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A Blogging Hiatus
From Thursday afternoon, July 25, until sometime early next week, there will be no new posts on this blog while some technical changes and updating is made to News Sentinel blogging system. Older posts will continue to be available.
Will return soon - by Tuesday, July 30, if all goes well.
Thanks for reading.
Memo Raises Lack of Competition Question in Two State Contracts
A memo prepared for Sen. Bill Ketron, chairman of the Legislature's Fiscal Review Committee, says that the Department of General Service's "emphasis on expeditiously completing procurements" may have limited competition for two state outsourcing contracts, reports WTVF-TV's Phil Williams.
An excerpt:
A recent meeting of the legislature's Fiscal Review Committee, called to consider three questionable state contracts, ended up being a highly orchestrated endorsement of the Haslam administration.
The governor's chief of staff, Mark Cate, had met privately with members of the contracts watchdog committee prior to the public session. And, by and large, committee members responded with effusive praise. Some suggested that, in this case, the media had got it wrong.
But a staff report, not shared with the full committee, told a more complicated story regarding at least two of the three state contracts.
Read the memo (HERE).
"Staff did not find evidence in the documentation reviewed that any violation of state law occurred," the Fiscal Review Committee's executive director, Lucian Geise, wrote in a July 15 memo to the committee's chairman, Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro.
"However," Geise concluded, "an emphasis on expeditiously completing procurements resulted in actions that may have reduced competition."
And that was what our NewsChannel 5 investigation had suggested in the case of contracts awarded to Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Bridgestone Retail Operations.
Ketron never shared the staff memo with the rest of the committee.
A spokesperson for the Senate Republican Caucus said that the memo was written for Ketron's "personal" benefit because he had been out of the country.
"He was not asking for information as chairman of the committee," she said. "Rather, he asked for information in light of the fact that the stories appeared during his absence."
Former Veterans Affairs Commissioner Roden Dies, Age 90
News release from state Department of Veterans Affairs:
NASHVILLE - Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder somberly announced former Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner William H. (Dusty) Roden, Jr. passed away on July 20, 2013 at the Hospice Chattanooga Care Center. Commissioner Roden was 90 years old.
Roden served in the United States Army Air Corps as a fighter pilot from 1942 to1945 and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Air Force Reserves in 1972.
Commissioner Roden was appointed by Governor Lamar Alexander in 1979 and remained TDVA Commissioner until 1987. In 1979, Roden founded the United Tennessee Veterans Association (UTVA) which was created to bring the state's Veteran Service Organizations together to be briefed by leaders from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure accomplishments, concerns and developments impacting veterans would be shared with UTVA representatives. Commissioner Grinder recognized Roden for this milestone contribution during a UTVA meeting on December 4, 2012.
Obama to Visit Amazon at Chattanooga Next Week
Barack Obama will visit Chattanooga on Tuesday for the first time as president to pitch his vision of helping expand middle-class jobs, reports the Chattanooga TFP.
Obama will tour the 1 million-square-foot distribution center Amazon opened in the Enterprise Industrial Park two years ago. The fulfillment center in Chattanooga employs 1,800 full-time workers and is among five facilities Amazon has built in Tennessee since 2011 that collectively have added more than 5,000 full-time and seasonal jobs in the Volunteer State -- the biggest job addition in the state by a private company in the past decade.
Obama will use the Amazon expansion to help highlight what he says is an improving economy but one that needs to do more to help boost the middle class.
In a speech Wednesday in Galesburg, Ill., Obama cast himself as the champion for middle-class Americans struggling to make ends meet. He chided Washington for having "taken its eye off the ball" and declared that the economy would be the "highest priority" of his second term.
White House officials said Tuesday's speech will focus on manufacturing and high wage jobs for durable economic growth. The president is expected to promote his budget proposals to jumpstart private sector jobs with more infrastructure and education spending in the federal budget.
But Republicans object to what they see as too many government regulations and too much deficit spending by the Obama administration, which they say has failed to restore the U.S. economy. Nearly three years after the end of the Great Recession, the U.S. unemployment rate remains at a stubbornly high 7.6 percent.
"President Obama has presided over the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression, so a visit to a right-to-work state like Tennessee to learn a thing or two in how to get things done should be expected," Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney said. "Thanks to Republicans, we've cut taxes, balanced our budget, and have the lowest debt of any state in the union."
