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Seven Days

Wednesday, October 2
A suit against former UT President Wade Gilley, charging him with discriminating against males, was thrown out of federal court. We're shocked. Everybody knew long ago that Gilley favored women.

Thursday, October 3
A Portland, Ore., firm is picked by "Nine Counties, One Vision" to set guidelines for redevelopment of downtown Knoxville. Be careful here. It's illegal in Portland to spit in the gutter, smoke cigars in public, chew gum anywhere, or criticize a downtown planning consultant who "means well."

Friday, October 4
David Mihalic, tapped to swap jobs with Michael Tollefson, who is to become superintendent of Yosemite National Park, says he'll retire early rather than come to the Smokies as superintendent. He says its because National Park Service has indicated he should rethink his opposition to shrinking the Smokies park and to building a controversial road through the park in North Carolina. A federal official who acts on principle, he should get a medal and a retirement bonus—from the Friends of the Smokies.

Saturday, October 5
The football Vols beat Arkansas is six (6, count 'em] overtimes. No one should be surprised. It took special prosecutors more overtimes than that to concede a tie with the Clintons in Arkansas' Whitewater scandal. It's just the state of Arkansas politics and football. The Razorbacks played seven overtimes in losing to Ole Miss last year.

Sunday, October 6
The first words in News- Sentinel editor jack McElroy's weekly editorial page column are: "Where are we?" Our advice is: "Let the people give you light, and you'll figure it out."

Monday, October 7
A key assistant coach at the University of Georgia quit the football team prior to this Saturday's game with UT. UGa. indicates his resignation was for "family" reasons. His family didn't want him staying out as late as six overtimes?

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Despite the tricky angle (at least in the print version of the paper), many of you identified last week's Knoxville Found as the giant treble clef in the middle of the downtown island bounded by Gay, Summit Hill, and State. The "island" is actually called The East Tennessee Tribute to Country Music Park. It was dedicated April 3, 1986, by the Knoxville News-Sentinel during its 100th anniversary celebration. It's also Stop number nine (Chet Atkins) on the Cradle of Country Music walking tour. The clef itself is the centerpiece of the park, and has plaques on its base listing all the country stars who once called East Tennessee home, including the unforgettable "Bowser" Lane. Gina Robeson of Knoxville was first to identify the photo. For her timeliness and because it's football time in Tennessee, Gina will receive The Rocky Top Album, featuring such acts as the Osbourne Brothers, Charlie Daniels, Popeye Dropsy, and the GrooveGrass Boyz (who at least get Del McCoury to play on a couple of tunes to make up for that awful name).

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

JAMES WHITE PARKWAY TASK FORCE
Thursday, Oct. 10
4 p.m.
South Knoxville Baptist Church
522 Sevier Ave.
Progress reports. Call 215-2075 for more info.

DRINKING WATER PROTECTION WORKSHOP
Thursday, Oct. 10
7 - 9 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
701 Henley St.
Hosted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

CITY COUNCIL
Tuesday, Oct. 15
7 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

AMERICANS FOR NATIONAL PARKS TOWNHALL MEETING
Wednesday, Oct. 16
6:30 - 7:30 p.m .
Miller's Bldg.
KUB board room
445 S. Gay St.
Speakers will be from Friends of the Smokies, UT, and the National Parks Conservation Association. For more info, contact Max Sadler at 865-329-2424 ext. 28.

Turf wars
Senate candidates disagree on just about everything

Only one legislative race in the Knoxville area appears close to being close; it's also one of the few such elections in Tennessee history that features three people with lawmaker experience. Running for the state Senate in the 7th district, which encompasses much of the heart of Knoxville, are incumbent Republican Tim Burchett, Democrat Bill Owen, and independent candidate Joe Burchfield.

Burchett is considered a favorite. But Owen held the seat from 1984 until 1990, is campaigning hard, and has about as much money on hand as Burchett, thanks to respectable fundraising and a loan he is making to his own campaign.

Since he is not trying to raise money, Burchfield is not expected to get many votes. But he is known in the district and served a term in the state house in the late 1980s.

