KNS

The attorney general and his staff will "focus primarily on the use of grant funds and on audits of the mayor's hospitality funds, county purchasing card charges and expense reimbursements and travel expenses. This will include fulfilling the legal obligations to advise citizens seeking to bring an ouster suit."

UPDATE: Mayor’s Office Statement on State Attorney General’s Involvement

The Knox County Mayor’s Office released a statement late Monday afternoon regarding the appointment of State Attorney General Robert E. Cooper, Jr. to assist in reviewing matters related to Knox County government.

Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Van de Vate offered the following comment:

“We welcome the involvement of the State Attorney General’s Office and the continued efforts of General Bright. The work of General Cooper and his staff will ensure a fact-finding process that is careful, deliberate, and objective. We will continue to support their work and look forward to seeing these questions definitively answered once and for all.”

is now posted on the Knox County website. Link...

Dwight Van de Vate
Chief Administrative Officer
Knox County Government

Please check the Knox County website for the initial response of the Mayor's Office to the draft audit of the Knox Hospitality fund. It should be posted shortly. Our website can be found here

Dwight Van de Vate
Chief Administrative Officer
Knox County Government

UPDATE: Mayor's office initial response.

Katie at KT has the scoop...

The local media has been all over Mayor Ragsdale this week re. the budget and more. See here, here, here, and here.

KnoxViews sat down with Knox County Chief Financial Officer John Troyer and Chief Administrative Officer Dwight Van de Vate this morning to talk about Mayor Mike Ragsdale's proposal for a Knox County Inspector General.

Our report follows after the jump...

Mayor Ragsdale's office has released a statement saying that the Knox County Commission’s Internal Auditor "accepted supporting documentation provided by the Mayor’s Office regarding the procurement card audit."

According to the statement, "Mayor Ragsdale and staff submitted documentation in support of their transactions, all of which was accepted by the Auditor, except for gas purchases for the Mayor’s county vehicle." There was also one undocumented purchase of office supplies. The Mayor's office says some of these transactions are four or five years old so no receipts are available.

The Mayor will reimburse the county $1,217.59 by the close of business today to reconcile these transactions.

The big news from yesterday's County Commission meeting was a citizen's petition signed by 100 people asking commissioners to remove Mayor Ragsdale from office.

When advised by the County Law Director that commission doesn't have that power and that citizens would have to file an ouster lawsuit, petitioner Charles Bowers said he may do just that. Victoria DeFreese apparently approves.

Katie at KT has an interview with Dwight Van de Vate following the meeting. (Listen near the end when a clueless reporter asks if Ragsdale would run again. Sheesh.)

UPDATE: Nichols recuses his office, Finch investigation moved to Shelby County DA's office. (By way of KT)

WATE: Mayor gives Pinkston tongue lashing

"I've never been convicted of a crime between the two of us. Only one of us has been convicted of a crime and that's you," the mayor told Pinkston.

The gloves came off during yesterday's special County Commission meeting to review an audit of Knox County p-card expenses. The issue of travel allowances also came up.

Despite Mayor Ragsdale's vigorous defense under oath and Commissioner DeFreese's failed motion calling for Ragsdale's resignation, Commission took harsh action.

From the Knoxville News Sentinel

The Knox County Commission formally censured Mayor Mike Ragsdale on Monday and will force him and his top aides to pay back nearly $40,000 in questionable purchasing-card charges.

Commission also voted to refer the matter of Cynthia Finch's fabricated receipts to District Attorney General Randy Nichols for criminal investigation.

In other action, a proposal to put liquor by the drink up for a vote was withdrawn because Law Director John Owings said County Commission isn't authorized to put it on the ballot. (Does anybody know why that is?) He said citizens would have to petition for a referendum.

Lobster was apparently not served during the marathon meeting, but there was definitely some grilling.

WBIR had a follow up report last night on the J's Mega Mart mystery. You can watch it at Knoxville Talks.

In case you missed it, the final p-card audit has been submitted with Mayor Ragsdale's responses to questioned expenditures. WBIR has a copy.

One of the questioned charges (pg. 40): "#59 9/30/05 - J's Mega Mart - $19.65"

The Mayor's office explanation is "Gas-only purchase for Knox County vehicle."

