Sunday, November 11

Outrage about Lack of Public Notice -- Not Nitpicking


Reader's Write Article for 10-12-12 -- The Courier, Savannah, TN

Outrage about Lack of Public Notice -- Not Nitpicking


You just can't confuse these folks with facts.

Do you remember back just a couple months ago when Hardin County Mayor Kevin Davis got caught "fibbing" to WBBJ about moving forward with the city of Savannah for animal control in Hardin County, his pretend meeting of the Animal Control Committee, and his fake proposal to the city on behalf of a committee that hadn't even met?

Also, if you will remember the pretend meeting had "improper notice," no quorum to transact business and ended up falsifying public records to help cover-up Mayor Davis's "fibbing."

In that it was pointed out at the–again without "proper" notice–Animal Services Committee's meeting last week, the problems/issues with the minutes of the pretend meeting, the Committee, all of those that were present, voted to approve the minutes of the pretend meeting and thereby ratify or condone the conduct surrounding the pretend meeting, even though they had to see that there had not been a quorum present. That just ain't right.

Even the University of Tennessee's County Technical Advisory Service affirms that "any action taken at a meeting in violation of the Sunshine Law is void." [TCA 8-44-105] and the in order to remedy a violation of the Sunshine Law, however, the ultimate decision must be made at a meeting that satisfies the Sunshine Law and there must be new and substantial reconsideration of the issues involved.

Also, even if a subsequent meeting is held in compliance with the Sunshine Law, the ratification and confirmation of an action will not remedy a prior violation of the Sunshine Law, if it is merely a "perfunctory rubber stamp."

A government that proclaims itself entitled to do completely as it pleases, while requiring its people to rigidly obey every precept of its legislation, violates the maxim or saying of law that says, "just as the state and county are created by laws, so the state and county must be subject to law … for only by the principles of law can we judge the state and/or county as just or unjust, wise or foolish, strong or weak."

Such governments that proclaim itself entitled to do completely as it pleases are unjust, and their leadership should be changed immediately for the sake of the people whom they are charged by law to protect. Our founding fathers came up with that idea.

These folks have proven to me, again, by their behavior that they are not above less-than-honorable, open and straightforward conduct required for responsible service of a public official.

Other than affirming to the citizens of Hardin County that the basic instinct of our county government "leadership" is to be sneaky and less than straight forward, this fiasco reaffirms that our "leadership" will treat their bosses, us citizens, like mushrooms by trying to keep us in the dark and feeding us a bunch of c---, if you know what I mean!

As far as proper (legal) notice – The question is: Is the issue of moving forward with animal services and expending somewhere just short of a million dollars of taxpayer dollars, at this time, a.) Not to be expected to be of interest to the general public; or b.) Is the issue one that is expected to be of great public concern. The law of the land, even in Hardin County is – Notice was inadequate where it failed to indicate the meeting was to be held for the purpose of discussing an issue of pervasive importance to public. Point: The mayor never put the purpose of the meeting in their otherwise hidden notices.

This group of folks act as if they are entitled to do completely as they please. As noted, governments that proclaims itself entitled to do completely as it pleases are unjust, and their leadership should be changed immediately for the sake of the people whom they are charged by law to protect. I'll vote for that.

A couple of the commissioners will probably yell that this is just more "nit-picking" but with a little more "real" public service under their belts, they will understand it is part of their responsibility and oath to deal with us nit-pickers and those pesky laws that define their boundaries and limitations.

I contend a citizen expressing concern over ill-conceived plans and obvious unlawful behavior, for at least the third time this year, is not nit-picking. If it is I could use a couple of more nit-pickers down on the field.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration,


Ted G. Cook

Savannah

Friday, October 12

Letter to Editor - The Courier - Condone Theft of County Property

Local Officials Condone Theft of County Propery

For you folks that don't feel the need to look into public affairs in Hardin County for yourself, what follows is the results of a lot of homework and research.

