The Knox County Charter Review Committee met this evening. It is now being called the Chatter Review Committee because all they seem to do is create a lot of chatter. I attended for about the first hour today, They predominately discussed whether to do anything about the Uniformed Officers Pension Plan. Several things were observed and heard.
First off a substitute motion on the first vote on the pension plan was conducted. Commissioner Jeff Ownby asked the second which is the Committee’s Vice Chair Ann Acuff if she agreed, (meaning did her second remain) She said “I think” and then when the roll call vote was conducted, She voted NO. Do what?
Second, an individual approached me in the back of the room and said “this meeting should be X rated. Because the deputies are getting screwed.”
Third, when the committee was beginning to vote on the creation of a subcommittee to study the UOPP. Charter Review Chairman Craig Leuthold announced the five individuals that he had considered to serve on the subcommittee. Terry Lindsay, Amy Broyles, Diane Jablonski, Mike Brown and Billy Stokes. He recommended Stokes as Chairman. After appearing on WBIR’s InsideTN on Sunday and saying how the committee should deal with the UOPP. Stokes began explaining that he had some trial coming up in a couple of weeks with a lot of necessary prep time and concluded by saying “I am not competent to serve” Interesting terminology. So, Stokes was replaced on subcommittee by Ann Acuff.
Lastly, Mike Donila ‘da career killer’ tweeted me that a Knox County high level employee was reading ‘Shock And Awe (aka Brian’s Blog)’ and the entire wifi crashed at least in the Main Assembly Room. I tweeted back that Stoke, also Chair of PBA had probably texted Dale Smith, CEO of PBA that I was in the house and they shut it down to prohibit me from live blogging.
That is about it from tonight’s first hour of Charter ‘Chatter’ Review Committee. I figure doing absolutely anything else would be more beneficial, especially taking a nap.
