Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Pretty Posse

County Commissioner Diane Jordan is seeking reelection in style. Jordan, whose fashion signature is an assortment of fancy cowboy hats, has been showing up at political events with pals Gail Carter and Nicole Ramsey, and they've all been decked out Dale Evans-style. They made a splash at Mike Padgett's annual hot dog gala a couple of weeks ago, and Jordan say we ain't seen nuttin' yet. "I'm going to be giving out 20 cowboy hats. It's the Posse to Reelect Diane Jordan," the candidate said. "And, girl, we are pretty!"

No Dissing Schump

OK, so our prediction in last week's Citybeat that County Commission would reject County Executive Tommy Schumpert's recommendation of American Medical Response to take over the county's emergency ambulance contract and force the whole thing to be re-bid was wrong. But not exactly dead wrong, given that at least 15 commissioners seem firmly locked into their support of Rural/Metro, the ambulance service that has held the Knox County contract for the past 17 years. Schumpert is drawing criticism for being out of town for the two weeks preceding Monday's Commission meeting while commissioners were being targeted by an onslaught of lobbying from both sides. Schumpert startled many onlookers when he announced that he was withdrawing his recommendation of AMR as a result of R/M's filing a formal protest of the award decision. One who did not appear to be surprised was AMR lawyer John King, who was attempting to stifle a big, biscuit-eating grin. He'd been asking that the vote be delayed. R/M representatives briefly considered withdrawing the protest and forcing a vote, but found many of their Commission supporters unwilling to "disrespect" Schumpert. The tension in the room was briefly broken when a member of the audience tripped and fell in the aisle and was quickly surrounded by R/M's emergency personnel.

"How's that for response time?" quipped R/M honcha Susan Brown. One of the most volatile points in the R/M protest sent TV reporters to Union County, where they spoke to County Executive Larry Lay, who reported that AMR "left us in a real predicament" when they pulled out of a contract with 30 days' notice four years ago. AMR did not disclose the Union County contract when they applied for the Knox County job.

Lobbying Whom?

Add another name to the list of those who have been hired to lobby the ambulance contract: George Korda of The Ingram Group. This one raised eyebrows, since Korda (a former employee of Mayor Victor Ashe in the days when Ashe maintained a relentlessly adversarial posture regarding county government) is not noted for having great relationships in this arena. AMR lawyer John King says Korda is "doing some things with our media campaign."

A For-Credit Course...

Trust the University of Tennessee to implement creative financing. The muckraking magazine Mother Jones,in its March/April issue, reports that UT has sold student, employee and alumni mailing addresses to credit-card company First USA for $16.5 million. Meanwhile, debt guts students' wallets. It's been more than a year since Memphis Democrats Lois DeBerry and John Ford introduced a bill in the state legislature to outlaw on-campus credit card solicitation and let students keep their addresses off mailing lists. Clearly, the General Assembly's not eager to take on First USA's burden.