I was there. There was no shouting match. Nothing approaching it. There was no brouhaha for you to watch on the internet or anywhere else.

The County Commission is not attempting to keep anything it does at its meetings secret. The meeting was publicized in the RCN and on the Roane County government website. There was plenty of room for both sitting and standing at the meeting. I sat on a benc empty save for myself.

There was nothing to laugh at.

I haven't read Raymond Murray's comments, but based on what I'm reading here, it sounds as if what he had to say may have been... exaggerated.

His name was placed in nomination. The Commission voted. He lost. Strayer won. Could Mr Murray's grapes be a trifle sour?

Speaking of higher standards for constables, the one who was elected has significant qualifications and meets state POST standards far higher than those required of a constable by state law.

RB

This from the Roane County News was what I based my comment on:

Commission Chairman Troy Beets had to shout Olsen down at one point when Olsen insisted on having a debate about getting rid of constables.

You agree with that or not?

It was obvious Olsen WANTED to discuss whether or not the office of constable should be allowed to continue to exist in Roane County. That is absolutely true. Olsen made his point several times, and was allowed to do so by Chairman Beets.

The item on the agenda, which was under "Special Orders", was to elect a constable to fill the vacancy created by Mark Patton's resignation. Under "Special Orders" there are some limitations on what can be done with that item of business. It was on the agenda as an election, period. There was no other agenda item that night allowing for the discussion Olsen wanted to have. Whether or not it is appropriate to have such a discussion was not the issue on the agenda. The issue was to fulfill their legal duty, as specified by statute, and fill a vacancy in an elected position.

At one point Chairman Beets asked Commissioner Olsen if he had done as he had been advised in taking up some of these issues with a couple of people (I forget who, exactly). Olsen said that he had. When Beets asked, "And?..." Olsen had no reply. Olsen, as a Commissioner, has equal rights with any other Commissioner to place an item on agenda for either discussion or vote. Olsen apparently had not done so, as there was no place on the agenda calling for a discussion that night as to whether or not constables should be abolished in Roane County.

Chairman Beets let Olsen make his point that he thought the existence of constables should be discussed prior to a vote. Alhough Olsen is well known for his temper, having been involved in cuss-fights in the halls of the courthouse with county employees ion one of the court clerks' offices, and having been arrested for driving off without paying for gas in a fit of anger (this was reported publicly in the RCN when it happened), that did not happen on this night. Chairman Beets then simply retook control of the discussion and said they would vote as the agenda called for. Olsen did not want to do that, but once Beets took control as Chair, Olsen acquiesced and they proceeded. Beets raised his voice no more than enough to make himself heard while Olsen was talking; it was definitely not a shout nor a shouting match.

Beets did NOT "shout down" Olsen. He spoke at the same time - after a fairly extended time Olsen had been allowed to voice his objections - but only loudly enough to assert control of the discussion (as is the duty of the chair when an agenda item is side-tracked).

There was no shouting. There were no outbursts. The RCN reporter - a serious and talented, and zealous fellow - chose to describe the discussion in a way that I, as a journalist, would not have chosen. I HAVE done journalism before, albeit broadcast journalism. I actually won a few awards in many years past from both AP & UPI. I'm not saying that by way of bragging, only to establish that it is valid for me to make that judgment and statement. I have described the way that Beets regained control of the flow of the meeting, and it was exactly that. Beets was firm and decisive, but only loud enough to make sure everybody, including Olsen, understood that they were moving on and that the existence of the office of constable would be discussed on a different occasion, but not this one. That they disagreed is beyond question. That Beets shouted is an inaccurate exaggeration that does an injustice to the tenor of the entire meeting.

And please don't mistake me for a member of the Troy Beets fan club. It's been less than two weeks ago that he asked my opinion on something, and I told him I thought he'd screwed up and missed an opportunity. I have a good idea about what objective reportage is, and saying Beets had to shout down Olsen is NOT it.

RB

I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say that this points out the need for Roane County to move into the 21st century and put the meetings up on the internet. It's easy and relatively cheap, so?

... especially if you were not there.

