Tomorrow September 18, 2017 at 4 pm in the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building in Downtown Knoxville the Knox County Commission is set to replace it’s Chairman Dave Wright. Will it be the Current Vice Chairman and Third District Commissioner Randy Smith? Will it be the golf enthusiast from the Seventh District Commissioner Charles Busler? Will it be the political hungry John Schoonmaker? or is there a wildcard.
Let’s revisit the golf escapades of Busler and Thomas. Rumor began circulating last week that an ethics complaint has begun in the pipeline on Commissioners Busler and Bob Thomas (Thomas is a 2018 Knox County Mayor candidate).
Seventh District Commissioner Charles Busler
Part of the defense of the golfing duo is to place the blame on the News Sentinel. The News Sentinel was a corporate sponsor of the golf tournament at an upper their level like Pilot Oil. In fact its sponsorship level gave it naming rights for the tournament much like Mercedes has the naming rights for the new Atlanta Falcons Football Stadium. The News Sentinel had NO input into who played in the tournament and who received gift cards and how much the gift cards were valued for. Just like Mercedes did not decide that Alabama would play Florida State or that Tennessee would play Georgia Teach in the first two collegiate football games in it’s stadium a few weeks ago.
The facts are certain and it’s the TRUTH. Corporate Sponsorship if the golf tournament at the $7,500 level allowed the individual sponsors to have a team of four in the tournament and four packages of freebies including a $500 gift card or voucher (whatever you want to call it) While Priority Ambulance did not pay $7,500, it did negotiate the sponsorship by providing ambulance and manpower for the tournament. This resource(s) offering certainly cost Priority money so it had value to Priority. It was Priority who picked it’s four golfers to play and two of those (half the team) was Thomas and Busler. It was also Priority who designated these golfers receive $500 gift cards or vouchers not the News Sentinel or even the Priority employees that worked the event all weekend.
It appears that the two Commissioners actually committed three violations.
First, Thomas and Busler violated the “Sunshine Law” by meeting (for over four hours) and not alerting the press, This action was a direct breach of a Knox County Chancery Court Judicial Order.
Second, the receiving of the free golf and $500 gift card or voucher clearly violated the Knox County Ethics policy which puts any gifts at a $35 maximum level and generally states it is for meals.
Third, that Thomas and Busler took these gifts from a company or vendor that was directly lobbying for a vote on the upcoming Knox County Commission agenda makes their actions a clear cut “conflict of interest”. This “conflict of interest” is a violation of state law, T.C.A. 12-4-101
The Knox County Ethics Committee can appropriately recommend this flagrant violation to the Knox County Attorney General for an ouster suit.
Commissioner John Schoonmaker looking at the camera talking with Commissioner Brad Anders and an unidentified man with his back to the camera.
Why would 6 Knox County Commissioners select Busler who could be facing a censure by the Commission or even an ouster in the near future as it’s Chairman. The cleanest choice for Chairman would appear to be the Current Vice Chairman Randy Smith.
Commission Vice Chairman Randy Smith in the plaid shirt beside Knoxville City Council Third District Candidate James Corcoran and an unidentified female at a recent Knoxville City Council meeting
I have seen you publish some bullshit but this takes the cake ! Sounds to me like u might have took that job at KNS after all . Why didn’t u call Johnny M and get the Real story .
Johnny Majors? What’s Johnny Majors have to do with this?
The only position I have ever had with KNS was delivering 80 newspapers in the afternoon after high school to sunnyview subdivision. That was back in the early 1980’s