Burchett and Owen differ tremendously on the issues. At a recent debate, the candidates universally condemned pornography and deadbeat dads, but disagreed on most everything else. Burchett said he was against an income tax and a state lottery; that he opposed the use of Tennessee's 4-cent gas tax for anything other than transportation purposes; and said that the public school system doesn't so much need more money as it does to prioritize. "The best thing that we can do for education is to get the bureaucrats out of the classroom," said Burchett.

Owen said he favors a 2.5 percent income tax combined with the removal of sales tax from food and clothing; that he favors the lottery if the current constitutional prohibition is removed; that he would like to see TDOT funds shifted to the Department of Safety; and said that Tennessee's schools need more money. "We should pay our teachers more," he said.

Owen also took a shot at Burchett for sponsoring a bill last year that, as amended by a measure proposed by a fellow senator, would have made it possible for the Cherokee Country Club to tear down a historic structure without penalty from the city. "I will read all of my bills and read all of the amendments to my bills, and I will not pass a bill that would allow the Cherokee Country Club to tear down a historic building," Owen said. Burchett, who has maintained that he was misled about the nature of this amendment, dismissed such criticisms of him as an attempt to get a "sound bite."

Burchett talked a lot about the need to reduce government spending. However, Owen has pointed out repeatedly that Burchett voted in favor of the recently passed 1-cent sales tax increase—the largest tax increase in Tennessee history. Burchett says he voted for the tax increase because income tax advocates were "orchestrating" a government shutdown. "Vital services needed to be restored, and we couldn't let schools shut down," Burchett says.

Both Owen and Burchett have fairly unusual professions. Owen has a consulting business and has lobbied in Washington for DeRoyal Industries and Theragenics Corp. Burchett owns some residential rental property and buys, sells, and fixes up old motorcycles.

Burchett has not brought up Owen's legal past in any of the public debates. But many Knoxville residents remember that in 1991, Owen was accused of a DUI in a case that was actually heard by two separate juries. Neither jury found Owen guilty of any wrongdoing, and the former state senator says the incident should have no bearing on the election. "I was wrongly accused," says Owen. "I was accused and I was cleared and my record was expunged. It's just like my opponent in this race, Tim Burchett. He and his mulch company were accused of selling fecal material to the public."

The incident referred to by Owen took place several years ago, when a mulching company owned by Burchett was accused by a city employee of dumping sewage into the ground. Burchett says that an investigation by the EPA later cleared him of any wrongdoing in the case. "We weren't mixing sewage with our mulch," Burchett says. "We were using a septic tank company to pump water out of a nearby holding pond."

According to documents filed with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, Burchett raised more than $27,000 during the seven weeks prior to Sept. 15 and had more than $33,000 on hand at that point. Owen raised almost $22,000 during that period and had about $13,000 on hand on Sept. 15, but had also lent himself almost $20,000 in the campaign.

Owen is also beginning to receive fundraising help statewide. Last week, Tennessee's three Constitutional officers hosted a $500-per-person fundraiser for Owen. "At first the party wasn't going to do anything in this race because they didn't think they had a chance," says Owen. "But now they've begun to change their minds."

—Bill Carey

More Rooms

Convention HQ hotel plans on a roll

Prior to last week, Mayor Victor Ashe had been saying that a commitment by the city to build a new convention headquarters hotel wouldn't be made on his watch. The Ashe administration would provide a framework for decision-making, he allowed, but a decision whether to pull the trigger would be left to his successor who will take office after next fall's election.

Following a presentation last Wednesday by the city's hotel feasibility consultant, however, Ashe sounded like he'd decided to become the triggerman himself. "I expect to make a recommendation to City Council within the next few weeks," he told this reporter, and it seemed clear he meant a recommendation to proceed.

Ashe wouldn't clarify exactly what he would recommend, or why, but it also seemed clear that his newfound sense of urgency is based in large part on the conclusions of the feasibility study conducted for the city by Donald Hunter of Annapolis-based Hunter Interests. Among Hunter's conclusions:

A new headquarters hotel is "essential to realizing the business potential of the [city's] new convention center."

A financing approach that "is now commonplace in headquarters hotel projects...proves quite feasible and practical for the 400-room headquarters hotel that is envisioned."

