Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Yayuss!

The Lady Chablis is coming to town. Chablis, the Savannah chanteuse who became an instant celebrity when she was introduced in the best-selling book and subsequent movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, is going to be in Knoxville this weekend. She will star in a benefit for Positively Living, a daycare center for adults with terminal illnesses located on Magnolia Avenue. Dee Crum, director of Positively Living, said they were looking for a way to attract people to a fund raiser and someone came up with the idea of calling Chablis. They called her agent; she said yes, and she'll be guest of honor at a dinner Saturday night at 8 p.m. at the Candy Factory. She will also do two shows at the Carousel Club Sunday night at 10:30 and midnight. Tickets to the dinner are $20, the shows $7 each, although one Chablis fan donated $750 to be able to sit next to her at dinner. For reservations call Positively Living at 523-0401.

Shhhh...

The state attorney general's opinion that the mediation sessions on the Urban Growth Bill (AKA PC1101) were subject to the state Open Meetings law obviously stuck in the craw of administrative judge Marion Wall, who conducted the proceedings in sotto voce, raising his voice only to snarl at a reporter who attempted to come too close to the negotiating table.

The session, which was between County Law Director Mike Moyers and County Commissioner Frank Leuthold on one side and City law Director Michael Kelley and city annexation specialist Rick Emmett on the other, got off to a slow start (near as anybody in the audience could tell) when Kelley told the judge he wasn't authorized to make a commitment without speaking with Mayor Victor Ashe, who was off on a National League of Cities junket (Chattanooga Mayor Jon Kinsey attended the Hamilton County mediation session next door). Wall dropped a strong hint that Kelley should get authorized, and refused to listen to the city's argument that "side issues" such as a moratorium on involuntary annexation in certain areas should not be allowed.

Another judge asked Kelley "Why do you want to annex people who don't want to be annexed?" and Kelley said it was to remedy "service delivery problems" caused by "patchwork" annexations in the past (Kelley did not mention that the origin of the patchwork was city annexation). During the lunch break, Kelley raised Ashe via cell phone and got authorized to make a commitment, which was subsequently agreed to by the other side. Ironically, Wall, at the urging of Moyers and under legal threat from the News-Sentinel, conducted the meeting in audible tones after the lunch break, and the negotiation that stalled when it was being whispered took shape quickly under public scrutiny.

Gene Therapy

So what does Deputy Mayor Gene Patterson's departure mean for folks in city administration and those who rely on them? Well, a lot, when you consider that Patterson had a reputation for accessibility and reasonableness not always found on the upper floors of the City County Building. "I'd characterize him as a spark plug, but also as a bridge builder," says city administration director Ellen Adcock. While we're struggling to visualize that mixed metaphor, she adds, "He pulled us together, I think, at a time when we needed that to happen." Patterson leaves on a high note, obviously, with the Treaty of Nashville he helped broker over city-county growth issues. Of course, now he has to pull off the tricky revolving-door shift back to broadcast journalism, anchoring Channel 6's newscast against the ratings godzillas of Channel 10 (Patterson's old employer). One interesting question is whether the generally sheriff-friendly Channel 6 will suddenly take a more kindly turn toward the mayor. Adcock's not counting on it. "We've all been kidding, we're not going to return his calls," she laughs.