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Take the money and run
Last week, members of City Council received a disturbing report from the state's Division of Municipal Audit (DMA) concerning the way the Knoxville Police Department handles confiscated property. Chief Phil Keith requested the investigation last April after $13,448.30 disappeared from the KPD property room, along with receipts and computer records.
At Tuesday's Council meeting, Keith handed out envelopes containing his response. The issue was not broached publicly until Danny Mayfield asked Keith for an explanation, nor had the report been released to the public, even though this is a city administration that can get out positive PR within nanoseconds.
Dennis F. Dycus, DMA director, reported that seized cash was not promptly deposited into the city's bank account, as required by state law, and that KPD's record-keeping was done in such a haphazard fashion that "...we were unable to determine if additional cash or other items seized or confiscated by the Knoxville Police Department had been improperly removed from the property room."
Dycus also reported that property room employees could delete files and that drug evidence was not inventoried as required by state law.
Keith defended his employees, causing Carlene Malone to bristle that KPD's handling of evidence is "a few steps better than the lost and found in a gym. Incredible. It's nice to be nice, but someone failed do their job."
In his written response, Keith listed proposed changes, including giving copies of Property Inventory Reports to Internal Affairs investigators and maintaining computer records off-site. He informed Council members that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation "...is also conducting a criminal investigation..."
Cas lives
When News-Sentinel managing editor Frank Cagle called Mark Cawood "Cas Walker reincarnated," Cawood chose to take it as "the ultimate compliment." He has solidified his claim to the title, and not just by being County Commission's most consistent "aginner" when it comes to voting taxes at budget time.
He has taken on the hallowed name of the "Watchdog," Walker's defunct weekly scandal sheet, which he used as a cudgel to whomp on his numerous enemies.
Cawood has "reserved" the name with the secretary of state's office.
"That means I've got dibs on the name," Cawood says. "I'm going to call it 'the unvarnished truth that can almost be backed up in court—usually.' And I'm going to offer Frank Cagle the position of editor."
Cawood says he has also reserved the name "Blue Circle Hamburgers," left over from the long-departed purveyor of juicy little gut bombs.
Just Figures
You probably heard last week that ABC sportscaster Keith Jackson un-retired himself. We might have figured that, after he upstaged the Fiesta Bowl when ABC smeared gooey So-Long-Keith sentiment over their TV coverage of UT's first national championship in 48 years, he wouldn't be retiring after all.
It's not the first time Jackson upstaged a Knoxville superlative. In the early '70s, when Pennsylvania runner Ivory Crockett appeared to have broken the world record for the 100-yard dash at Tom Black Track, Jackson publicly doubted whether UT's timing equipment was proficient enough to establish an official world record.
Welcome back, Keith! Now you can retire again and take center stage of someone else's championship game someday.
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