Respectfully submitted for your consideratoion,

Uncle Ted

The COURIER
Letters to the Editor
Pg 2A

Despite a state audit and finding that illegal activity and cover-up of theft of county property was condoned by “management of the solid waste department” (Hardin County Mayor Kevin Davis and Randy Etheridge), a documented fabrication to the media, and falsification of public records to cover up the fabrication (i.e. lie) by Davis concerning animal control moving forward, neither has been held accountable.

Left to their own devices, they likely won’t, because our Board of Sanitation, the Board of County Commissioners, the county attorney, the district attorney and the sheriff all have ratified and condoned this illegal activity by their wink-and-nod and inactivity for at least the last two years.

The Board of Commissioners, despite the current state of affairs, re-elected Mayor Davis chairman of the board at their September meeting. They did this because not the first one of them was willing to step up and take the job. None of them seems to have the time and it might actually prevent them from hiding, like cowards, behind Mayor Davis, as if he is the only one responsible for allowing the corruption in his office to continue.

The best excuse of the whole sordid affair was by Mayor Davis, at the commissioners’ February meeting, when he responded to the question by Commissioner Jenkins, “Has anyone been disciplined or punished?”

Mayor Davis retorted that the audit and investigation results did not identify anyone specifically, by name, so no one has been disciplined or fired for the actual theft of county property or for management ratifying or condoning the thefts.

The really sad thing about the whole mess is that the commissioners seem to say, “O.K., sounds good to us, nothing for us to do, the mayor is going to deal with it as soon as someone ferrets out the names of the managers of the Hardin County Solid Waste Department.” That’s lame.

Since I was the one who in July 2010 filed the complaint with the comptroller, DA, assistant district attorney and Sheriff Sammy Davidson that led to the comptroller’s investigation, I’m here to tell you that I named Mayor Davis, Randy Etheridge and the county commission as the officials who were aware of the theft of the county’s scrap metal and the cover-up that was taking place.

The comptroller’s investigation files are considered work product and are not public records, at this time; they will not release those files. Be that as it may, my files are not public records, either, but I have no problem with releasing the complaint. The long and the short of it is, the investigation results confirm the allegations in my complaint.

Some of the employees had taken scrap metal, sold it and kept the money. Management of the department was aware of, and in fact encouraged, the theft and refused to take any corrective action. Their problem with corrective action against those responsible is that the county commissioners are apparently waiting for Mayor Davis to discipline himself since they refuse to honor their oath of office for fidelity to the Constitution and the law.

I for one am not going to stand by and just wait for our “leaders” to end the corruption in the mayor’s office and the Board of County Commissioners. Now that my physical issues have stabilized and seem to be under control and the corrupt affair in Hardeman County has been kicked down the road until after the first of the year, there will be time to deal with these folks, and the state, which has also been sitting on its hands.

Question: What happens when our mayor all 20 commissioners, the DA, assistant DA and county attorney violate their oath of office? They are about to find out.

Ted G Cook
Savannah

Sunday, July 29

Should The State and County Be Subject to the Law

Should The State AND County Be Subject to the Law?


Without law no state and/or county could exist. No nation. No county government . No international force. No state and/or county of any kind can exist without laws, for it is by laws that states and/or counties are created.

This maxim teaches us that, just as the state and county are created by laws, so the state and county must be subject to law.

And, of course, every state and county should be subject to these principles of law … for only by the principles of law can we judge the state as just or unjust, wise or foolish, strong or weak.

The old saying, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” comes to mind. Only the government willing to submit to law is justified to require others to submit to its power … for its power derives solely from law.

A government that proclaims itself entitled to do completely as it pleases, while requiring its people to rigidly obey every precept of its legislation, violates this maxim of law. Such governments are unjust, and their leadership should be changed immediately for the sake of the people whom they are charged by these maxims of law to protect.

How can the exercise of power be justified in the hands of a government that is, itself, lawless? It cannot. The exercise of state power is only legitimate to the extent that the state itself submits to legal principles, of which the maxims of law are supreme. No state has a lawful right to act outside its own laws – nor does any state have the right to create laws that violate the maxims of law. This should be obvious.

The legal maxims are self-evident to everyone but those who for selfish reasons refuse to submit their private interests to the good of all.