At this point I must ask: Given the empty or near empty nature of the room on most nights the Count Commission meets, why should they go to the expense of making such a feed available? I would think that stewardship of the very limited funds they have would lead them to say something like: "When our Commission Room is so full and people cannot get in because there are that many regularly wanting to be directly observe the county doing its business, then we'll consider the extra expense of making it available by means of other media."

Easy and relatively cheap? I'll not argue too hard with that.

But what is relatively cheap? And from whose budget does it come, based on funds not committed to other things? How easy? Who currently working there knows how to do it? Or how much would it cost them to hire it done? And whom would they hire? They don't have a budget for a technology person for county government. Should they? It'd be nice, for sure. It'd be nice if my car was paid for, too, but it won't be until I make all the payments. What payments should Roane County not make in order to provide this? And for how many people would they actually be providing it?

Does this not get back to some of the issues Corvus mentioned about the work to get Broadband to provide service for rural southwest Roane County? Seems that ticket was $150K plus and rising.

Given the lack of interest regularly demonstrated (demonstrated by the amount of room available in the Commission Room), even when it was well known that this issue was going to be voted on, just how much do they have to do in order not to be subject to implied or direct accusations of not making their business widely enough known?

I have been the head of a volunteer organization. When people said they they're interested and wanted to work with us, I said, "Fine! Come on in!" And we waited, often. We wound up with a policy of remind would-be volunteers that, regardless of what they say verbally, zero participation equals to zero commitment equals to zero interest. I'm thinking a nearly empty meeting room damn near equals zero interest. How much is a government required to spoon-feed its constituents?

I simply reiterate, why should they spend money on a project they have no way of measuring success in when they have no heightened interest to base such a decision on? They could spend a quarter of a million dollars on webcasting the Commission meetings to the furthest reaches of Roane County, while 5 people in each rural district watched. What sort of stewardship and fiduciary responsibility would that be? What kind of due diligence would show they would have enough viewers?

RB

In Knox County, local cable companies are required by contract to to carry Commission meetings. Using the cable feed, someone started posting the County Commission meetings on YouTube.

At the end of a lengthy, lengthy discussion of copyright issues, KnoxViews poster Andy Axel provided the following instructions on how a private citizen could put video of a public meeting onto the Internet without relying on the cable television transmission:

2) Buy a mini-DV.
3) Attend public meetings.
4) Take the mini-DV that you bought in step 2 with you and film the proceedings. A tripod and directional mic might also be helpful.
5) Dump the DV capture onto your computer.
6) Render the DV into a suitable format for YouTube.
7) Upload.
8) Go to step 3

I'm assuming this is what WC and OneT were referring to as podcasts. The process is beyond my technical capacity, but it looks like it would not be that expensive for someone that had the time and interest. Much, much less than $150,000. I would wildly speculate that it would be $1,500 plus time and effort.

Now, this just gets the public meeting on the Internet. It doesn't let people onto the Internet to access it.

Have Roane County Commission Meetings ever been broadcast on BBB Cable Channel 12 or any other television or radio channel? Are they currently?

It looks like City Council meetings for Kingston, Harriman, Rockwood and Oliver Springs are on BBB Cable Channel 12's Monday night lineup. What is the arrangement between these municipalities and BBB?

Reading the statute it looks like Roane County has a window of opportunity to deal with the Constable office. I would suggest not abolishing it but following Russ Johnson's lead and remove the enforcement powers.

I wasn't aware of Constables (haven't had them in any county I lived in that I know of).

I'd favor a change to the TN Constitution that abolishes the elected office of Sheriff (and Constables where there is such a thing -- is the Constable elected?) in favor of an appointed and confirmed top cop who is non-partisan, non-political, and qualified according to certifications, experience, and resume. Same thing for Judges. Law enforcement and justice should not be political.

But that's just me.

There's not much apathy on the subject of constables but when it comes to an education plan for our county the subject seems to go dark.

If only our school needs got people as invested!

No harm intended, just my observation and I know there is much on this site about education. It just doesn't excited folks as much. Any one read this story?

(link...)