Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Sign of the Apocalypse?

Politics makes for odd lunch-fellows, so they're not exactly unaccustomed to witnessing unusual couples doing lunch at Chesapeake's. But this one turned heads. Was that really Sheriff Tim Hutchison and KPD Chief Phil Keith having a Rodney King moment (just getting along) and conversing over crab cakes?

Actually, we're just guessing about the crab cakes, but a source confirms that it was indeed the two feuding lawmen getting together for a little shop talk. And we're not sure who's the lion and who is the lamb in this duo, but the source says they discussed procedural matters, exchanged cop chit-chat and "discussed the deplorable state of the media." The source says he was kidding about that last part. Hutchison picked up the tab.

Intriguing Coincidences at UT

Even as J. Wade Gilley was resigning as UT's president, the terms of the university's two most influential trustees were expiring. Gov. Don Sundquist has yet to reappoint either Jim Haslam II or Bill Sansom to the board after their six year terms, along with those of Vice Chairwoman Johnnie Amonette and Knoxvillian Susan Williams, expired on June 1. While they can continue to serve until either they or a successor is named, every day of silence on Sundquist's part gets more awkward as the board's crucial quarterly meeting on June 28 draws near. That's the meeting at which the board is due to set in motion a search for Gilley's successor as well as come to grips with a budget for the upcoming year.

Word from within the governor's office is that he's been too busy with the state's fiscal crisis to get around to making UT trustee appointments. Yet he's found time to push actively for selection of the long-time dean of UT's College of Business, Warren Neel, as Gilley's successor. Neel is currently on leave of absence from that post while serving as Sundquist's commissioner of finance.

Neel is known to have coveted the UT president's job when it came open three years ago. But the Board of Trustees, with Haslam and Sansom in the lead, limited the search that beget Gilley to outsiders, thus excluding Neel.

This time around, Sundquist, who is ex-officio chairman of the board, is expected to get much more active in selecting a search committee and setting its criteria. Is it just a coincidence that Haslam and Sansom's seats on the board seem to be teetering when these presidential succession issues are hanging in the balance?

Asphalt, for That 20th-Century Look

"Bricklined streets" is one of the phrases you see in tour books describing Knoxville's pedestrian nightlife destination, which, contrary to suburban prejudices, still draws thousands each week. But as of last week, the Old City's a little less bricklined than it used to be. KUB workers tore up large swaths of the district's trademark brick streets last week at both the Gay and Central intersections of Jackson Avenue, and replaced them with plain asphalt, which angered some Old Citizens. Though most of the brick's still in place on the ramps leading up to Gay Street, about half the brick in the intersection of Central and Jackson is gone, and it frankly looks pretty patchy.

KUB says they were just following orders from the city, smoothing the street over for the upcoming Old City event the Honda Hoot. A KUB representative calls the current state of the street a "temporary fix" done at the city's behest. Meanwhile, the city is presently considering permanent solutions for the intersection, which events coordinator Mickey Foley says will probably not feature either genuine brick or conventional asphalt. She says the current brick, which bears a good deal of 18-wheeler traffic, "just doesn't hold up," and, after some wear, is unsafe for motorcyclists; she adds that the city also gets complaints from pedestrians who trip on dislodged bricks.

Weeding the Garden

Raising money to unseat the mayor and three members of City Council is like rolling a boulder up a mountain, given the reluctance of potential donors to have their financial support made public. So when KnoxRecall activists found their fundraising efforts stymied by a barrage of questions about its legal status, they asked state Registry of Election Finance Executive Director Drew Rawlins, who'd already told them they were no more obligated to report their contributions "than a garden club," to put it in writing. Rawlins complied, and wrote them a letter saying contributions to Knox Recall do not have to be reported. Not yet, anyhow.

"Your organization is not a PAC, a PAC is a group that is organized to support or oppose a candidate. At this time, the elected officials that you are trying to recall are not candidates. In addition, your group is not a Political Campaign Committee at this time. Your group is not supporting or opposing a candidate and there is no referendum to support or oppose at this time.

"You should keep in mind that if the recall effort ever does become a referendum on the ballot and your organization decides to raise and spend money on the election, then your group must register as a single-measure committee with the Knox County Election Commission."