Much has been made of Commissioner Amy “No Show” Broyles attendance at Commission meetings. She has a terrible Commission attendance record in spite of a lot of tea room chats.
Commission had some discussion about it’s travel budget and Broyles appears to have spent a whole bunch of the pot of money compared to her colleagues. Vice Chair Smith instead of just commenting on her extensive travel, decided to single out a conference Broyles attended that dealt with women’s issues and the most recent issue was domestic violence on women. Smith was quoted in a manner that appeared to trivialize women’s issues.
At the start of last Tuesday’s work session, he tried to put his words back in his mouth and in his brain. But the can of whoop a$$ had already been opened. So, he was subjected to a Knox County Democrat leader, a former League of Women’s Voter President, a young lady and an organizer of the conference all spoke publicly about his comment and the perceived disrespect he subjected on all women.
Making it worse, Smith had to chair the work session. Chairman Anders was out of town with his family. Smith was probably wishing the meeting had been rescheduled to accommodate other Commissioners schedule. In addition, to Anders, Commissioner Ownby’s father had passed away on Sunday, Commissioner McKenzie had commitments at his real job and Commissioner Mike Brown had a medical procedure that kept him from attending the work session.
I assume nearly every Commissioner will be there on Monday for the voting session. In addition, I would expect the speaker list to grow.
So, Robert Lawrence will likely take another beating. What ever Smith’s 2014 aspirations are for another elected position. He should NOT challenge a female. In the South it isn’t easily dismissed or forgiven when you are not respectful to the ladies and his beating will probably only continue.
Robert Lawrence Smith in front of the TN State Flag and Amy Broyles closest to the camera listen to the trashing Smith ensured
Mary Wilson, a Knox County Democrat leader makes pointed remarks at Smith about his remarks.
Rynn Dupes a young lady expresses her disappointment with Smith and his comments about Broyles conference attendance.
Former Pesident of the Knoxville Knox County League of Women Voters Jamey Dobbs speaks about the issue of Domestic Violence on Women and the benefit of Broyles attendance at the conference
Susanne Dupes an organizer of the event Broyles attended explained the benefit of conference attendance
