A Hal­lerin Hill radio show reg­u­lar by the name of Fos­ter D. Arnett, Jr. is up for Knox County Clerk.

1. Intro­duce your­self to Knoxville, who are you, and why are you running?

Foster Arnett My name is Fos­ter D. Arnett, Jr. and I am a life-long res­i­dent of Knoxville/Knox County. I am a grad­u­ate of Bear­den High School and the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee. I have been mar­ried to my wife Dot­tie for 24 years. Dot­tie was hired by the Knoxville Board of Edu­ca­tion in 1983. She cur­rently is a kinder­garten teacher at Sequoyah Ele­men­tary school. I divulged the day I announced Dot­tie teaches in the Knox County School sys­tem. There is not a con­flict of inter­est here because the Knox County Clerk’s Office has no con­trol over the Board of Edu­ca­tion, as it should be and Dot­tie will retire in three years. We were not able to have chil­dren so we have a Golden Retriever named Dugan and a res­cued dog named Lucy. We live in Sequoyah Hills in the home where I was reared and we attend and I am the for­mer Dea­con Chair at Sequoyah Hills Pres­by­ter­ian Church. I am active in the com­mu­nity and am proudly the Pres­i­dent of the Knoxville News-Sentinel Char­i­ties which over­sees the Empty Stock­ing Fund. My Grand­mother was the main buyer for the ESF for many years in the 60’s and when she was no longer able to serve, my late Father, Fos­ter D. Arnett took over as Pres­i­dent of the Char­i­ties. My Dad was stricken with Alzheimer’s many years ago and I was asked to and now serve in the President’s posi­tion. There is no con­flict of inter­est here because the char­i­ties are com­pletely sep­a­rate from the edi­to­r­ial side of the paper. We humbly pro­vide food, toys and a brighter Christ­mas for those less for­tu­nate in the Knoxville area. I say all this because my can­di­dacy is a totally open book. I was an anchor and reporter at WATE and WBIR for many years before I went to work for Mayor Kyle Tester­man in 1985. I spent the next 15 years as the spokesman for the Knoxville Police Depart­ment. In 2000 I left KPD to take care of my ail­ing Father because my Mother was not able to han­dle this enor­mous task. In 2001 I went to work for a large con­struc­tion com­pany where I was Direc­tor of Busi­ness Devel­op­ment. I was able to raise their “bot­tom line” 600% in the four years I was there and they are still work­ing off rela­tion­ships I estab­lished. From there I spent a year as the Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions for a local web design firm. I had my own busi­ness of sell­ing air and water purifi­ca­tion sys­tems for a short while. I closed that com­pany in the sum­mer of 2007 to run for Knox County Clerk full time.

2. We think it’s bet­ter know­ing what not to do rather than hav­ing an exten­sive plan. What areas or inter­ests would ben­e­fit Knox County not to ven­ture into?

The most crit­i­cal issue fac­ing Knox County Gov­ern­ment is cred­i­bil­ity. We are in a cri­sis in my opin­ion. I will restore con­fi­dence in the clerk’s office by throw­ing the doors wide open to the tax­pay­ers, the media and our employ­ees. I will have a totally open door pol­icy and what­ever is a mat­ter of pub­lic record will be just that: period. I will work with the employ­ees to make our office as effi­cient as pos­si­ble. To answer the ques­tion directly we need to be focused on good, open, hon­est, and hon­or­able gov­ern­ment and we should stay totally away from any­thing that smacks of improper deals and shut­ting out the pub­lic from THEIR gov­ern­ment. Honor, Above All Else.

3. What 5 things could you not live without?

1) My faith.
2) My wife and best friend Dot­tie.
3) The unwa­ver­ing sup­port and love of my fam­ily and friends.
4) My prin­ci­ples of hon­esty and integrity.
5) My good name passed along from my Father.