Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Bad Press in the Big Apple

We don't hear much about Etowah's favorite son Chris Whittle these days, but he rated a story in last week's New York Observer. The article says that the founder of the defunct Whittle Communications is desperately trying to raise money to save Edison Schools, the last vestige of Whittle's empire that was once based in Knoxville. It also openly speculated that Whittle's attempt to sell his East Hampton estate for $46 million is a last-ditch effort to do so. Whittle denied that the sale of his house is related to Edison's woes, but the Observer didn't buy his denial. If Edison "increasingly appears to be a sinking ship," the Hamptons estate "looks more and more like a life-preserver," the story said.

Whittle said he'd repeatedly "bailed out" the company he founded here in 1992 with the aim of revolutionizing the American educational system. Edison has been losing contracts and was slapped with a Securities and Exchange Commission cease-and-desist order in May charging the company with inflating its revenue and understating its debt load in public filings. This year, Edison stock has nose-dived, from over $21 a share in January to about 50 cents this week. NASDAQ has imposed a 90-day deadline to get the share price above $1; if that doesn't happen, the exchange has threatened to de-list the stock. Edison, which never established a beachhead in the Knox County school system, still maintains an office in downtown Knoxville.

Whittle can console himself with the profit he is almost sure to make on the house, which he bought 13 years ago for $7 million, and threw in another $10 million for interior designer Peter Marino (who also designed Whittle's Knoxville campus) to gussy up the old place.

Happy Hour

The Library Board has called a meeting late Friday afternoon to consider a salary-and-benefits package for controversial interim director Charles Davenport, who stepped down as board chair to seek the position. The Davenport appointment was widely opposed by library employees and members of Friends of the Library, many of whom believe that this meeting has been scheduled for an inconvenient time in hopes of keeping attendance down. There has also been some question as to whether Davenport is entitled to benefits, since he is a temporary employee. But as of Wednesday, Law Director Mike Moyers was opining that the board could vote to dole out whatever benefits they choose: "It appears fairly clear to me that the director of the library system would be a non-classified employee... so it would appear that the board would have the power to set whatever leave and benefits policy they want to at this point."

Die Hard, Part 9

If you are a habitual reader of classified ads, you may have seen a legal notice last Thursday informing voters of a Nov. 5 referendum vote on changing the city election cycle. Such notice is required to be posted 60 days prior to an election, and this was the last possible day to get it in. If you were attentive, you might have been surprised by the ad, since you would have known about City Council's recent vote to rescind its earlier approval of the measure, which is being pushed by Victor Ashe, who favors dumping the city's odd-year election cycle in favor of coordinating with even-year state and national elections.

But if you were really attentive you couldn't have missed the caveat that holding the referendum depends on the results of the lawsuit styled "Gary Underwood v. Knox County Election Commission, Knoxville City Council, and the city of Knoxville."

Former Council member Underwood, known as an Ashe rubber stamp while on Council, didn't let the courthouse door hit him on the butt as he left office last December. Unlike his colleague Jean Teague, Underwood has rarely—if ever—since darkened the City County building's door, so it was a source of some courthouse amusement when he took up this legal cause. Had Underwood attended any of the court proceedings (which he didn't), he would have heard City Council attorney Charles Swanson quote language used by Chancellor John Weaver when he threw out a lawsuit challenging a Council action filed by his former colleagues Nick Pavlis and Carlene Malone, ruling that they had no standing. Weaver's decision in the current case has been delayed by a cross-complaint filed by City Law Director Michael Kelley, and is expected next Tuesday.

A New Record?

At the first full meeting of the newly elected Knox County Commission last week, County Executive Mike Ragsdale was on hand to give a little speech and watch. His communications director, Mike Cohen, was also on hand to proclaim, in a soft voice: "A day and a half [in office] and scandal-free. We're very proud."