The only city investment needed to make the project viable would be acquisition of the hotel's site and construction of a parking garage to support it.

The financing approach assumed by Hunter to cover the $53 million cost of the hotel plus a $7 million debt service reserve fund involves the issuance of tax-exempt revenue bonds by a public entity along the lines of the Public Building Authority. At occupancy, room rates, and operating expenses projected in Hunter's report, the hotel would generate more than enough net operating income to cover $5.2 million in annual debt service on the $60 million debt. Taxpayers would not be obligated on these bonds. Moreover, if the hotel performs as expected over time, revenues could eventually become available for recovery of the city's site acquisition and garage costs or for other capital improvements.

While Hunter's report alludes to a possible $4 million cost of acquiring the block just across Henley Street from the convention center on which the State Supreme Court Building now resides, it makes no explicit estimates of site acquisition or garage costs. A 750-space garage to serve the hotel and to meet what Hunter believes are additional convention center parking needs might cost on the order of $10 million.

The timing of Hunter's report and Ashe's prospective recommendations dovetails with progress on negotiations for relocation of the State Supreme Court to the downtown post office. The point person in these negotiations for the court, appellate judge Gary Wade, says that he's close to agreement on lease terms with the post office building's new owner, Sam Furrow. These terms would have to satisfy state-set criteria for making sure the deal doesn't cost the state any additional money.

"Sam Furrow has bent over backwards to try to make it work and so has Leslie Henderson [the city's director of development] on behalf of the city," Wade reports. He anticipates a final decision from the state within the next 30 days.

It's understood that the city is considering a historic preservation grant of several hundred thousand dollars for the post office. City officials stress that their interest in preservation of the landmark building's exterior would be there regardless of any lease considerations. But it just so happens that a city grant could be the final piece of the financial puzzle that needs to be solved in order for Furrow to carry off his planned $5.5 million renovation of the post office on lease terms acceptable to the state.

Assuming the deal goes through, city acquisition of the present Supreme Court site from the state would turn on its own separate axis. Because Mayor Ashe's persistent attacks on TDOT, however justified, have made him persona non grata with Gov. Don Sundquist, it's expected that these negotiations would have to wait until a new governor takes office in January. (Since a Supreme Court lease of the post office doesn't involve the city directly, it doesn't pose the same sort of relationship problems.) Ashe claims the city has two or three prospective hotel sites under consideration.

In the meantime, Ashe's immediate recommendation is likely to be for the city to solicit proposals from prospective hotel developers. Under Hunter's financing scenario, a developer and/or the hotel's operator would be expected to invest $6 million in bonds that would be subordinated to the rest of the $60 million bond issue. In a presentation to city officials and other interested parties last Wednesday, Hunter reported that, "A number of people have come forward and said they are interested."

Conspicuous by their presence at the presentation were Rodney Lawler and Pat Wood of Lawler Wood, a firm many consider to be Knoxville's preeminent developers. Conspicuous by their absence were Earl Worsham and Ron Watkins of Worsham Watkins. Plans for a new hotel were among the elements of their grand design for downtown redevelopment that came to be known as Renaissance Knoxville, but it never got off the ground.

Hunter insists that, "All hotels will benefit from a smaller slice of the bigger pie that will result when a new headquarters hotel allows the convention center to reach its potential in bringing new business to Knoxville." But other downtown hotels remain wary, if not resentful, of city-sponsored competition and are also skeptical of Hunter's revenue assumptions for the new hotel. In particular, they doubt that anything approaching his assumed $115 average room rate can be achieved anytime soon. Room rates at downtown's four existing hotels presently average about $77 and haven't gone up by much in the past five years.

But along with the mayor, several City Council members contacted after Hunter's presentation were positive about proceeding with a new hotel. That list includes Nick Pavlis, the only Council member to oppose setting in motion a new hotel feasibility study on grounds it was untimely because of low occupancy rates at existing hotels. But Pavlis has come around to the view that a new hotel is needed as soon as possible to bolster convention center bookings. Hunter estimates it will take about three years from the time a developer and operator are selected to complete a new hotel. Hyatt Regency is the odds-on favorite to be the operator.

—Joe Sullivan