Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Speaking his mind

Alonzo Montgomery was one righteously angry dude when he spoke his piece at City Council Tuesday night. He'd found out that he'd been attacked in absentia after he came to the last Council meeting to endorse City Council candidate Chris Woodhull.

Montgomery, who had also been a candidate for the seat, was eliminated in the September primary after garnering some 2,000 votes. He had initially signed a letter endorsing Jean Teague, a 28-year Council veteran who was term-limited out of office two years ago. Teague, who ran second in the primary, faces Woodhull in next week's general election. Montgomery said he'd changed his mind about endorsing Teague after his constituents told him they wanted him to support Woodhull. Montgomery left the building after he spoke his piece about changing his endorsement at the last meeting, and evidently wasn't there to hear Teague supporter John Bynon ridicule him and introduce the Montgomery-signed Teague endorsement. Bynon's appearance was accompanied by gales of laughter from Councilman Barbara Pelot, a Teague ally.

"Be a man," Montgomery demanded of Bynon and Pelot. "If you're going to laugh at me, do it to my face."

He stood on his right to change his mind.

"The slaves were freed a long time ago, and this is one Negro who's nobody's slave."

High road voting

Fifth District Council member Larry Cox, who will be term-limited out of his currently-held office in December, is an all-but-announced candidate for school board next year. He cast a controversial vote at Tuesday's City Council meeting when he spurned a request from a coalition of neighborhoods in his school board district to postpone a resolution authorizing the mayor to grant the state the authority to acquire the right-of-way to start on the downtown I-40 project until December.

The globe-trotting lame-duck incumbent Mayor Victor Ashe is out of town, and his administration was pushing for a two-week postponement, which would give Ashe a chance to get back to the country and push the right-of-way resolution through at the next Council meeting. The coalition of neighborhood groups, led by residents of Fourth and Gill, Old North Knoxville and Oakwood-Lincoln Park (all of which lie in the school board district Cox wants to represent), had requested a 30-day postponement. The neighborhoods bordering the downtown interstate route do not want to give the Tennessee Department of Transportation the city's go-ahead until the controversial project's design is finalized. Fourth District Council member Rob Frost's motion for a postponement until Dec. 9 failed by a 4-5 vote.

Election day jitters

Candidate Tim Wheeler, who hopes to succeed Cox as the Fifth District Council member, is spending the final days of the campaign ducking the media—an unusual posture for a City Council candidate. Wheeler has been laying low since the news broke last week that he is under investigation for listing fraudulent addresses when he registered to vote in city elections from 1997-2002, and could be charged with 10 felony counts. Channel 10 reporter Jim Ragonese sought Wheeler out at his job in the Circuit Court Clerk's office in the courthouse Monday, but sources say Wheeler apparently fled out a back door while Ragonese waited in the front office. Channel 6 reporters have been dispatched to his Oglewood Avenue home, but say that they haven't been able to find him, and have been told that he "is staying with a friend." The News-Sentinel sent a reporter to his home last week, but had no more luck than the TV crews. A press release blaming the voting infraction on bad advice from an unnamed former election official (who is retired Election Commission administrator Pat Crippins) is all the media have had from Wheeler so far, except for one ambush encounter after a candidate's forum Monday when Wheeler refused to go on camera. Consensus among political and legal observers is that Wheeler is unlikely to face charges unless he wins Tuesday's election over opponent Bob Becker.

Word up

Political races provide many educational opportunities. Take the recent direct mail piece from candidate Jean Teague, for example. The post card, done in Teague's signature Miami Dolphins-esque shades of blue and teal, bears three endorsements. One of them is from Jim Begalla, who praises Teague's sense of history. The card describes Begalla as a "Businessman and Parturient of the Arts."

If you're like us, you're wondering, what the heck is a parturient? We're here to help: an example of the adjectival use of parturient, according to the WordNet Dictionary is "...giving birth; 'a parturient heifer.'" or " "parturient pangs ... the parturient uterus."

Supersize it

Although you can't get a Duck Club for lunch anymore, Homberg culinary artiste Bruce Bogartz is taking it up a notch. Ciao by Bogartz will open its doors in mid-November next door to the current Bogartz space. Ciao will specialize in regional Italian fare and should more than compensate for the loss of the lunchtime club.

The current space (Bogartz Right, informally), will continue to serve seasonal, American-type eats for the discriminating palate. Bogartz sees it evolving into an upscale "neighborhood atmosphere" with a full bar and a gathering spot for casual dining. "I'd say Bogartz is more for a Duck Club and a glass of wine," says Bruce, "whereas Ciao will be more for special occasions."