J's Mega Mart, known for its fine selection of wigs and swords, is, as you know, at 417 S. Gay Street. I've been by there hundreds of times, and I don't recall seeing any gas pumps.

Has Knox County converted their executive SUV's to run on alternative fuels, like maybe Aqua Velva?

Scott McNutt has more.

WBIR.com:

The Federal Highway Administration has now passed on questions about Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's purchase of IdleAire stock to [the Office of the Inspector General].

Ragsdale purchased the stock during the same month he signed a contract to pass federal funds on to the company.

Is losing your ass on an investment a mitigating circumstance?

Knox Co. Mayor Mike Ragsdale's office has submitted their formal response to the p-card audit.

Newly appointed Commissioner Victoria DeFreese remarked in last week's Commission meeting that she had received "countless" e-mails, faxes, letters, and phone calls regarding the recent p-card audit.

Now, the Mayor's office has made a formal request to Commissioner DeFreese under the Tennessee Open Records Act requesting access to copies of all correspondence including letters, faxes, and emails she has received regarding the p-card audit, and also phone records and any logs or notes related to phone calls she has received about the audit.

Not sure why they would want to keep poking this hornet's nest with a stick. At any rate, I guess somebody will have to count them now. Wonder how many were from Paul Pinkston?

UPDATE: DeFreese responds, will hold a press conference at 3PM to discuss the request. According to the report, her position is that the correspondence is not public record. There's also something about "communication 'forged' by citizens." Probably not what she meant to say.

UPDATE: WBIR contacts an expert who says if the correspondence was received in transaction of public business then it is public record, adding "Ethically speaking, I don't know why (Commissioner DeFreese) would want to withhold it." Good question. Boxes and boxes of correspondence would certainly be embarrassing for the mayor. Why not just produce them?

UPDATE: From the KNS: "At any rate, DeFreese said she doesn't have any of the e-mails or other communications because she gets so many she doesn't keep them." Seriously? Game, set, match.

Link...

I have been reading the Halls Shopper news for 37 years now. Before the internet,the Shopper was and is a good reliable source of local news. One of the good things about living in Knoxville is having the Halls Shopper each week.

It appears as if Sandra stepped on a few toes with last week opinion piece. It appears three individuals took issue with it being on the front page.

Let's say you had two local governments, side by side. One was well-organized, generally efficient, with characteristics that led to lower taxes, better services, and equitable processes for the redress of grievances.

The other government had public officials ignoring term limits to remain in office, offering up self-serving tax subsidies to big box corporations in the form of unneeded tax increment financing (TIFs) that ended up taking money out of the school system by artificially reducing the true tax base of the government to the state. Government officials here wasted money on lavish dinners on government credit cards, threatened residents with property tax increases if they didn't vote for a wheel tax on their registered vehicles, and provided grant dollars to nonprofit organizations run by their own families.

Could the viability of each of these governments culturally find themselves subject to Darwin's process of natural selection, where one is more likely to culturally adapt, survive, and prosper than the other?

A new Stanford University study shows that human culture may be subject to natural selection.

Breaking news on a late Friday afternoon. Mayor Ragsdale has announced a major restructuring of his administration:

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale announced today a restructuring of his executive staff that will include three senior staff members reporting directly to him.

John Troyer as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Director of Finance and Dwight Van de Vate as Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Director of Communications join Mike Arms, Chief of Staff, in reporting directly to the Mayor.

The Mayor also announced the appointment of compliance officers for both finance and policy. These appointments come as a key step to assure complete compliance with county policies and procedures.

More details in the press release here.

A new org chart is here (compare to the old org chart here).

Knox County Mayor Ragsdale is asking HUD to review "all federal entitlement funding":

Providing public health services to persons oflow to moderate-income is a fundamental duty of this office. Helping revitalize blighted buildings and seeking to create positive change in economically disadvantaged communities is another. The Hardy Clinic restoration and health department lease are important steps in helping us meet these duties. I am unwilling to see the good work that is being accomplished here undermined by the concerns that have been raised over the project and I am seeking your assistance.

