Lots of Questions About Term Limits Decision
Phone lines are apparently burning up right now as potential candidates jockey for position with Knox County Commissioners. At stake, 8 commission seats and 4 constitutional offices.
The latest conversation I've heard about would be to field a slate of candidates who would agree "not" to run in 2008, thus creating "real" open seats in all 12 positions in two years.
I'm not sure what I think about the idea of "caretakers" running the County's many important offices. Still, it would probably be a fairer process than allowing 19 people (the current eligible commissioners and soon-to-be-term-limited commissioners) all that power.
I understand Mayor Ragsdale is putting together a timeline for the appointment process. Many hope he includes a qualifying deadline as part of the resolution.
The last thing the county needs right now is for a "stealth" candidate to appear on the day of the vote and get appointed to a position. A qualifying deadline would give voters time to scrutinize the candidates and express their opinions to their commissioners.
As for a special election, County Law Director John Owings doesn't believe it's within state law to move in that direciton. He says the State Supreme Court was clear in its opinion last week in footnote 13, "...any person so appointed would serve until his successor is elected at the next election occurring after the vacancy is qualified..."
Owings believes "next election" means next scheduled county-wide election, which would be in 2008. Others might argue "next election" means just that, the next election, which could be a special-called election.
Another question that has come up: The Knox County Charter says you can only serve "two consecutive terms." Would the interim term be regarded as a full term? Owings says no. So, a person appointed to the two year interim term would still have the ability to run twice, meaning that person could actually serve 10 years.
Lots of questions. 6 News Reporter Amelia Daniels answers many of them tonight on our 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts. The next several weeks should be very interesting times for Knox Countians.
UPDATE: We should know Wednesday what the process for selecting our new commissioners and constitutional officers will be. This weekend, Mayor Ragsdale met with Law Director John Owings and Commission Chairman Scott Moore to hammer out the plan. It will not include a special election nor a qualifying deadline. The plan will be released on Wednesday. Â Chairman Moore is expected to call for a special session of County Commission on January 22 to approve the plan.
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You look older in person
You look older in person than you do in the blog picture....but you still look younger than me. Has Jim Wogan has colored his hair, or is my picture tube going out?. I wish I had hair.
I enjoy reading your blog even though there is very little information I can swipe and use on-the-air.
Friday was one of those news days that reminds you of the Chinese curse: "may you live during interesting times".
Dave Foulk
Dave Foulk
Gene, I have no problem with
Gene,
I have no problem with the idea of appointing replacements. The problem I (and every other candidate from last year that I've spoken to) do have is that right now every hiney-kisser,cronie, flunkie, friend and family member of anyone working at the city/county bldg has crawled out of the woodwork to brown nose every county commission member. Requiring people to submit resumes as has been suggested by some on the commission, is just going to be a smokescreen to allow cronies to be hired while giving the process a false air of impartiality. These same flunkies and friends didn't want these elected positions last year when it would have required them to qualify, campaign, and put in hard work. Now that these jobs look like freebie giveaways, everyone wants to be a public servant suddenly. Everyone I've spoken to since last Friday's court ruling has told me that the only people who should be considered for these appointments are the candidates who were legally on the ballot last year. Period I strongly agree with this. This view seems to be a dominant view here in Knoxville, because while on 1180 AM "The Voice" yesterday morning with Amy Broyles, it was the overwhelming consensus that only last years legal candidates should be selected. If non candidate replacements are selected to fill the soon to be vacant positions, tens of thousands of Knox County Voters will be disenfranchised,
[...] And WATE 6 Anchor Gene
[...] And WATE 6 Anchor Gene Patterson has his ear to the ground on who might be appointed. Go here, here, and here. [...]
I greatly resent that the
I greatly resent that the Sheriff will probably be "kept on" in an "advisory" capacity. It's just a ploy to make sure he gets his ridiculous salary continued after he leaves office permanently. He doesn't deserve to remain in office in any capacity. He's covering up something or for someone in the Johnna Berry case, and the sooner he's out and someone who really cares who murdered her is in, the better.