Kyle More Interested in Running for Judge Than for Governor
Senate Minority Leader Jim Kyle joined his House counterpart Wednesday in declaring disinterest in running for governor, even though he waged a brief campaign for the office in 2010.
"I haven't thought about it," said Kyle, D-Memphis, adding that he had hoped House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley would run. As for himself, Kyle said he is not really interested, though stopping short of absolutely ruling it out.
"I've thought more about 'do I want to leave the Senate and become a judge or do I want to stay in the Senate.' That is the decision I've got to make between now and the end of the year," he said. "That's what I've focused all of my energy on."
Fitzhugh, who has toyed with the idea of running for governor since December, said earlier this week that he has decided to instead seek re-election to his West Tennessee House seat and another term as head of House Democrats.
Kyle ran briefly for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2012, then withdrew -- along with three other Democrats who initially declared themselves candidates, including the party's current chairman, former state Sen. Roy Herron. Dresden businessman Mike McWherter won the nomination, then lost to Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.
County Commissioner/Legislative Candidate Denies Conflict
County Commissioner Richard Briggs said his nomination of Craig Leuthold for Knox County trustee was not a conflict of interest, reports the News Sentinel, though Leuthold's father is Briggs' treasurer for a Tennessee state Senate bid.
"If it is a conflict, it's a conflict by second degree," Briggs said. "I don't have anything to gain by Craig being in the office or not being in the office."
Knox County Law Director Bud Armstrong said there was no conflict in Briggs' action under county policy.
"He's got a guy who has volunteered to run his campaign who happens to be Frank Leuthold," Armstrong said.
Briggs said he voted rather than "disenfranchise" his 5th District constituents by recusing himself from voting for an interim trustee on Monday.
Briggs, Leuthold and other Knox County elected officials explained to the News Sentinel this week their connections and decision-making used to fill the trustee seat that John J. Duncan III resigned from July 2. Duncan pleaded guilty that day to a felony charge for giving $18,000 in unearned bonuses to himself and staff.
While local political gadflies have mused over the connections between Leuthold and the people who selected him, Briggs defended Leuthold as a commissioner who made it through "Black Wednesday" unscathed.
Leuthold worked in the Knox County Property Assessor's Office until his Monday appointment as the county's tax collector and was a two-term commissioner who held office when the state Supreme Court enforced term limits in 2007.
Nashville's City Paper to Cease Operations Aug. 9
From today's edition of The City Paper:
After 13 years, The City Paper will cease operations with the publication of its Friday, Aug. 9 issue.
Chris Ferrell, CEO of SouthComm, made the announcement to employees this morning.
"In the last few days, we made the difficult decision to stop publishing The City Paper," he said. "After years of being subsidized by our investors and other Southcomm publications, we finally determined that there was not enough advertiser support for the free newsweekly model we were trying to sustain. The model proved very popular with readers, but in publishing the revenue doesn't necessarily follow the readership."
Ferrell said that the tough climate for advertising dollars made having multiple news properties extremely difficult, particularly a general interest publication like The City Paper. A portion of the staff will be laid off while others will be redeployed to other SouthComm publications.
"Going forward we will be merging some of our editorial resources into our profitable publications in Nashville in an effort to make them even stronger," Ferrell said. "You will see some of the names you have grown familiar with in The City Paper in the masthead of the Nashville Scene and Nashville Post. Both publications will expand their news coverage to fill the gap left by the closing of The City Paper. David Boclair will continue his coverage of Nashville sports, for example."
Full story HERE.
David Kernell, 'Palin Email Hacker,' Finally Free
Five years after University of Tennessee student David Kernell made national headlines when he was charged with perusing through the personal email account of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, then a 2008 vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket, in search of politically damage material he never found, Kernell is a free man -- truly free.
So reports the News Sentinel. More:
Although Kernell wrapped up a year in federal prison in November 2011, he remained under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office through November 2014. But earlier this month, in one of his last acts before retiring in August, U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips freed Kernell from that final requirement.
Phillips' ruling came after Kernell's defense attorney, Wade Davies, filed a motion in which he stated Kernell had paid an adequate price for what Davies' has long termed a youthful prank, has now completed his degree at UT and qualifies for the extraordinary move to release him from supervision.