It is self-evident that states should be subject to the law, yet news reports today are too frequently peppered with stories about government action that is contrary to the most fundamental laws of the land … and clearly contrary to these maxims!

What is the answer?  It’s simple. You can do it yourself. You Can Make a Difference.


Respectfully submitted for your consideration,

Uncle Ted

Friday, April 13

Pretend Suspension of John Thomas

The Board of Education Is Blowing Smoke



If you look in the Courier this week on page 8A in the upper left hand corner you will see a picture. It is about the Parris South DARE graduation. Found it yet?

What really tickes me off about the picture is that our Board of Education  is allowing John Thomas to represent them in public, standing their in his slender, with our Chief County Law Enforcement Officer and his Chief Deputy, no less, celebrating a crime prevention training progrem graduation for out kids. 

I thought the dude was “suspended” with pending criminal charges. I even looked up the word suspended in my dictionary, so I know what the word means. I couldn’t find anything about pretend suspend. Either one is or one isn’t. There is no in between.

Yet the Board of Education still allows him to represent the BOE, our School System and all those that are affiliated with the school system and himself as “Director” of Schools.  I just can not get my head around that.

This in name only suspension is smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors to the tenth degree. The man has not been suspended, it is just a pretend suspension. Our Board of Education, those with the oversight responsibility, are just giving us citizens lip service, feeding us a bunch of hot air and trying to keep us in the dark.

Let's see, that must come under policy setting and enforcement 101 in Hardin County Board of Education operating manual. Along with the tried and true “Well, that is just the way we do it in Hardin County.

The days of that kind of attitude must be numbered and counted down, starting now. Mr Fowler has been and is doing the heavy lifting on this one. I have been tied up with  business and the county commission and their pretend animal control effots, but it is time to relieve the concerns of the citizens, so to Mr. Fowler, help is on the way.  Let's get-er-done.

Note my friends at the Courier - First, at this time, I would refrain from calling him any kind of community leader, that insults the real community leaders. Second-the next time you publish a picture of him associated with the Hardin County School System, would you please identify him correctly as John Thomas, Suspended with Pending Criminal Charges Director Schools congratulates anyone, especially when they are associated with our young and impressionable DARE graduates. I’m sure young Ben Brown will be real proud to have that one in has scrapbook.
 
Respectfully submitted for your consideration,
 
Uncle Ted
 

Tuesday, February 14

Metalgate in Hardin County - Courier Readers Write fm Dec 2010

Comptroller says, they took it and management know about it.  Stay tuned.

        * * * * * * * *

12/11/10
Readers Write Article

In last weeks front page story about the State digging for dirt in our garbage, didn’t the Manager of the County’s Waste Management Department, Mr. Randy Etheridge admitted, in the press no less, at least enough to be considered as “knowledge based on available information that reasonably causes the public official to believe” that a theft and other acts of unlawful taking of public money, property, and/or services has occurred in The Waste Management Department in Hardin County, TN, with at least a wink and a nod from management?

As one of those FYI things. The general allegations, as now confirmed by Mr Etheridge, in addition to Theft of Government Property, are also defined as “Offenses Against Administration of Government” with no less than three or four counts of Official Misconduct, each of which is a Class E Felony under T.C.A. §39-16-402.

To note the seriousness of these admissions, it should also be of note that the authorized terms of imprisonment and fines for a Class E felony, is not less than one (1) year nor more than six (6) years. In addition, the jury may assess a fine not to exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000), unless otherwise provided by statute. Plus facing the reality of the branding of a convicted felon for the rest of your life.

Was that not one of the lamest reason for the retaliatory firing of the whistle blowing employee that could be put forth.

Of course, it probably would be insubordination if one of your long time employees had betrayed your mafia like dome of silence and as protocol sometimes requires, reported the crime and retaliation to the County Commissioner that represented his district, for hopefully an investigation. Why, this six year employee even had the audacity to get his story on the internet, for everyone to see. Yep, that is certainly being insubordinate, if you’re the mafia, but not if you are the local government.

