Fri
Jun 15 2007
08:40 am
Knox County budget passes
By: R. Neal

The Knox County budget passed last night by a unanimous vote. "Fireworks failed to materialize," much to the paper's dismay.

Mayor Ragsdale terminated "travel supplement" pay for Arms, Werner, Van de Vate, and Cook, but they keep their county vehicles. On travel, employees will now be on a per diem for meals, and lodging will be charged to the Mayor's executive credit card.

Commissioner Mark Harmon requested monthly travel expense reports to County Commission, and the Mayor agreed. Commission also approved an additional $500 bonus for employees making less than $45,000.

The article also reports on the $900 vacation cruise purchased on a county credit card. They say it was paid back. It would not seem appropriate to charge vacations on government credit cards, even if it is paid back. Mayor Ragsdale had said previously he would tighten up control of county credit card use.

UPDATE: WATE has this report, with more on the cruise charged to a county credit card:

The auditor sent her a letter asking her to justify buying a ticket for a cruise. She replied, saying: "Limited time to schedule vacation -- not enough room on personal card."

Lloyd went onto write the use of the county credit card had been approved for later reimbursement. She attached a personal check paying Knox County back the full amount.

That sounds pretty unacceptable. What are they running up there, a bank or a county government?

Topics:
CBT's picture

Same question from the other

Submitted by CBT on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 8:59am.

Same question from the other thread...I see four on the Mayor's staff lost their 'travel pay', which is appropriate. Did the Mayor keep his $20,000 'travel pay', either separate or added to his salary (which might not be possible given I understand the Mayor's salary is set by the County Charter)? If the others lost theirs, doesn't the same rationale apply to the Mayor's travel pay?

CBT

R. Neal's picture

Did the Mayor keep his

Submitted by R. Neal on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 9:08am.

Did the Mayor keep his $20,000 'travel pay'

Good question. Still not answered.

Maybe Sandra or Betty knows or can find out. Or maybe we'll have to read about it in Monday's Shopper. Heh.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Tramel

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 9:32am.

I note with irritation that Tramel voted "no" on a $30 million bond to fund an addition to Powell Middle, where 300 students have waited for 20 years in trailers on the back parking lot. Meanwhile, he apparently has no problem funding an obsolete type of pension (defined benefit) at an extraordinarily high level (75% of salary) for his other employer, the Sheriff's Department.

This double-dippin' high school grad with the six-figure county income continues to chap me...

Mark Harmon's picture

Minor correction

Submitted by Mark Harmon on Sun, 2007/06/17 - 10:56pm.

R. Neal wrote, "Commissioner Mark Harmon requested monthly travel expense reports to County Commission, and the Mayor agreed." I believe it actually was Commissioner Craig Leuthold, might have been Mike Hammond.

Mark Harmon

R. Neal's picture

Oops. Sorry, Mark Harmon.

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 2007/06/17 - 11:14pm.

Oops. Sorry, Mark Harmon. You are correct. I mixed up a couple of paragraphs from the KNS report. It clearly says:

"The only reference to the situation made Thursday came from Commissioner Mike Hammond, who asked that a monthly report be made to the commission of travel expenditures."

Which I did not clearly read. Sorry 'bout that.

CBT's picture

Tramel stated his worry was

Submitted by CBT on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 11:04am.

Tramel stated his worry was going more in debt, not a particular project, when we know we have stormwater and other money needs on the horizon.

I note the Mayor's office repeatedly moaned about having to borrow funds for the Sheriff's officer's pension, but had no problem almost doubling the new debt to fund school projects. Both are needs for the county, but one is used as a political slap and the other comes close to the 'it's for the children' line. One also allows politicians who may seek higher office to point to a new school building as an accomplishment.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Naw...

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 11:49am.

Good grief, Chad!

Schools must always be financed (and this one is the most pressing middle school project in the system), but pensions, no.

Any so-called "political slap" WRT the pension plan is warranted, I think, as defined benefit plans have been on the way out of private industry for several years now.

'Course, I can't argue with you that a school is a tangible expenditure an official can point to, while a pension plan isn't, but it's nevertheless an expenditure easier to defend, in terms of both the need for it and the relative modesty of the expenditure (i.e., the school is of a reasonable size and design, the pension plan is not).

I could understand your analogy better if you cited going into debt for one of those excessive branch library projects (even though I'm a Friend).

KnoxVol's picture

Why are they not talking impeachment?

Submitted by KnoxVol on Sun, 2007/06/17 - 11:50am.

I have never seen such arrogant, blatant disregard by an elected official.

Has anybody ever heard of any elected official, in any county, in any elected office that has spent the taxpayer's money on luxury items like Ragsdale and then acted the way he has?

It's not necessarily the misappropriation of the taxpayer's money it's his attitude. Ragsdale acts like he's above the law.

If you look back a couple of years Mike Ragsdale needed a tax increase to fund an industrial bond issue that would have given a real estate developer (which is one of his political allies) the (Knox County Farmer's Market) property plus potentially millions of the taxpayers dollars for re-development of the tract.

Although the County Commission was able to get the deal stopped it still resulted in a $30 wheel tax increase shoved on the taxpayers.

>> Is there no one in the Democrat Party that can start calling for this guy's impeachment?! <<

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