A new generation of leaders takes the reins in Knox County
by Barry Henderson
Developer Robert Bedwell danced around and through the audience at the new Knox County Commission's organizational session on Sept. 4. Up from his seat, back down in another, he roamed the room with a grin and a handshake. Resplendent in a blue blazer and rumpled khakis, Bedwell looked and acted like the social director on a cruise ship.
When architect David Collins was elected Commission chairman in a mildly bruising 10-9 vote, the room erupted in applause, some of it Bedwell's. And when the commissioners convened to select committee members, new County Executive Mike Ragsdale found himself confronted by an elated Bedwell, whose projects have included work on Turkey Creek Development.
"It went just like you orchestrated it," Bedwell said. It was a question.
"Someone was looking out for me," Ragsdale replied.
That someone, Ragsdale could just as well have stated, was Ragsdale himself.
Still flush from his unopposed victory in August, just moving into his new offices six floors up, encouraged by the show of cooperation from outgoing Democrat Tommy Schumpert, Ragsdale's eyes were sparkling with the knowledge that he had laid his groundwork well.
The chief executive's office had changed hands without a primary or general election opponent. Ragsdale had seen to that by coming out for the office nearly two years ago, raising a formidable campaign fund through contributions from the county's most influential citizens, and outsmiling anyone who suggested the race was won before it started.
Almost unreasonably, Ragsdale campaigned as if other candidates were running. He tirelessly toured the county, talking with constituents and listening to their responses to his rhetoric. Jobs, economic development, every school a great school, and better opportunities for senior citizens were the main elements of his mantra. They still are, and though he has yet to supply a detailed program for achieving those goals, people continue lining up on his side. Those fellow Republicans with clout, money, and high expectations are among them.
Knox County's leadership is changing. It's a remarkable moment. From the executive on down, new faces and new ideas are surfacing.
In the young administration, there are new department heads, most notably John Werner, director of finance, and Mike Arms, the county commissioner Ragsdale describes as his best friend, who has been named to a new position as Ragsdale's chief of staff. (Whether Arms will resign from Commission is an open question. Ragsdale says it's solely Arms' decision and adds, "I've made my views known to him.")
On Commission, besides a young new chairman in Collins, there are four new faces, including two city employees and a county employee. The energetic John Griess is chair of the Commission's influential finance committee, and warhorse Wanda Moody is chair of the important economic development committee.
The school board has three new members, including University of Tennessee accounting professor Dan Murphy and former County Commission member Robert Bratton.
Outside the governmental bodies, Mike Edwards is the new president of the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership. Edwards may also become the new president or executive director of the Knox County Development Corp., which has four new board members as a result of the county elections.
There is a search that promises to be nationwide for a new director of the county's library system.
Finally, and not unimportantly, UT has a new president in John Shumaker.
Taken together, these changes point to a county in flux.
Economics 101
Ragsdale, with his experience in county government (he's a former county commissioner from West Knox County) and his background as both an educator and a businessman, has convinced the voters and an apparent Commission majority that he'll set the agenda for the county in the years to come. To those who believe he may be too strongly influenced by developers and the business community in general, Ragsdale answers that he has come into office at a time when the demands on the county are economic. He also says that the development of business for the future well-being of the community struck a campaign chord that worked with everyone from industry moguls to line workers and from hamburger flippers to teachers.
"Economic results," Ragsdale says, when asked about his top priority. "I'll work real hard to retain local business and industry and to recruit new." A UT graduate with a doctorate in education, he says a goal in creating new jobs will be "keeping UT grads here, working here."
That would be a challenge in a county where the recent pattern has seen declining low-end manufacturing jobs replaced by mostly lower-end service-industry jobs.
Ragsdale has a plan to get the county reaching upward on the job scale. Despite minimizing his role as a new member of the Development Corp. board, he is advocating Edwards as the replacement for departed Development Corp. Executive Director Melissa Ziegler. He says when that position is filled he'll take up his controversial quest to gain appointment power over the five private-sector members of the Development Corp. board.
