The Ten Seater of an at Large position on Knox County Commission has been criticizing his colleagues as choosing politics over policy on any media that will allow him to pontificate.
Commissioner seat 10 is claiming that his ill-conceived ORDINANCE was Killed by lobbyist and his media line is “Politics over Policy.” Well he is accurate in saying it was “Politics over Policy”.
The “Politics” is his County Mayor Campaign of 2026, announced 30 months before the election and his constant quest for media altention.
The Policy is seat 10’s refusal to discuss his “pole” concerns with the respective boards of LCUB and KUB who are the persons who set policy for the respective utilities,
At a December 2023 Work session of County Commission, LCUB Board member Mike Arms asked seat 10 why he had not presented his “pole” concerns directly to the utilities. Also in a January 16, 2024 letter (reported here) to all Commissioners, LCUB Board Chairman and Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens invited Commissioners “to attend any LCUB monthly Board meetings to present concerns regarding any utility pole issues ” It would appear that seat 10 only wants to attend meetings where he can ask the questions and does not have to answer questions. because I am told that Seat 10 has been a “NO Show Jay” to the LCUB board meetings.
Again, Seat 10 is correctly stating the Ordinance failed because of”Polities over Policy.” His own politics in his announced mayor’s campaign of 2026 and his Refusal to meet directly with the utility policymakers led to the clear defeat of his ordinance. The ordinance was only supported by two lame duck Commissioners Carson Dailey (who is term limited), Commissioner Kyle Ward (who self imposed his own term limit) joined seat 10 in voting YES.
One Commissioner had to abstain from the vote (which may have been Seat 10’s political intention) due to her daily work. Two other Commissioners passed likely not wanting to be players in seat 10’s political game and the other Commissioners simply rejected seat 10’s failed political game altogether by voting NO.
