As linked by braintree, news on the resignation from the AP: LINK

Link: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=232258&title=Shut-Up,-Mark-Sanford

Jon Stewart hit a home run on his show yesterday when he did a recap of Mark Sanford’s week.

As I watched video and after reading the recent article in Vanity Fair on Sarah Palin - http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908 - all I could think was how lucky this country would have been IF a ticket of Sanford/Palin had only won the election last November

…the contrast of this video from WBIR regarding area Blount County churches and their work next to this article of The Daily Times regarding what we are doing for animals made me think.

Do we have our priorities right?

Even though I agree with the Mayor in regard to giving this work to Maryville City at a premium would have been better to the much larger premium we find ourselves paying now – we are where we are.

But the question remains, does a dog know if it’s in the Taj Mahal or a much lesser building if both have concrete floors?

Blount County’s unemployment rate is over 10%. Maryville is over 20% as of May. Link

I hope in the future, our government will show as much interest in its people as it does our furry friends and the arts. Not that all aren’t important, it’s just that short list of three should have an obivious priority.

A community has to grow, right? We couldn’t possibly put the cost of growth on the growers, right? There is no need to pay as we play, right? We can kick any debt down the road because the low percentage on some of these loan deals are almost impossible not to take, right?

Think like that, close your eyes real tight and say “Bones” three times. Next, a Charles “Bones” Seivers steps into your life. Bones not only agrees with you, but he’s got the money. Lot’s of it. Why, other banks will even pay him to give you money. Life is good.

Or is it?

From the Tennessean: LINK

Brad Schrade puts together an excellent piece of journalism in this 6 page piece on bond pitchman extraordinaire, Charles Seivers, and his endeavors with Tennessee municipalities including Murfreesboro and Nashville. Since the article is long, I’m using a lot of it to provide context should readers not read the lnked article. But trust me, what I’m quoting from the article are the bookends, the middle provides insight to how lucrative these bond deals are to those who provide them.

From page 1

Employees of the Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund benefited more handsomely and the nonprofit charged hidden fees to municipalities for many more years than a previous Tennessean investigation revealed.

New reporting shows:

n Bank of America, which earned large fees for underwriting the fund’s loans, paid $500,000 annually back to the bond fund to pay bonuses for employees.

n Two additional financial companies that were hired by the fund have had other business arrangements with the fund’s president and CEO, Charles “Bones” Seivers, paying him undisclosed amounts for consulting work.

n The bond fund regularly charged a higher-than-necessary upfront fee on loans to local governments as a way to earn more money before rebating some of the upfront fee.

n The fund’s hidden fees, disclosed in an earlier Tennessean report, stretch back at least a decade. The amount charged to local governments through the hidden fees is unknown, but could be significantly more than the $400,000 charged this year alone.

The municipal bond market is notorious for people making a lot of money from local governments needing to build schools, roads, sewers and affordable housing with borrowed money. Excessive fees, side deals and transactions that benefit inside players over the interests of local communities are all too common.

The Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund has long advertised that it is different and has given local governments a simple pledge: You can trust us; we’re working on your behalf to get the best deal possible for local taxpayers. The fund has emphasized its nonprofit governmental status as it lent $3 billion to counties and cities across the state.

From page 6:

Sievers appearntly had a knack for creating ongoing fees for he and his staff reports Tennesean;

Conversations in board minutes show that when questions arose about these fees, and different ways they could be arranged, Seivers explained his strategy to set things up in a way to maximize revenue for the bond fund.

In a discussion with the board in February 2004, Seivers told the board that the program needed to focus on arrangements that would generate ongoing fees, instead of one-time fees.

“TMBF refunds the loan into the program and receives ongoing fees, although other types of refundings generate a nominal one-time fee, but take considerable time, and this time needs to be focused on the variable rate program that produces residual fees,” minutes say.

As these things come back to effect municipalities, they don’t come back in full surprise. A Metro (Nashville) City Councilwoman was raising red flags last December according to the article;

Evans, a retired municipal bond underwriter, said the bond fund structured the deal so it would collect hundreds of thousands in fees over the life of the loan for essentially doing nothing. With questions of hidden fees and other issues, the fund should be audited by state or federal regulators, she said.

“The lesson of the last two years is that trust is not good enough,” Evans said. “That’s why we have disclosure. That’s why we have audits. Trust is important, but you’ve got to have all these other things.”

From The Daily Times; http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20090629/NEWS/306299986

In the lawsuit, Dowdy also claims that he knew of illegal and unethical activities taking place in the Highway Department. In the complaint, he alleges that Dunlap allowed employees to charge personal purchases to Highway Department credit accounts, used county funds to make purchases for personal use, forced employees to perform tasks for his personal benefit or that of county officials, gave government assets to private individuals, forced county employees to falsify invoices and forced county employees to pose as him while taking tests to gain certifications in his name.

If either local paid media has the gumption to take a video camera and record this hearing, their readers/viewers could be served in a way they could never write about. Some things just have to be seen.

Judges in our area are politicians. They run for their positions, so by design or default, they are involved in politics. This has its downsides as reported in the Metro Pulse last year. (For more on clarification of the questionable data mentioned in the Metro Pulse article, click here and here.)

Law Enforcement Agents have long looked to Judge Young for support. Obviously by the last local Judicial race, the Blount legal community also tends to follow Young and those he supports. In fact, our local legal community is a pretty tight group in regard to who they support, as seen in this post.

Many of those on the list in the link, who followed Young’s candidate of choice, are also involved this case. In fact all. Except Dowdy.

Let’s hope he gave the maximum to the “right” candidate as to take politics out of any judicial decision.

Regardless, this sure would be something to SEE.

Whether you’ve been in Blount 5 minutes or 5 generations, you know the answer to this poll question. The Hunter Study, Planning Director Lamb’s community input sessions and letters to the editor over the past few decades all say the majority of residents want to protect areas around the GSMNP.

If The Daily Times editors want to be helpful, inform their readers of what changes are facing the Blount gateway to the mountains.

There was obviously approval for a 170 plat during this hearing the Daily Times gave a couple of headlines and updates to.

Why not publish the plat, like the DT did the property, as to let readers know what the gateway is facing?

Related: http://www.blounttalk.com/b2evolution/blogs/index.php/2009/05/07/more-land-disappearing?blog=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_msTII61hWY

Here are the facts, straight from Rachel Maddow, a liberal political commentator.

Where’s the change? It’s simple, change the name of government crime and pretend it’s better than the evil oil man.

Link: http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=10603590

Minimum Residential Building code for Tennessee
Signed by Governor

According to a story on WATE’s web-site, “… effective July 1 … Under the law, local governments in the 60 counties that don’t have building codes have to vote against participating …”

The New Code can be found at House Bill 2318. Is Blount County a part of the 60, or do we have our own Building Codes? If we do have our own building codes, does anyone know where they are?

Blount County basically gave away the farm to get Denso. I don’t have a big problem with that. I’d rather have a couple thousand gainfully employed people and their families helping the local economy through home purchases and local shopping and eating, than not having them at all.

To that end, can Blount incentivize the Airport Motor Mile and Foothills Mall area at the intersection of Foothills Mall Drive and HWY 411? Who ever came up the Denso idea needs to contact our current local crop of officials to seek how we could spark new interest; both national and international.

Folks, let’s try this. If you have a point, try to make it without making unnecessary interjections of personalities. If you disagree with someone’s point, start by addressing the person by username and try something like “___________, I “believe” you are incorrect because…” If you “know” something is incorrect, cite a link to back the claim.

I’m an offender at times as much as anyone else, but it’s times like these that remind me to give reminders.