Mayor Burchett apparently jumped on Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr Director of Knox County Schools about a school secretary on paid leave. Well, the law director is quoted just last week saying he didn’t know nothing about it.
I don’t have a dog in either fight and I ain’t fond of cats. However, after a decade of blogging. You readers expect me to say something.
Let’s travel back to this little jewel from December 2010 at the Big Metal Shed on the Hill.
After an almost four month investigation, here in one paragraph is the summation.
Upon taking office, Burchett said he knew nothing about the severance packages and rescinded them. Later, he admitted that he knew of the payouts, and his chief of staff, Dean Rice, met with a member of the Ragsdale administration about the severance payouts.
So, while one may have relied on the law department and the law department got overloaded and forgot. At least no body lied.
“So, while one may have relied on the law department and the law department got overloaded and forgot.”
Bringing up a different situation is a red herring.
Relying on the law department isn’t a valid excuse – our superintendent was hired to run our schools, and surely one of his vastly increased and expensive staff had time to follow up if he didn’t,l instead of allowing this to go on for years. It comes down to priorities.
I don’t think the school board or the party leadership or even our esteemed governor recognize what Burchett clearly does: Knox County taxpayers are not happy with McIntyre’s performance of his duties. KCS represent the biggest part of our budget, yet our tax money keeps getting wasted on things like this while he whines it’s someone else’s fault. That may be politically expedient in some circles, but it doesn’t cut it in the real world. We pay for better, and our children deserve better.
I am not producing a red herring, the stories of this incident have the law department all over them. In fact the last article says the law department has set a 28 day deadline for the employee to accept or reject.
The citizens pay the law director to see that all we do is legal. While, McIntyre may or may not be the leader, handling millions of dollars could be complicated, twice Mayor Burchett has had to appear before the state of tennessee campaign finance panel because he mishandled a few thousand campaign finance dollars, the last time he blamed the first Mrs. Burchett
Why did KCS use, or “misuse” , as KnoxNews so nicely puts it, the HIPAA excuse? This is a red flag. And a joke, since she didn’t even take medical leave. Seems like it’s CYA time.