Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Budget Humor

Knox County Engineering and Public Works chief Bruce Wuethrich is as quick with a quip as any public servant you're likely to find, and no one is spared when he is inclined to crack wise. Take Sheriff Tim Hutchison, for example, who ran into Wuethrich in the City-County Building parking garage the day of county budget hearings.

"Sorry about your budget, Sheriff," Wuethrich said.

"Sorry about what?" asked Hutchison, who has taken some flack for maintaining a helicopter unit. This year, Hutchison was seeking substantial pay raises for his deputies.

"They've cut your submarine out of the budget."

The Stealth Board

Unlike any such facility in the state of Tennessee, Knox County's juvenile detention center is not run by the sheriff's office, but by a three-member board of trustees. Superintendent Richard Bean answers directly to this board, which is charged with overseeing operations. The board, as well as the East Tennessee Regional Detention Center, was created by a private act of the state legislature in 1977. (A March 2000 grand jury report branded the facility "a disgrace to Knox County"; a new, larger facility is currently in the works.)

Ask a reporter when was the last time she covered a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the East Tennessee Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

The answer you'll most likely get is this:

"Huh?"

That is because the members of this board—Thomas G. Brown, Irene Meadows, and Elizabeth Hobbs (Bean's now-retired, longtime secretary)—operate in obscurity. Members of the media do not receive notice of board meetings despite such notices being required under state open meetings laws.

Hobbs, 78, was recommended for reappointment by County Executive Tommy Schumpert, and was approved for another three-year term by a unanimous vote of County Commission Monday. The state law that created the detention center board requires quarterly meetings and allows for the dismissal of board members who miss two or more consecutive meetings. Also required is the appointment of a seven-member advisory board, but there are no records of such a board on file with County Commission or with Schumpert.

Emerge Submerged

Fans of George Curry are wondering where the nationally noted journalist will land next. Curry, a graduate of Knoxville College, was for seven years the editor-in-chief of Emerge, a magazine owned by Black Entertainment TV headquartered in Washington, D.C. Emerge was an edgy to the point of shocking, informative publication with a heavy emphasis on political news. Its most memorable story was about the career of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and the cover depicted him as a "lawn jockey for the far right." To say this image turned some heads is like calling the Titanic a good-sized boat. In its final issue, Curry did an interview with Mozambique Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi. The cover story dealt with the murder charges against Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (the former H. Rap Brown), and a feature examined the reasons why fewer African-American kids are drawn to play baseball these days.

Howard Armstrong's Visit, Revisited

Last week, we suggested that elderly jazz/blues legend Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, visiting from Boston,didn't get an opportunity to play at the Old City blues festival because a "festival organizer" didn't recognize his name. The performer who declined to yield the stage was not the festival's organizer. Stage manager Randy Ross says he was absent at that moment of the query, takes responsibility for the mix-up, and hopes Armstrong might play at a future festival. It was a hectic hour all around, and there seem to be several versions of what happened when. Though upon their late arrival, Armstrong's companion/manager expressed interest in getting him to play at the festival, some witnesses note that autograph-seekers and reporters, notably Channel 10's Heartland crew, "shanghaied" the 91-year-old mandolinist for most of his hour in the Old City, never allowing him to approach the stage anyway.

Though he kept his mandolin case with him at all times, a performance apparently just wasn't in the stars. However, we hear that Armstrong was so intrigued with seeing old sites that he is considering a lengthier return visit to Knoxville in the near future.