The 2020 edition of the Knox County Charter Review Committee met as a body for the first time Monday evening. Twenty-four of the 27* appointed members attended to elect officers and set the agenda for the next session.
Commission chair Hugh Nystrom set the tone, thanking members for taking on the “extraordinary and thankless” task ahead of them. Although Law Director Bud Armstrong wryly commented that – after reviewing the Charter – the Committee may conclude the county’s “constitution” is perfect as it stands and call it a day, that’s unlikely.
The first order of business was to elect officers, and after two rounds of voting Commissioner Brad Anders was elected chair. Sam McKenzie won election as vice-chair, and Lisa Starbuck was elected secretary by acclamation.
The centerpiece of this kickoff meeting was Armstrong’s detailed review of Tennessee’s Open Meeting Act. This was old hat for those who witnessed the Black Wednesday debacle in 2007, but for many Committee members, it was their first exposure to the law’s requirements.
Armstrong explained that TCA 8-44-102 lays out the necessity for “adequate public notice” of meetings and provides detail on “chance meetings.” Any location in which two or more Committee members meet is a “public meeting” if discussions or deliberations pertaining to the Charter occur. As such, it must be “publicly noticed,” minutes taken and any votes recorded.
Even with strict adherence to the Act, the law director discouraged meetings outside those called for the entire body. They may “do more harm than good,” he said, and violating the Open Meetings Act “is not good.”
“It’s real easy not to talk about the Charter,” Armstrong concluded.
The Committee meets next on Monday, Feb. 10, 5:30 p.m. in the Large Assembly Room at the City County Building.
*click here for a list of the Committee members.
The old ‘switcheroo’
Calling it a “switcheroo” may be unjust, but at the very least the Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen threw Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs a curve when he was looking for a fastball. At its last meeting, the Board rejected Jacobs’ proposed changes to the Growth Policy Plan.
Farragut “revolted” in 1980, successfully incorporating in no small measure due to abuses by developers who were subject – at that time – to county authority alone. Traces of 1980 were in the air when the Board objected to Jacobs’ removal of safeguards for rural development in the current plan.
Jacobs proposed that rural development be governed by the provisions of the existing Sector Plan. Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission watchers know that Sector Plans are all too often made to be broken. In effect, the mayor is saying “trust me,” and Farragut’s Board is skeptical.
The rejected Growth Policy Plan will return to the “coordinating committee” where it started last April. Stay tuned.
Larry Van Guilder is the business/government editor for KnoxTNToday.