Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Jobs for Votes

He came in fourth in a four-person City Council race (finishing behind Chris Woodhull, Jean Teague and Norris Dryer), but the way Alonzo Montgomery figures it, he's way ahead of the other three, who ran traditional yard signing, direct mailing, door-knocking, fund-raising campaigns. "I got 2,048 votes, and I didn't spend a penny and I didn't knock on a single door," Montgomery said at City Council Tuesday night, as he served notice on Mayor-elect Bill Haslam that he wants a city job. A good city job.

"I'd like that Community Relations job," Montgomery said, which probably came a surprise to County Commissioner Tank Strickland, the current holder of that position. But Montgomery had more than one item on his agenda Tuesday, and he was also there to ask those 2,048 Montgomery voters to support Woodhull. A few days before, Teague had persuaded him to endorse her, but he changed his mind:

"I was going to endorse Mrs. Teague, but I thought about it over the weekend, and talked to some of my supporters, and they said she's been in there long enough and they want to see some youth in there."

Teague, who has seated herself front and center at almost every City Council meeting since January 2002 when she was term-limited out of the 2nd District City Council seat she held for 28 years, wasn't present for Montgomery's announcement. But she was well represented by her longtime ally John Bynon, who disparaged Montgomery's credibility and distributed copies of a letter in which Montgomery endorsed Teague.

Mayfield Park Update

A vastly-improved and increased network of city parks will be Victor Ashe's legacy, and a review of the city's website shows that the Ashe administration is moving forward with work on parks all over town. There is a picture of former Gov. Ned Ray McWherter celebrating improvements to the oddly-placed and little-used park under the South Knoxville bridge that was named for him a decade ago, and reports on the status of upgrades to parks all over town. Adair Park, Hasty Park, Tyson Park, Marie Myers Park. And Mayfield Park (which was named for the late Councilman Danny Mayfield and announced at his funeral)? Not a word.

Don't Mess with Billy

Billy Stokes, who plans to run for the state Senate seat soon to be vacated by Ben Atchley, is serving notice that he isn't going to suffer insults lightly. Last week, Stokes attended a Farragut Republican Club meeting where arch-conservative pundit Frank Cagle was speaking. This was a few days after Cagle, a supporter of Stokes' likely primary opponent Jamie Hagood, had launched an attack on Stokes in his News Sentinel column. Attorney Stokes, a former cop and GOP party chairman who once had a reputation as a bit of a pugilist, confronted Cagle about Cagle's charge that Knox county "doesn't have a Republican Party", and threw in a zinger of his own. "In 1986, we carried Knox County for the Republican Party in the face of a statewide loss," Stokes said, obliquely referring to the fact that Cagle ran Republican Van Hilleary's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign last summer, in a year when the GOP enjoyed great success in other races. Cagle seemed taken aback:

"You made a point. I have no response."

Stokes continued lighting into Cagle despite gentle dissuasion from his Jamie Curtis look-alike wife, Bay. "My wife was pinching my leg the whole time," says Stokes. "But I'm not going to kowtow to the hard right-wing, and a semi-employed pundit is not going to intimidate me."