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The pub­lic has spo­ken and decided that struc­ture in Knox County gov­ern­ment mat­ters. Today, a let­ter was pub­lished in the News Sen­tinel signed by a Steer­ing Com­mit­tee to Knox County Com­mis­sion with sep­a­rate char­ter amend­ments attached ask­ing them to place the amend­ments on the bal­lot and inform­ing them that they are start­ing the process to cer­tify a cit­i­zen peti­tion drive in case they do not act.

Goal of Cam­paign will be to keep it sim­ple — focus on Reform Knox County

  1. Elim­i­nate nepo­tism and con­flicts of inter­est — end­ing the back­room politics
  2. Elim­i­nate waste, fraud, and abuse
  3. Make the County Com­mis­sion more responsive
  4. Make the County Mayor more accountable
  5. Uti­lize $8.9 mil­lion in County fees more effec­tively each year

The Pro­posed Char­ter Amend­ments for Com­mis­sion Place­ment on the Bal­lot will be divided into 9 Sep­a­rate Requests:

1. Leg­isla­tive Branch Nepo­tism, Con­flict of Inter­est, Respon­sive­ness, and Accountability

1a — Restric­tions on Nepo­tism.
1b — Con­flict of Inter­est on voted mat­ters (dis­clo­sure and recusal required).
1c — Begin­ning in 2010, no Knox County employee may serve in a Knox County elected posi­tion. (Note: this change begins imme­di­ately if cit­i­zen peti­tion required).
1d — Restruc­tur­ing County Com­mis­sion to elect­ing one rep­re­sen­ta­tive per dis­trict and two at-large with stag­gered terms in non­par­ti­san elec­tions (begin­ning in 2010). (Note: this change actu­ally results in the vot­ers hav­ing a greater impact on Com­mis­sion, elect­ing 3 out of 11 rather than the typ­i­cal 2 out of 19).

2. Exec­u­tive Branch Con­flict of Inter­est; Waste, Fraud, and Abuse; Cost Sav­ing, and Accountability

2a — Con­flict of inter­est on admin­is­tra­tive mat­ter (dis­clo­sure and recusal required).
2b — Estab­lish­ing an Inde­pen­dent Office of Inspec­tor Gen­eral.
2c — Estab­lish­ing the num­ber of sig­na­tures required for a citizen-driven Char­ter amend­ment at 15% of the vot­ers in the last gen­eral elec­tion (begin­ning in 2010).
2d — Appoint­ing the Fee Offices (begin­ning in 2010).
2e — Appoint­ing the Reg­is­ter of Deeds (begin­ning in 2010).
2f — Appoint­ing the Law Direc­tor (begin­ning in 2010).

If you are inter­ested in learn­ing more, check out the web at Knox County Peti­tion. Do Good!

Pho­tog­ra­phy by gun show