There is concern that giving the executive such power would jeopardize the board's arm's-length relationship with government. But putting Edwards in both the Chamber and Development Corp. roles would follow the so-called Blount County model. Blount's chamber president also presides over the county's industrial development board, which serves the same extra-governmental land acquisition and fiscal role as Knox's Development Corp. That system has been effective in recruitment of new industry there, Ragsdale says.
Once the Development Corp. chief is selected, he says, he expects to get together with the board to develop a policy toward development incentives, such as tax abatement or payments in lieu of taxes. He says that the criteria for gaining any special incentives from local government or the Development Corp. ought to include the amount of capital investment on the part of a prospect, the number and type of jobs to be created, and the investment's impact on the county tax base.
For his part, Edwards says he can work toward new development "in any structure" that serves the purpose and to "play any role that makes sense." He says the objective is to get the Chamber, the Development Corp., the county, and city to "work seamlessly together to provide the most—and the most accurate—information to the client on a timely basis."
The client, Edwards says, is the company looking to relocate, usually with several different communities as options and with confidentiality a prime consideration.
"In the past, we've had institutional drift," Edwards says euphemistically, talking about a schism that has existed between the Chamber and the Development Corp., which never became a full member of the Chamber Partnership. The differences of opinion between those bodies and their staffs caused each to "hoard information," Edwards says, with confidentiality as an excuse. "It bogs down the process, and the companies are gone somewhere else before it's complete."
Edwards says the Chamber should be providing "baseline" information, including statistics about the community, and offering business leaders for discussions with prospects. The Development Corp. should be providing information on the availability and cost of potential sites. The state, city, and county should be providing information on the possibility of incentives, he says. The more rapidly all of that information can be brought to bear on the prospect, the more likely a successful recruitment can be expected, he says.
Ragsdale said a week ago that he hadn't "talked with the Development Corp. board members" about Edwards taking both roles. Even if he hadn't, the board members knew about his proposal through the media, and, as Edwards says, "The ball is in the Development Corp.'s court."
As new chair of the Commission's economic development committee, Commissioner Moody says she wants the Commission to "be more proactive in terms of recruitment and in terms of working with the Development Corp." She joins the Development Corp. board as an ex-officio member, replacing Commissioner Howard Pinkston. Likewise, Commissioner Griess joins that board replacing former Commissioner Frank Leuthold; Collins replaces former Commissioner Leo Cooper; and Ragsdale replaces Schumpert. The four new members are thought to represent a more aggressive group than their predecessors, but they won't control the board's decisions, including that of a new executive director.
Moody says she hopes to get her Commission colleagues to "look more reasonably at zoning" in attracting and retaining business and industry. She says industry can be good for nearby neighborhoods from a "live, work, play there" perspective.
"We can still protect neighborhoods in various ways, with buffering and restrictive covenants—deed restrictions on signage, lighting, landscaping, and access [routes]," she says.
Moody also wants the county to concentrate much of its development effort on "brownfield redevelopment." Taking previously used industrial or commercial properties that are out of use and bringing them back to site new industry "offers great opportunities," she says, citing such land as the former Zayre's discount chain store location along Baxter Avenue at I-275 as an example.
Edwards wants to push the entire I-40/I-75 corridor, which crisscrosses the county, for future development, ridding it of blighted areas alongside it in favor of new business and industrial productivity that enhances, rather than detracts from, neighboring residential areas. Those "unproductive areas need to be developed for the sake of the neighborhoods, developed for the sake of the whole region," Edwards says.
"Mike [Ragsdale] understands that need, and he's been smart in getting a whole lot of people involved in it," he says. Edwards says Ragsdale has succeeded in "getting future economic well-being to be a community concept."
That comes at a time, Edwards says, in which "TVA, Oak Ridge [its technical community], and the university are all starting to be active in creating models that serve the economic development function."
Moody says she's pleased with the prospects within the new Commission and its new chairman. "David [Collins, the former city architect] is a planner. He does his homework. He's methodical in his approach, and he attends to details and tends to be actively involved," she says. As a longtime finance committee member, she says that John Griess, the new finance chair, is "very bright, understands money and does his preparation well" and should do well despite his lack of committee experience on finance.