I guess if you look at that in a kind of a skewed way, that would be a personnel problem. When an employee blows the whistle on unlawful activity, at any level, that could be a real personnel problem, that does not need to be kicked to the side of the road by those responsible for ensuring lawful activities of all public official.

Locally, one of those responsible parties is the Mayor, as Chief Executive Officer. But, who does one turn to when the Mayor is either in blind denial or up to his closed eye balls in trying to cover it up or make it go away?

The article noted that “[f]or his part, Davis is supporting Etheridge” and “Nobody had any blessing to take any kind of scrap metal. Getting a little ahead of yourself there, Mr. Mayor, unless you somehow recognize that there has been the taking.

As a note, it wasn’t that former President Nixon actually broke into the Watergate Hotel, it was his participation in the conspiracy to try to cover it up that forced him to resign.

Prior research has established that Mayor Davis stopped the potential “investigation” by the District’s Commissioner, who also just happens to work full time for the County and at the pleasure of the County Mayor. The Mayors direction was under the guise that the allegations were just a “personnel problem” and therefore there was nothing for the Commissioner/County Employee to get involved in because the Commissioner/County Employee did not have any jurisdiction to investigate personnel problems in the Solid Waste Department. The Mayor was going to have to back his other department head, Mr. Etheridge.

How is that going for you, Mr. Mayor?

The Commissioner/County Employee, - If you say so, o.k. with me, Mr. Mayor, nothing for me to investigate, case closed, no investigation, thank you.

If that ain’t hindering an investigation, I just don’t know what would be. It is kinda hard to define when the Commissioner/County Employee didn’t mind being hindered, and if fact, probably appreciated it.

Mayor Davis now challenges his department head, Mr. Etheridge’s admissions that "when I started (as director) 14 years ago, everybody was taking it. That was the policy," with “I say they’re allegations.”

The standard of proof for the allegations is, “knowledge based on available information that reasonably causes the public official to believe.” So sorry, Mr. Mayor, but it would be too long of a stretch to still consider them as just allegations after one of the targets of the inquiry, the Manager of that Department, has admitted to some of what you keep calling ‘allegations. (Criminal Justice - 101)

Remembering that the fact question is, has there been a theft or other acts of unlawful taking, just for the fun of it, let’s look at Mr. Etheridge’s comments in the article. "Employees are not allowed to take metal," Etheridge said. "Has that been a problem? Yes, from day one."

Said another way - “From day one, there has been a problem with employees are taking metal even though they were not allowed.” One could as County Commissioner Grisham if that applied to him.

How about, “a "zero tolerance" policy was being implemented for employees caught stealing metal from the recycling bins.” Does that mean that up until now there has been a tolerance policy for employees caught stealing metal from the recycling bins? It certainly appears so.

But wait, don’t we already have a “zero tolerance” policy for theft of county property in all of the departments?

Or even better, how about, “[w]hile acknowledging that there have been employees who improperly took metal from the recycling bins, Etheridge says anyone who claims he gave permission to do so is being untruthful.” And,”Yet Etheridge also says “that despite complaints of metal theft, he has never fired an employee for pilfering.”

I guess Mayor Davis and Mr. Etheridge are unaware of the phrase “tacit approval.”

Just to be helpful, and you know how I like to be helpful, according to my dictionary, tacit approval is a benign form of approval that is not expressed clearly, in words. It is silent approval. It is approval that is implied by other statements, actions or by a failure to clearly express disapproval with the situation, performance, idea, plan or request.

Also, tacit approval may be expressed by body language such as smiling, a nod of the head, a pat on the back or a shrug of the shoulders. It can be a friendly form of encouragement and support. On the other hand it is approval that can be easily and conveniently denied as/if a situation deteriorates.

I just really don’t think the pilfering could have possibly been going on for as long Mr. Etheridge acknowledges (from day one), without at least tacit approval. Come on, Mayor Davis, that’s not reality but welcome to the table of consequences.

Mayor Davis should give serious consideration to his oath of office to enforce the laws of the State of Tennessee and whether or not he has met his obligations under that oath.



Ted G. Cook

Savannah, TN