The U.S. attorney's office did not resist the move.
And Phillips did not tarry long in making his decision.
Although Phillips is a Republican appointee and Kernell is the son of a longtime Democrat (state representative from Memphis), Phillips did not want Kernell to go to prison in the first place. When a federal jury rejected all but one felony charge filed against Kernell in the case, Phillips ordered Kernell to spend a year and a day in a Knoxville halfway house. But the U.S. Bureau of Prisons refused and instead sent Kernell, by then 22, to prison. Judges can recommend at which facility a defendant should go, the bureau makes the final call.
Although the case has been dubbed the "Palin hacker case" in the media, this was no sophisticated computer hack, testimony showed.
After reading reports that Palin may have used her personal account for official business in her role as Alaska governor, Kernell, the son of longtime Memphis Democratic state lawmaker Mike Kernell, decided to go surfing the Web in search of the answer to her password security question.
After successfully guessing the password, he changed it and posted it online along with screenshots of some Palin family photographs and a few email messages.
He declared on the 4 Chan discussion board that he had found nothing politically damaging in the account.
GOP Plan for Bashing Washington Brings DCCC Bashing of DesJarlais
Roll Call has an interesting piece on U.S. House Republicans planning their politicking for the upcoming August piece. And, not surprisingly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has localized it - for Tennessee purposes, an attack on U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais.
Here's an excerpt from the Roll Call blog article:
The August House Republican Conference planning kit, titled "Fighting Washington for All Americans," offers a rare glimpse into the constituent outreach efforts of the GOP. Those efforts, it turns out, are highly calculated, hashtag-heavy and rife with references to the video app Vine.
The best way to stay in Washington appears to be to deride Washington, and Republican leadership isn't going to deviate from that familiar formula.
Of the many topics Republicans could delve into -- the impending debt ceiling debate, immigration or, perhaps, the sequester -- the 31-page GOP packet focuses on safer ground: Obamacare, jobs and the fierce hatred of all things Washington.
It includes a cookbook of events largely aimed at whacking the Obama administration and highlighting House Republicans' efforts to fight it -- while using social media every step of the way.
There's an "Emergency Health Care Town Hall," for starters, with detailed recipes on where to hold the event, how to promote it -- tweet it, Vine it, Instagram it, Facebook it -- and how to hold an "impromptu" media availability to "frame the key takeaways."
Riva Litman, the spokeswoman for Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, said it is the job of the House Republican Conference to equip members with "the tools and resources they need to take our message to all corners of this country."
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And here's the DCCC DesJarlais-bashing press release:
Democrat Eyes Run in 4th Congressional District
A Democratic activist from Monteagle, Tenn., says she's eyeing a potential run in Tennessee's 4th Congressional District in 2014, reports the Chattanooga TFP.
Lenda Sherrell, a retired CPA who worked last year as a Tennessee volunteer for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, said she is in a "very early exploratory" stage of seeing whether to run in the sprawling district, which takes in all or parts of 15 counties.
"Frankly, I'm just not far enough along to know for sure that's what I'm going to do," said Sherrell, who formerly lived and worked in Chattanooga. "But it's a possibility."
The district is now held by U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., a South Pittsburg, Tenn., physician, who already faces GOP primary opposition in 2014 from two announced candidates -- state Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, and state Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas.
"I'm a wife, a mother and grandmother, all of my life I've spent a lot of my time volunteering in the community," said Sherrell, who spent some three decades in Chattanooga where she worked for a local accounting firm and once served as the private McCallie School's controller.
No Charges in Cleveland Sign-Ripping Case
A Bradley County man's quest to have the Cleveland city manager and a councilman charged for ripping up his protests signs came to naught Tuesday, reports the Chattanooga TFP.
Dan Rawls said Bradley County General Sessions Judge Sheridan Randolph refused to issue criminal summonses for City Manager Janice Casteel or Councilman George Poe on charges of vandalism, criminal trespass and official oppression.
After meeting with the judge to make his request, Rawls said Randolph told him that even if he signed the papers, the prosecutor's office was likely to dismiss the charges.
The two city officials ripped up protest signs Rawls posted in front of his business, Cleveland Performance Center, when Gov. Bill Haslam was appearing across the street on July 11. Rawls said the hand-painted sign saying, "Haslam, shame on u," was to protest the governor's support for Common Core educational standards.
