Today at 3 p.m. in the clean, docile environment of a Conference Room on the Sixth Floor of the City County Building, two year “lame duck” County Commissioner John Schoonmaker called or noticed a meeting for “agenda review”.
Shockingly, since September 1 when Madam Chair Courtney Durrett became Chairwoman of Knox County Commission it suddenly became important for Fifth District Schoonmaker to call an Agenda Review meeting on Thursday 9/15/2022 at 3 p.m. (a time when anyone other than a retiree Schoonmaker and Ninth District County Commissioner Carson Dailey and thankfully at Large Seat 11 Commissioner Kim Frazier, who has taken this post as her full time job) can attend, in a sixth floor room in the security enclosed City County Building.
At three p.m. who was there? Retiree Commissioners Dailey, Schoonmaker and full time Commissioner Frazier. Knox County Law Department Director David Buuck and Senior Law Department Director Mike Moyers. Knox County Mayor Bureaucrats Dwight Van de Vate and Master Andrew Davis. Knox County Commission Executive Director Drucilla Stills. Special Interest Lobbyist Mike Cohen for Rural Metro and/or AMR,Joe Petree with Axle Logistics, LLC with a PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) to property at 849 N. Central Street and currently #58 (to be added) on the agenda Citizen and Knox Sheriff Merit System Council Applicant and Attorney Steve Weiner and MYSELF. That was it, FREAKING SAD!
I could not stay past 3:30 p.m. and that is why the headline apologizes. I had an appointment at 3:50 p.m. in Fort Sanders area and I made it. When I returned for District Attorney General Charme Allen‘s Citizen Academy and Commissioner Schoonmaker and the Knox County Engineering and Public Works Director Jim Snowden for Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs did not return a simple HEY, I noticed, it is okay, it wasn’t the first and will NOT be the last time.
Here is the twenty seven and half minutes of “lame duck” Schoomaker’s agenda review for you, here. Again I apologize. However, Frazier stayed, I assume and she represented ALL of Knox County WELL.
What happened to Schoonmaker?
The work session is the appropriate time to review agenda items – and always has been. I am shocked that any commissioners would try to circumvent that normal process, but even more so that the law director’s office was dragged into it. From the outside this looks like commissioners who didn’t get their way (in the Chair election) taking a lot of unneccessary time from other County employees and officials to have their own meeting. This isn’t the kind of behavior I have come to expect from these commissioners, making it seem even more strange to me.