Werner, who came from a private business background and also lacks experience with government budgets and finance, is deferring to his staff, including holdovers, in answering specific budget questions now. "I don't want to have to say I don't know, when I've got people who do," he says.
Both Collins and Griess say they'll be glad to participate in a renewed emphasis on jobs and economic development, whether as commissioners or as members of the Development Corp. board.
And Edwards, whose career has gone from government (the Public Building Authority) to private industry (Turkey Creek Development) and back to public service in the form of the Chamber, says one of the most important "developments" of the recent leadership changes in terms of future economic development has been that, in his judgment, "You're going to see a county that is less sensitive to city-county boundaries."
That may well be true, as two of the new commissioners, former City Councilman Ivan Harmon and Thomas "Tank" Strickland are city employees, and Collins was formerly on the city payroll.
Asked where he stands on the ambitious Universe Knoxville proposal to create a downtown planetarium and expanded children's museum, Ragsdale says, "It's an outstanding concept, but many questions need answering." A former employee of the Barber & McMurry architectural firm that's in line for the Universe Knoxville job, Ragsdale says he wants to get more detailed information from the developers "in the next few weeks." He acknowledges that he was not impressed with attendance at the Hayden Planetarium in New York when he visited on a recent weekday before schools went in session there. "It was not at capacity," Ragsdale says of the planetarium on which Knoxville's would be loosely modeled.
Going to School on Schools
On Ragsdale's second priority, education, he says he has met with schools Superintendent Charles Lindsey and talked about establishing a "stronger relationship among the executive, the legislative body, the school board, and the superintendent."
That relationship has been strained, nearly to the breaking point, by disagreements between the superintendent, backed by the board, and County Commission. The struggle has involved a lawsuit between the school board and the Commission over spending authority, along with other management details, that Ragsdale says he's "hopeful will be settled soon." So are the new commissioners and new members of the school board, all of whom campaigned on improving relations between the Commission and school board.
"I want to get this suit over with," says new school-board member Bratton, who represents South Knox County. "They could have negotiated these things without going to court," he says. An acknowledged agitator, Bratton says, "I'd start a fight over something worth fighting for, but this is not it."
Murphy, who represents West Knox, says he believes "the cards are on the table. The briefs have been filed and the remaining issues are negotiable. They're not what should cause prolonged litigation."
Both Bratton and Murphy say they are glad to see Ragsdale stumping for education.
"He'll need a little time to break in, but he can fund it [education] well, I believe," Bratton says. "We needed Tommy [Schumpert] when people were cutting each other up with knives. Now we need somebody more aggressive."
Murphy, whose accounting specialty gives him some advantage in looking at fiscal issues, says he doesn't anticipate the school system will get more money any time soon. "If we want additional spending, we've got to find the money within our budget," he says. He says he was dismayed by his first look at the school system's monthly financial reports, calling them "practically useless." But he was encouraged that the information he sought was readily available within the system's finance office. "We've got to find a school system that has good financial reporting and use that," he says.
Murphy says it's imperative to use school money efficiently by "managing money to attain objectives.
"If we want more money in the future, we have to do a better job of defining our objectives and explaining how the money would go toward them," Murphy says.
He says he feels it's up to the new school board to "better define Lindsey's role as CEO for the board, as in a corporate structure. It's his responsibility to make the schools run and the board's responsibility to handle the political agenda," Murphy says.
"The turf issues are, or should be, past," says Murphy. "We've got to get a greater spirit of cooperation and ultimately a sense of purpose—improving the schools."
Ragsdale, who was a teacher and college-level administrator before going into business, said he read to first-graders at Sterchi Elementary last school year as a volunteer and is doing so again this year. He says it was a great experience and that he wants to get more business and professional people involved in the classroom as volunteers, so that they can see first hand what the schools' needs are.
