I do not like Annexation. I am a member of Citizens for Home Rule and do not like Annexation. Have I said that I do not like Annexation?
South Grove is a VOLUNTARY annexation. The owner(s) asked for the annexation.
After the U.S. Supreme Court gave us the Kelo decision how can anyone disagree with an owner(s) being able to say what they will do with property that they own? We (citizens and the government) can not and should not tell them what to do.
Would the County Commission be up in arms if the voter had voted in the negative? Absolutely not. The problem as I see it is two fold. #1 The One man one vote reveals the result of the vote and that unfortunately is problematic (in this case the young man) in a one man one vote contest. #2 The Knox County Commission in November 2006 were all aware that there was a lawsuit that had been filed. Not one Commissioner spoke up at the November meeting. Not one Commissioner said let’s withdraw the lawsuit. Not one Commissioner said let’s ask the State Attorney General for an investigation. Not One.
Now, along comes December and 14 Commissioner’s in a letter ask for withdrawal of the lawsuit. The County Mayor also request a withdrawal of the lawsuit and the lawsuit is withdrawn. Then a couple of weeks later the Commission meets on December 18, 2006 and 11 Commissioner’s vote Yes for a State Attorney General investigation. Three Commissioner’s went south.
Brian’s Blog will publish at a later date the 14 that signed the letter and a few weeks later were part of the 11 that voted to launch the investigation.
I have been and am impressed with the work product of the Graham Corporation. The Expo Center (which would have been a Norwood Community eyesore and nothing but a rat-hole when Lowe’s moved out) is a very nice state of the art Expo Center because of the Graham Corporation. Yesterday it was used to distribute Christmas to 3,500 families (Empty Stocking Fund) and the way we as a community and the County Commission re-pay the Graham Company for their genoristy is to impune the character of their corporation. That my friends is WRONG.
The greater problem is that the Knox County Commission was silent in November and in essence authorized the lawsuit with their silence. There wasn’t a voice for or against the lawsuit in November. It had been filed and the Commission in November did nothing.
Today’s Knoxville News-Sentinel Op-Ed piece by Mayor Bill Haslam for me (a Knox County resident) makes sense. (I hope someone has picked up all the City of Knoxville Department heads off the floor at this point.) Odd things sometimes happen around Christmas time. After reading all the news accounts, watching all the television news coverage I am going to side with Mayor Haslam on this one.
For me, It gets back to a small group of citizens using the County Commission to determine the use of private property and a County Commission that in November was a do nothing Commisison.
If the Graham Corporation wants to be in the City of Knoxville with South Grove. I may not personally like it, but it is their property. I will support that development because I believe in the right to determine the use of your own property and the Graham Corporation stood for what they wanted.
After all, That is part of what being an American is all about. Personal Choice and Personal Responsibilty.
In my opinion. If you support Personal Property Owner Rights then you have to support the Graham Corporation and the Voluntary Annexation of South Grove.
