If you believe we should live in harmony, please skip this column. If you like a dogfight between old men with old grudges, then settle in. Today, we give David Buuck a turn to talk.
(Note: I served on the board of directors of Citizens for Home Rule back in the day when Victor Ashe was annexing everything that moved. CHR pooled resources from property owners who wanted to fight their involuntary annexation. David Buuck was CHR’s one and only lawyer.)
Victor Ashe, 77, is mostly retired now, but he writes a weekly column for Shopper News, a part of the News Sentinel. When KNS recently listed its best-read columns in 2021, one from Ashe topped the list. So, when he continues to attack Knox County Law Director David Buuck for “not hiring women,” I decided to ask Buuck what gives.
Buuck recently hired retired Chancellor Mike Moyers, 60, to fill the job which Buuck had held for eight years under Law Director Bud Armstrong. Buuck had left that job unfilled for a year. Moyers is a former county law director himself and most consider his hiring a good move.
But Ashe could not praise the pick. On Jan. 3, he wrote: “With the addition of Moyers, the law department will have 11 attorneys, of whom only two are women.
“Both are among the three lowest-paid attorneys. Amanda Morse is paid $106, 616 (third lowest), while Jessica Jernigan-Johnson gets $104,930, tied for lowest salary with Houston Havasy. Buuck is paid $186,041.”
Knox TN Today: David, how many lawyers have you actually hired since you kept most of the existing staff?
David Buuck: Besides Moyers, four – two men and two women.
KTT: Do you set their pay?
Buuck: The lawyers are on the county’s step-pay program.
KTT: Is Victor picking on you because of your previous work with Citizens for Home Rule?
Buuck (laughs): I don’t know, but we filed over 300 lawsuits to block annexation. Do you know how many Victor won?
KTT: Sure, zero.
Buuck: Correct. The judges didn’t want to hear them and the city law department really didn’t want to try them. (Buuck always demanded a jury trial and juries were a blend of city and county residents. You can’t pick a city-only jury. County residents had no sympathy for involuntary annexation.)
KTT (pause)
Buuck: Debra Poplin (assistant city law director) was smart. Well, Tom (Varlan) was too because he put Debbie in charge of these (CHR lawsuits). We had a trial one time over the Disc Exchange, the one on Kingston Pike. I looked at the city’s witness list and asked, “Where’s Victor?” Poplin said, “Oh, I don’t need him.” And I said, “Well, I do.”
Buuck: Debbie wanted to try that one because the property was an island – commercial on a main road, surrounded by other city property. I raised the issue that the city had to try the cases in the order filed. They couldn’t just pick and choose. So, they dropped about 40 cases to get to this one. (When Buuck questioned Ashe, he raised a technical point that Ashe said did not matter. “That’s just not how we do it.” Buuck waved a copy of something and said, “Well, it’s right here in the city charter.” The city’s case fell flat.)
KTT: Well, David, thanks for talking. I’ll use this as background.
Buuck: Put my name on it. Every bit.
KTT: OK.
Note: Debra Poplin was passed over by Ashe when Tom Varlan left. Ashe hired Michael Kelley from outside the department as city law director. Mayor Bill Haslam elevated Poplin to law director, the first female law director in the city’s history. Poplin now is a federal magistrate and Varlan is a federal judge. Buuck is the county law director. And Ashe is writing a column for Shopper News.
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today.