I request that the Knoxville office of HUD immediately conduct a monitoring review of all programs and processes involving federal entitlement funding. I would also ask that if necessary, BUD utilize any and all of the resources available to support this monitoring, including Technical Assistance, consulting specialists and/or subject matter experts from HUD's national headquarters.

A copy of Mayor Ragsdale's letter to HUD is attached.

Will the turmoil in the County Mayor's office boil over again today? Or is the worst over and things will start settling down?

The paper's big story on Finch and TennCorp seems to have fizzled out a little, judging from today's installment.

But now attention is being focused on the hospitality fund. There doesn't seem to be much "there" there, but in the current climate its days are probably numbered. Letting the Chamber handle that sort of thing seems like an appropriate solution.

Anyway, whatever happens today might be a clue as to whether things are going to blow up or blow over. Bad news always seems to come out on Friday afternoon.

The Knox County budget passed last night by a unanimous vote. "Fireworks failed to materialize," much to the paper's dismay.

Mayor Ragsdale terminated "travel supplement" pay for Arms, Werner, Van de Vate, and Cook, but they keep their county vehicles. On travel, employees will now be on a per diem for meals, and lodging will be charged to the Mayor's executive credit card.

Commissioner Mark Harmon requested monthly travel expense reports to County Commission, and the Mayor agreed. Commission also approved an additional $500 bonus for employees making less than $45,000.

The article also reports on the $900 vacation cruise purchased on a county credit card. They say it was paid back. It would not seem appropriate to charge vacations on government credit cards, even if it is paid back. Mayor Ragsdale had said previously he would tighten up control of county credit card use.

UPDATE: WATE has this report, with more on the cruise charged to a county credit card:

The auditor sent her a letter asking her to justify buying a ticket for a cruise. She replied, saying: "Limited time to schedule vacation -- not enough room on personal card."

Lloyd went onto write the use of the county credit card had been approved for later reimbursement. She attached a personal check paying Knox County back the full amount.

That sounds pretty unacceptable. What are they running up there, a bank or a county government?

The KNS published findings from a "draft" audit of travel and auto allowances for five top officials in the Knox County Mayor's office, including Mayor Ragsdale. The audit was requested by Knox County Commission. A copy of the leaked "draft" audit is here (PDF format).

WBIR has an updated report, with the Mayor's response to earlier concerns expressed by County Commission and a statement regarding changes in travel policy. A copy of Ragsdale's memo to County Commission on these and other issues is here. WATE files this report.

We have not seen a response to the latest "draft" audit yet, but Ragsdale had already hired an auditor to audit his own department and to audit the Knox County auditors.

A couple of things.

The KNS does not have much credibility on any of this after their sensational front-page reporting of "expenses that totaled $715,537.51 over a period of less than three weeks" which turned out to be a giant red herring because it involved the Knox County credit card purchasing system and business as usual, with a few exceptions that have been explained and/or remedied by the Mayor's office. (Not to mention their reporting that the credit card controversy "dominated" the recent budget hearing, when eyewitnesses reported here that it was only the last few minutes of discussion at the end of a meeting that lasted several hours.)

Nor does the County Commission have much credibility on ethics issues after the Jan. 31st fiasco, rampant nepotism, etc., and their ongoing political hostility towards the Mayor's office that interferes with conducting the county's business.

And as noted in comments below, the language of the audit, and the curious timing of the "leak" of a "draft" report to the media, raise questions about the political motivations and/or influence in the audit department (which they conveniently and preemptively deny in the "draft" audit report itself.)

But there does appear to be a legitimate question regarding travel allowances ("disguised compensation" as the leaked "draft" audit calls it), especially for employees who are issued county vehicles. (Simple test: where does the $20K "travel allowance" show up on Ragsdale's tax return?)

Perhaps County Commission's travel allowances should be scrutinized, too, along with commissioners' discretionary funds that they recently wanted to increase to nearly $1 million.

And allowable travel and entertainment expenses and possible improper personal use of county purchasing cards are rightly under the microscope, although Mayor Ragsdale says he's taking steps to address those concerns.

Clearly there is a meltdown in Knox County government between County Commission and the Administration which has been brewing for a long time. Sadly, everybody comes out a loser, especially Knox County voters and taxpayers. And it will probably get worse before it gets any better and Knox County government gets back to taking care of the county's business.