Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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They Don't Call Him Vice Mayor Fer Nuthin'

The annual post-holiday stand-up cocktail party and elbow rub at Moxley Carmichael Communications was its usual stirring experience last Friday. It's been described as a sort of high-rise 4H livestock show with better food but no ribbons. The highlight of this year's event was when Vice Mayor Jack Sharp locked himself in the First Tennessee Tower stairwell. The eminent Sharpy, whose wife, Doris, has had to get her brother-in-law to tie his ties, slipped out for a cigarette, and...click. He said later he hammered on the door and yelled for 20 minutes, and was about to wheeze down the 11 flights of firestairs and grab the elevator when photographer David Luttrell opened the door to see who was knocking.

I Try to Get Out, They Pullllllllll Me Back In....

Victor Ashe called us out last week on the k2k email list when he charged that politics were being played in the City County Building and the Ear column wasn't reporting it. With apologies to e.e. cummings, the punctuation and syntax are Ashe's own:

"... dwight van de vate was defeated in his bid to be on the county pension board...dwight is tim hutchinson's [sic] top aide...the only persons eligible to vote on this were county employees including the sheriff's employees who either voted for a guy named williams who defeated dwight or did not vote... this was an earthquake politically...coming on top of mike ruble losing to moyers, the sheriff being removed from the justice center project management and the so called justice center being shelved...it continues the bad news for the sheriff...."

Chief Deputy Van de Vate was indeed defeated 266-155 by John Williams, an employee of County Clerk Mike Padgett, in his bid to be re-elected to the Knox County Pension Board, which oversees retirement funds of 4,400 county employees and pensioners—all of whom were eligible to vote.

Officially, Van de Vate says he lost the race to "...a far better looking and more charismatic candidate," but he actually believes he was done in by County Registrar of Deeds Steve Hall and his chief deputy Sherry Witt, who is married to Jay Witt, who works for Hutchison. Jay Witt, who is seeking to be appointed U.S. Marshal, has been out of favor with the sheriff over a variety of issues ranging from rumors that he was going to run against Hutchison to something about putting a live chicken wearing a badge in someone's office. If you are still following this, Jay Witt was recently transferred from a job overseeing court security and replaced with Bobby Horner, son of County Commissioner Mary Lou Horner.

Van de Vate quips that Steve Hall is "the Godfather of the Courthouse Mafia. When the Godfather decides he's upset with you, you're probably going to end up wearing cement shoes."

Nonsense, say Hall and S. Witt.

Sherry Witt: "I don't have any problem taking credit for what I do, but that's just crazy. Van de Vate didn't even ask anybody for their support and John Williams came through the office and talked to everybody..."

Hall: "I've never had anything against Chief Van de Vate whatsoever, and I'm not even under that pension plan. Number one, I've never been called a Mafia and number two, I didn't know I was godfather of the courthouse."

Things We Thought We'd Never See

Don't look for those black plastic ashtrays at Harold's Deli anymore. You won't find them. Harold's is now officially a No Smoking establishment. Still run by Harold Shersky, the man who started the kosher restaurant on Gay Street in 1948, Harold's has never even had a non-smoking section. But times change, even at Harold's.

Now in his 80s, downtown's most durable restaurateur gave up the weed himself a few months ago, and it only took a nudge from his wife, Addie, to persuade Harold that what's good for him might be good for the place that's named for him. It happened without fanfare on Valentine's Day, and Addie says they've had no complaints.

Able to Leap Tall Buildings...It's Super Supe!

Schools Superintendent Charles Q. Lindsey has done the impossible. He has united the most factionalized governing body this side of Northern Ireland. Exhibit A is Frank Bowden's uncontested denunciation of the Supe Monday. Bowden, a retired principal, is steamed because Lindsey has been running around saying that he has met with "all but one" commissioner, who "refused" to meet with him. John Griess, who appeared on a recent Sunday talk show with Lindsey to discuss the growing rift between the school people and the Commission, is squarely on the other side of the political grand divide from Bowden, but in this case, has jumped in to confirm that Lindsey indeed fingered Bowden as the lone culprit.

"There are many ways one can communicate with me," says Bowden. "Ham radio, fax, email, the telephone answering machine, or you can speak to me in person at a Commission meeting. But Lindsey has never said one word to me... At our Education Committee, I called him a pathological equivocator. I wanted to make my position explicitly clear." Did Lindsey respond to Bowden's attack? Bowden: "No. He left the room shortly thereafter, probably looking for a dictionary."