Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Straight from the Heart

Yet another front has opened in the battle raging between Cherokee Country Club, which desires to demolish the J. Allen Smith house and historic preservationists (including the mayor), who want to protect the house with an H-1 overlay. The latest controversy involves a letter written to City Council members by Jeff Lee, president and general manager of WBIR-TV and a member of the club. The letter, typed on station letterhead, has circulated widely among opponents of the demolition. It expresses Lee's personal conviction that the club should be allowed to tear down the house. In response, local preservation proponent and k2k Internet forum owner Steve Dupree fired off an e-mail to WBIR's corporate parent, Gannett Broadcasting. Dupree expressed his disappointment that Gannett appeared to be taking sides in a local controversy and his opinion that, through Lee's letter, Gannett had "severely degraded the public trust in the honesty and fairness of the reporting done by your station." Craig Dubow, president and CEO of Gannett Broadcasting, replied to Dupree via e-mail, noting that Gannett has "...no policy that would have precluded Jeff Lee from expressing his opinion as a private and involved citizen. On the other hand, we do expect...our managers to...avoid any actions that would adversely influence our ability to fairly represent community issues..." The e-mail goes on to note that Lee agreed with his corporate bosses that writing the letter on station letterhead was a mistake and that "[Jeff Lee] is a trusted part of our executive team, who, in this case, made an error. Jeff assures me he has also learned a valued lesson." Lee had no comment on the letter or the e-mail exchange, but Dupree seemed pleased with Dubow's response, saying, "I am impressed that the reply is 'signed' by the CEO. That says to me that, regardless of the description of the issue as a minor lapse in judgment, notice was taken in a rarefied strata."

Cherokee's Demolition Derby

Meanwhile, Cherokee is backing a bunch of horses in its highroller's sweepstakes to knock down its house. In addition to getting a court order granting it a demolition permit and lobbying City Council to block a preservation ordinance, the club's ruling junta is also seeking state legislative action. In an end run around local processes, a lobbyist for club interests managed to slip a tricky bill through the state Senate that would enable the club to tear down the Smith house without even awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the court order or City Council action on the preservation ordinance that's been postponed until June 21. The lobbyist, David McMahan (who is the son of former Knoxville Journal editor and Cherokee stalwart Ron McMahan) was so adroit that the measure's sponsor, Sen. Tim Burchett, claims to have been unaware of what his own bill provided. The stratagem may backfire, though, because it's handed a campaign issue to Burchett's Democrat opponent, former Sen. Bill Owen, who says Burchett should be damned for complicity if he knew what was in the bill and damned for stupidity if he didn't. Burchett, meanwhile, says the city's Nashville lobbyist, Tony Thompson, gave him the "thumbs up" on the problematic amendment. "That's not true," Mayor Victor Ashe responds. "Tony didn't know about it."

The ranking Democrat in the Knox delegation in the House, Rep. Joe Armstrong, is also tight with McMahan, but he may block the measure, at least in part at Owen's behest. (On the other hand, there's also speculation Armstrong might take his name off the bill altogether, punting it to another House member from elsewhere in the state.)

A (Red) Face Made for Radio

Best of Knoxville winner Hallerin Hill was almost breathless as he announced that he had something special in store for his listeners on his WNOX talk radio show Tuesday morning. "Ladies and gentlemen, at 8:20, we are going to break a story of national importance," he announced at the top of the hour. Then he proceeded to count down the minutes. "In 15 minutes, we're going to have a guest who will tell a story that will make national headlines," Hill said, warning that minor children might want to leave the room. Then it was 10 minutes, nine, eight... Finally the appointed time came, and he announced that he had, sitting with him in the studio, live and in person, a guy who claimed that he'd been raped by a high-ranking official of the Salvation Army, and that the organization was attempting a cover-up of the story. The guy, whose name is Ronnie, said he'd been taken advantage of on an out-of-town trip. The story started going south when he said he'd shared not only a motel room, but a bed, into which he'd crawled naked, with the alleged sodomite. Then he said he'd talked the whole thing over with Katie Couric and Cardinal Bernard Law (of Boston infamy), and that he had suffered serious emotional and psychic damage. The bottom really fell out, so to speak, when Ronnie's ex-wife called in and said that Hill should know that the alleged victim had been a serious substance abuser and that she'd spent time in a battered women's shelter to get away from him. Ronnie got pretty ticked off, denied what she said, and finished out his 15 minutes of radio history. After Ronnie left the studio, Hill's news guy Sam Brown got a Salvation Army representative on the phone who denied the story and said he wished somebody had checked out Ronnie's tale before putting him on the air. The sentiment of the calls that came in afterward was that Ronnie's story stunk like the Fulton Fish Market. Hill said he didn't believe Ronnie either. Ronnie called in, mad that Hill had waited until after his departure to express skepticism. Hill said he was just presenting a story and that his listeners could decide for themselves. The next day, Hill and Brown announced that they'd dropped the ball. "I just trusted him," Hill said, adding that a Salvation Army guy had dropped by, given him a coffee mug and forgiven him.

Big Bad John

John Bynon is a heavyweight in the ongoing zoning wars between homeowners and developers. He weighs in representing West Hills (which seemingly stretches from downtown out to Fox Den) at almost every meeting of City Council, and occasionally at County Commission as well. Most recently, he appeared before both bodies, to oppose the rezoning of property on Gallaher View Road, which is bisected by the city limits and owned by Dave Gibson. The MPC staff backs Bynon's position, and he had his way, as usual, at City Council, where he has close allies. But he ran into sharp questioning at County Commission the following week when Commissioner Phil Guthe asked to hear from Gibson's lawyer Coleman Hoffman. When Hoffman approached the lectern, Bynon shocked the audience by stiff-arming Hoffman and commanding him to "Sit down!" "Don't sit down!" yelled one of the developers standing against the back wall. The room went silent as Hoffman took his seat. Bynon continued to guard the microphone like a pit bull over a ham hock until Guthe again said he wanted Hoffman to speak. Finally, the rezoning was postponed for 30 days over Bynon's objections.

Hanging tough

Animal Foundation of East Tennessee founder Brenda Berke wants it known that Knoxville still has a low-cost spay and neutering option—for the moment. Unbeknownst to many Knoxvillians, the foundation has been unable to solicit contributions for the past eight months. The foundation, a charitable organization that provides low-cost veterinary services and operates a no-kill shelter for adoptable animals, depends on donations to operate. From June 2001 through January of this year, while the state investigated a complaint of financial mismanagement, the foundation was not allowed to ask potential donors for money, threatening its continued viability. The state has since completed its investigation, and though it did find "weaknesses in the organization's internal operations," it found "no evidence of intentional misappropriation of funds," and granted the foundation leave to begin fundraising activities again. Time will tell whether this action comes in time to save the foundation.