"It's much too early to tell," Ragsdale says, when asked whether the county's property tax rate will have to be raised next year or other revenue sources will have to be explored to provide more money for schools or the general fund. He says "great schools require adequate funding," but how much it will take will require careful study. "For one thing, we'll have to go back and look at the performance audit" that was conducted last year for the Commission to see what and where the schools' greatest weaknesses are.
On the recently reopened, and re-closed, question of whether schools' superintendents should be elected directly by the public or appointed by an elected school board as the current law requires, Ragsdale says that, in his experience, "either can work well, if the focus is on the kids."
Looking Out for the Aging
With another segment of the populace—senior citizens—Ragsdale says the focus should be on "what we can do locally to coordinate our efforts to provide nutrition, health care, housing, and recreation opportunities" for the elderly.
He said he got interested in senior citizens' assistance programs when he delivered Meals On Wheels. He did it a couple of times during his campaign and says, "I delivered meals in areas [of the county] where I didn't realize poverty like that existed."
Ragsdale says he wants to get the agencies providing special services to the aging together "in an annual 'senior summit' to find out what we're doing well and what not so well. I'm hoping we could get agencies to share resources."
He is directing his new community services director, Cynthia Finch, and her staff to make sure "we're taking advantage of the federal funds available." Ragsdale also says the county's Health Department may be called upon to assist with senior citizens' health care and nutrition problems in some way, and that he'd like to "get the private sector involved in housing for senior citizens," by taking advantage of government assistance programs.
There was a fourth item on Ragsdale's list of goals that was less well defined even than the first three. He pledged to seek new city-county cooperation and new efficiencies in the government and suggested that there were areas of governance and regulation that might be combined. He didn't call it consolidation or any of the other buzz-words that have come to signify the failures of metro-government initiatives, but his comments perked up political ears, particularly at a time when the city administration, through term limits, is sure to change drastically in next year's elections.
Mike Cohen, the former spokesman for the mayor and former spokesman for the county school administration, is Ragsdale's director of communications. Cohen, like his new boss, is cagey about the prospects for city-county "efficiencies." He shrugs at the idea that getting the two governments' bureaucracies together on line-item services such as codes enforcement or inspections is going to be politically difficult.
"You're never going to get it unless you try it," Cohen says, but he indicates that any attempts at getting services combined are some way down the road, perhaps not feasible until after the city elections. Cohen is specific about one short-term objective of the Ragsdale administration. "We're going to establish a central [phone] number for referrals and volunteer inquiries," Cohen says, so that any citizen wanting an explanation of services or to learn about opportunities to volunteer to help the county won't be transferred around from office to office. Callers will get a concise summary of choices and direct connections to the proper sources, Cohen says. He doesn't say when to expect the central number to be in operation, but says it should be put in place soon.
Another Ragsdale measure, expected later this week, is to issue a recommendation to the county's library board that they conduct an exhaustive nationwide search to find the best possible director for the system. Critical of the process that has succeeded only in gaining an interim directorship for Charles Davenport, who resigned from the board to get that appointment, Ragsdale says the search should have gone nationwide to begin with and "could have moved more rapidly."
One of Ragsdale's first official steps as executive was to place a freeze on hiring and out-of-state travel until he can study the personnel tables more fully and get a handle on what travel is necessary. He says that even requests for replacements of personnel must cross his desk for approval. When he's ready, he'll determine which departments get what and when, Ragsdale says.
Commissioner Griess, whose committee will be the one to recommend funding for any new program costs that may emerge, says, "If there's a perceived power shift in the county, I think it's a good one. This community's history is resistance to change. So I don't expect any kind of rapid change, other that an attitude change.
"That's one that's welcome," Griess says.
Bratton, who was on Commission from 1990 to '98 and has taken a careful look at the outcome of the recent elections and the implications of the appointments made or being made, says, "I think change—most of the time—can be good. I think too much change at one time can be difficult."
But in this instance, he says, "You have all these people who all know each other and have worked in county government or have worked together elsewhere.... I think this change can be almost all good."
September 12, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 37
© 2002 Metro Pulse
| 