Poe said afterward that the signs were an embarrassment to the city and that they were on city right of way.
Photos showed them near a stop sign and a utility pole, but it's hard to determine whether they are within the 6-foot right of way
State Opens First 'Recovery Court' for Prisoners
Next month, in the quiet Morgan County city of Wartburg, the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, along with the Tennessee Department of Correction, will open what the state says is the nation's first statewide residential Recovery Court, reports the News Sentinel.
The 24-hour, 100-bed facility, which opens its doors Aug. 1, will allow the state to divert people with substance abuse or mental health issues from prison beds, with the hope of halting the cycle of hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness that plagues many.
In a November budget hearing meeting with Gov. Bill Haslam, Mental Health Commissioner Doug Varney laid out such a plan as being a humane and cost-effective way to deal with what he sees as one of the state's biggest problems. In 2011, he told Haslam, for the first time ever, the state saw more people seeking treatment for narcotics addiction than for alcoholism -- and the state's system was sorely taxed.
"A large number of people in jails ... their core problem is really drug abuse," he said. Such an intensive program could "change their (lives) before they ever get that far."
TDOC estimates the average daily cost to house a prison inmate at just more than $67. The Recovery Court residential program, even being more service-intensive than existing programs, will cost an average of $35 per person per day, the state said. But it also will, in theory, save money by reducing recidivism -- "repeat offenders" -- by using "evidence-based" programs "proven to have a larger impact on reducing recidivism."
The state said studies have shown the recidivism rate for people who participate in such programs is one-third that of those who don't.
However, it should not been taken as the state going "soft on crime," TDOC Commissioner Derek Schofield said.
"What it says is that we're going to place people in the best option to ensure they don't re-offend. But also, we're going to make sure we have a prison bed available for people who commit violent offenses that harm our communities," he said.
Haslam on Constantly Upgrading the TN Business Climate
Gov. Bill Haslam has written a piece for CNBC on Tennessee and its business climate -- bragging a bit, naturally. An excerpt:
Tennessee is the best state for business because we pair our business community's proven track record of scaled growth and innovation with an approach by the public sector to constantly upgrade our business climate.
Full article HERE.
Ingram Getting $5,000 Per Month From Haslam Campaign
Veteran lobbyist and political consultant Tom Ingram is being paid $5,000 per month by Gov. Bill Haslam's re-election campaign, a spokesman for the governor said Tuesday.
David Smith said the monthly payments began on July 1. Before that, Haslam had been paying Ingram with personal funds and had refused to disclose the amount of his personal payments.
Asked if the $5,000 monthly campaign payments are the same as the undisclosed personal payments that proceeded, Smith declined to comment.
The campaign payments would eventually have become public, but disclosure would not be required until Jan. 31, 2014, the next date for filing a campaign disclosure in a non-election year.
The $5,000 payments will be at a considerably lower level than payments to Ingram and the Ingram Group, a consulting and lobbying firm he founded, during the intense 2010 gubernatorial campaign. Total payments to Ingram and the Ingram Group by the 2010 Haslam campaign totaled more than $600,000, according to a review of Registry of Election Finance records, starting with a $20,000 payment to Ingram on June 2, 2009, and ending with a payment of $20,834 to the Ingram Group on Jan. 27, 2011.
Smith said the payments by the 2014 campaign will be made to the Ingram Group.
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On a sorta related note, see Gail Kerr's column, which heaps praise upon Ingram while giving him a bit of a lecture, too, for failure to register as a lobbyist. An excerpt:
Ingram's a pro. These are dumb, little mistakes he shouldn't have made. Whether he's playing small ball with the council or long ball with the big boys, he needs to play by the rules.
Tom Ingram knows better
TN Veterans Can Register for Burial Online
News release from state Department of Veterans Affairs:
NASHVILLE - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder announced an innovative new online pre-registration form which will allow veterans and their families to be pre-approved for burial in the state veterans cemeteries.
Traditionally, funeral directors contact the nearest state veterans cemetery when they receive a request to bury the remains of a veteran or dependent who previously expressed interest in burial at one of the four locations. In many cases, family members are unable to locate the veteran's discharge papers which must be used to determine eligibility. The process to request and receive the appropriate discharge papers as well as determine eligibility can take several days or weeks.
