smith, Kyle Ward, Jay and Schoonmaker. Dailey on the phone.
