And the Dog Ate My Homework

Imagine you're chief of police and you're driving home some Friday after passing a pleasant evening at Litton's drinking non-alcoholic beverages. Imagine one of your own employees blue-lights you, pulls you over and says you swerved into an oncoming lane and lurched to a stop in the middle of the road. Imagine you say you were reaching for the radio; no, make that trying to make a phone call.

Imagine he says he smells alcohol on you and subjects you to a field sobriety test, which you pass. Then imagine you motion him to step out of range of the camera you had ordered to be mounted on the cruiser so there would be no questions about arrest procedures and he says you haven't had "that much" to drink and tells you to park your police chief car and find a ride home.

What do you imagine you'd do?

"You'd tell him to take a flying leap off the Gay Street Bridge," says lawyer Eddie Daniel, who represents KPD Officer Scott Coffey, who found himself in the above-described scenario last Friday.

That's not what Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith did when Coffey pulled him over last Friday. Instead of telling his 20-something year-old subordinate that he'd only been drinking O'Douls and that he should call for a breathalyzer or buzz off, Keith repeatedly asked Coffey, "Why are you doing this?" And, "What do you want from me?" Keith agreed to park his unmarked cruiser and get a ride home.

The explanation that he'd been drinking O'Douls non-alcoholic beer didn't emerge until the following day when News-Sentinel reporter Jamie Satterfield interviewed Keith.

Daniel says District Attorney General Randy Nichols informed him that a witness said Keith had one beer and two O'Douls Friday night. Nichols, however, now says the witness actually said Keith only drank O'Douls. When specifically asked whether he had told Daniel that lawyer Tom Jones had reported seeing Keith drink O'Douls and beer at Litton's Friday night, Nichols conceded that he had done so, but "checked back with Tom Jones and he said Phil only drank O'Douls."

Mayor Victor Ashe says since Keith was not guilty of drunken driving, the matter is concluded.

But what about the City of Knoxville's Administrative Rules, which until 1996 included Alcohol Policy, Rule 12.08b?

"The inappropriate and irresponsible use of alcoholic beverages by employees is inconsistent with the objective of the city of operating in a safe and efficient manner. No employee shall report to work under the influence of alcoholic beverages or use or consume alcoholic beverages while at work or while operating a city vehicle or equipment. Violation of this policy may lead to disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Any employee who reasonably appears to have consumed alcohol while at work or to be under the influence of the same while at work shall be subject to alcohol testing. Nothing in this policy shall be deemed to preclude the city taking immediate steps to discharge any employee found to be in violation of any part of this policy."

But wait. That rule was amended in August 1996, deleting the "No employee shall report to work under the influence of alcoholic beverages or use or consume alcoholic beverages while at work or while operating a city vehicle or equipment" section.

Maybe the dog ate that part, too.

Which Side Are They On?

After signing an executive order to establish the Police Advisory and Review Committee (PARC) Tuesday, Mayor Victor Ashe explained that there wasn't enough support on Council to approve the committee through an ordinance. Only council members Carlene Malone and Danny Mayfield have publicly supported a review board, and Ashe says a third, unnamed council member also does—leaving the mayor two votes shy.

However, in order to get the money PARC will need to operate, Ashe still needs the Council's approval. Asked if he was confident he could muster the votes, Ashe says, "They told me they would [approve funding]."

Well, which is it: does the majority of Council support or oppose PARC?

Councilman Nick Pavlis says he believes the system already works, but adds, "I'm not going to get into a tug of war over the mayor with this issue. If he feels that's what's needed to move this city forward, I will support his opinion."

Councilman Ed Shouse says he wouldn't have voted for a review board because "I don't think a majority of the citizens want it." However, Shouse says he'll probably approve a "reasonable" budget for the mayor's PARC. "I do not support it at this time, but I will not oppose what [Ashe] has done," he says. "I'm really honoring a step he took, which he has the authority to do."

Paying the Bills, Pt. 2

Look for Ashe to propose a $2 per night hotel/motel room tax as a cornerstone for financing the city's new convention center. Such a tax, which would take authorization by the state legislature, would raise about $3.6 million a year—based on the estimated 1.8 million "room nights" spent in Knox hostelries last year. That's enough, at current interest rates, to fund debt service on about $50 million of the $150 million needed to cover the rising cost of the convention center. This year's 27-cent hike in the city's property tax rate will support another $40 million of the mammoth bond issue. Much of the balance is expected to be derived from Knox County's existing 5 percent hotel/motel tax, which also generates about $3.6 million a year.

How will a doubling of taxes on their guests be received by local inn keepers? In the past they've squawked that any increase in the existing tax would put Knoxville at a competitive disadvantage in attracting visitors. And the president of the local hotel/motel association, Michael Hess, professes to be unaware of any plan on the mayor's part to double dip. But Hess is noncommittal about how it will be received. "We're excited about the convention center, and we'll just have to look at the specifics of any financing plan before commenting," he says.

Haley Squared

If you were watching TV Sunday at 10 a.m.—and we're not saying you should have been—you might have seen CBS Sunday Morning's nice profile of New York-based sculptor Tina Allen, which began and ended with video of the April dedication of what CBS correspondent Bill Whittaker called "her most monumental work to date," the impressively huge Alex Haley bronze at Haley Heritage Square adjacent to Morningside Park. (If you haven't seen Knoxville's newest landmark, you need to—it's at the east end of Summit Hill, on the right, where Dandrige Avenue starts.)

Citizens for Haley Heritage Square, which got the project rolling, weren't mentioned, and might not have predicted the first voice TV viewers nationwide would hear about the Haley statue was that of Victor Ashe, thanking the sculptor. Though he wasn't mentioned by name, the ubiquitous "mayor of the city" appeared in several of the Knoxville scenes, of course, wearing the colorful African scarf for which he's so well known. Allen saw in the mayor's attire "a respect for African Americans and for African culture." There was, of course, no breath of the city-versus-neighborhood controversy that threatened to scuttle the project two years ago.