"Our goal is to do all we can to assist and support veterans and their families," Haslam said. "This online resource is a proactive and efficient way to offer them assistance before they face a crisis situation when delays can add to the trauma of loss."
Fitzhugh Won't Run for Governor
The lone Democrat to voice interest in running against Gov. Bill Haslam for governor said he'll stick to running for re-election to his West Tennessee House district instead, reports The City Paper.
"I'm committed to continuing as leader and trying to run for my representative position again. That's what I'm going to do, I believe," House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh told The City Paper.
"I certainly hope that we can find somebody who will step forward because I do think some of the things that are happening in our state are not going the way that they could," he said.
Fitzhugh first raised the possibility of a run for governor in December. (Previous post HERE)
See also, The Tennessean story.
Hargett Becomes NASS President
News release from Secretary of State's office:
ANCHORAGE, AK - The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), currently holding its annual summer conference in Anchorage, Alaska, today inducted its new slate of national officers for the 2013-2014 cycle. Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett will serve as president of the professional organization for state officials through July 2014, marking the first time in more than three decades that a Tennessee official has held this position.
"I look forward to continuing the strong leadership that my predecessors have provided to NASS for almost 110 years," said Hargett of Tennessee. "Now more than ever, citizens are looking for collaborative bipartisan leadership from their state officials. Citizens are counting on us to lead the way in developing and sharing best practices for running honest and efficient elections, for increasing voter turnout and civic awareness and for protecting our people and our businesses from unnecessary federal laws and regulations."
Hargett added that under his leadership, NASS will continue to serve as a forum where members can learn from each other how best to provide the services their offices are charged with delivering to the public.
Senator Proposes TN College Tuition Freeze
News release from Senate Republican Caucus:
NASHVILLE, Tenn.), July 22, 2013 -- State Senator Jim Summerville (R-Dickson) has announced plans to file legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly to freeze tuition at the current rates at state colleges and universities. The announcement comes after the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) and the University of Tennessee (UT) system recently adopted hikes in tuition ranging between 3 to 6 percent.
"The current increases are an outrage, especially in light of this year's increase in appropriations to these higher education systems," said Senator Summerville. "No other governmental department consistently raises their costs to the taxpayers at such a high rate on an annual basis."
The General Assembly approved a budget providing a $108.6 million increase for higher education, including $65.7 million in additional funds for the Tennessee Board of Regents, $37.6 million for the University of Tennessee system and $5.2 million for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. A 2010-2011 study by the Bloomberg News College Board found that 56 percent of public four-year college students average $23,800 in student loans upon graduation.
"Over the past decade, tuition at public colleges and universities has increased by an astounding 62 percent," added Summerville. "These ever-increasing costs lead students to take out more loans, thus saddling themselves with debt that can take almost a lifetime to pay back."
Summerville said his legislation, the "Tennessee College Students' Tuition Relief Act," is currently in the drafting stage but will freeze tuition for several years. He said bill will include cost reduction recommendations to help the state's higher education system realize efficiencies. This could include top-heavy administrative office expenses and excessive salary packages for college coaches.
"Non-instructional cost is a good place to start in looking for savings," added Summerville. "If we are going to meet our goals of raising our college graduation rates, we must get a handle on the rising costs. This legislation is a big step in the right direction to accomplish this."
Finney Finds TN Ties in Trip to England
State Sen. Lowe Finney, D-Jackson, took the opportunity to visit with state jobs officials while in England to participate in a conference for political and business leaders at Queens College in London, reports the Jackson Sun.
While there, Finney paid a visit to Regents University in London, a four-year institution with a partnership with the University of Memphis Finney met with Dr. Supti Sarkar and Colm Reilly, of PA Consulting Group, Tennessee's London-based affiliate designated to help identify, engage and recruit potential economic development projects from throughout the United Kingdom.
"The people I met with are Tennessee's point people," Finney said. "I was not meeting with an owner of a company. (Sarkar and Reilly) are located in London. My visit to London was not a 'trade mission' in the sense that I was pitching to those companies."
Finney said the meeting helped him understand what they are dealing with and what they need in their recruitment efforts as well as to let them know that the legislature is a partner.
Finney said the three-day trip was very productive and that it was made possible through a grant and not paid for at taxpayer expense
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