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Seven Days

Wednesday, March 17
• Rhea County Commissioners ask state legislators to amend the criminal code so that gays can be charged with crimes against nature. Some audience members applaud and further speak out against drinking, zoning, civil rights, women’s suffrage, and that heathen Copernicus.

Thursday, March 18
• Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison is called to answer separate accusations that he: a) helped build a house free of charge for the man who operates the sheriff’s impound lot, and that; b) his department has a history of jailing people without charging them in the course of investigations. We don’t believe the sheriff is a crook or a civil rights violator; he just wants to make sure everybody has a roof over their heads.

Friday, March 19
• As part of a court settlement, the state agrees to pony up more than $18 million to shore up its services for the mentally retarded. No word on whether benefits will be extended to Rhea County Commissioners, whose lawyer and guardian ad litem says they were “misunderstood.”

Saturday, March 20
• In the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the University of Tennessee Lady Vols brush their teeth with Colgate, 77-54.

Sunday, March 21
• The annual three-day high-school home-ec class that is the Women Today Expo concludes at the downtown Knoxville Convention Center. Closing day festivities include seminars on Floor-Sweeping, Cake-Baking, Looking Purty and How to Please Men-Folk.

Monday, March 22
• In round two of the NCAA women’s tourney play, the Lady Vols kick DeSnot out of DePaul, 79-59.

Tuesday, March 23
• The Associated Press reports that more than half of adult Tennesseans have serious literacy problems. The issue remains unaddressed, however, since so few can read the story.

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:
The stained glass window displayed is located in the basement chapel of the Rectory of the Immaculate Conception Church on West Vine Avenue. Father Xavier Mankel from Holy Ghost Church rose to the challenge and says, “From the inside, the light from outside illuminates the vivid reds, blues and golds of a lovely window...” Our staff is pleased to present you with The Saint-a-Day Guide, a lighthearted but accurate (and not too irreverent) compendium. Let’s give it up one time for Father Xavier!FOUNDTEXT

Downtown Knoxville Branded with a Star
A crazyquilt of culture led to its new ‘identity’ logo

The new “brand” for downtown Knoxville is out of the bag, and it’s a simple logo, featuring two four-point stars in gold and olive, overlaid to form an eight-point image and flanked by the uncapitalized words “downtown knoxville.”

It was established by the Central Business Improvement District, who will be using it on promotional and advertising materials, including a new website and upcoming billboards, to tout the downtown as a “live/work/play” environment, as featured on and in a folder full of information prepared to present lists of the downtown’s attractive features. The website, available at www.downtownknoxville.org, puts the entire promotional folder in the hands of online viewers, starting today.

Joe Petre, the Lawler-Wood executive who is president of the CBID, says, “It’s a new logo and a different look, but it’s not a big rollout. It’s a branding identity.” That’s what the CIBD sought when it contracted with the Shelton Group in mid-2003 to assist in its development of a brand.

Suzanne Shelton, the communications group’s chief manager, explains the brand’s simplicity by saying, “We didn’t want to oversloganize it,” because they felt it should be durable, and “What’s true today [about the downtown] may not be true 10 years from now.”

The star, very similar to the star pattern used in quilting, is meant to represent Knoxville’s “down-home” quality, and the lower-case printing of downtown knoxville symbolizes contemporariness, according to Shelton and Michelle Hummel, the CBID director of operations.

“Downtown Knoxville is the center stage for an engaging blend of people, businesses, experiences and spaces where Appalachian heritage blends with contemporary culture,” reads an introductory quote on the branding’s news release. That may not be quite as engaging as the promotional folder’s heading, which reads: “Down-to-Earth. Down-to-Business. Downtown Knoxville,” which is a close to a slogan as the new materials come.

The Shelton fee, pre-established at $10,000, didn’t provide the company with a profit, based on the staff hours devoted to the project, but it was “our kind of project,” Shelton says, “We believe in downtown.” Hummel, as well, says the agency contributed a lot of work that went uncompensated.

Shelton and the CBID cooperated in developing and distributing survey questionnaires to more than 800 CBID residents and business people and held focus group sessions to arrive at the branding concept, according to the CBID’s news release. It quotes Petre as saying the research “found that downtown is an enormous source of pride for all people who have remained committed and connected to downtown for so many years...We should continue to promote and celebrate all the great things happening.”

The promotional packet includes materials on residential, business and economic development and information on cultural, entertainment and dining opportunities and on the downtown’s historical background and its current transportation options. Hummel says the package can be tailored to the inquiry being answered or the client being served and can be updated daily, as new downtown facets emerge. Business resources, assets and incentives, for instance, will be the opening pages for commercial prospects. Another page, aimed at downtown residents, workers and visitors, stresses the area’s safety and relatively low crime rate, but also lists tips on parking, walking, and taking the bus intended to help keep it that way.

The website is an interactive one, allowing people and businesses to post their own cultural or entertainment event information and to provide or add to lists of available properties for sale or rent for commercial or residential uses.

A downtown marketing campaign is to follow. By the end of this coming May, the CBID has plans to post the logo on billboards around town, with Lamar Advertising giving the organization a break on available outdoor advertising space. Print advertising is also in the works and is expected to be published at about the same time, Hummel and Petre say.

—Barry Henderson

Controversy at KCDC
Residency issue causes discord

A sharp division within the KCDC board has arisen over an election to make current board member Renee Kessler, an executive with AmSouth Bank, its interim chairperson. The vote was a tie, and the controversy lies in the fact that Kessler doesn’t live within the Knoxville city limits.

A clause in the law suggests that to serve on the board, much less as its chair, a member must live within the purview of KCDC, the city of Knoxville. However, the directive is not explicitly declared. The wording in question states that the Housing Authorities Law may not “prevent the appointment of any person as a commissioner of the authority who resides within such boundaries [of the area of operation] or such additional area, and who is otherwise eligible for such appointment under the [Housing Authorities Law].”

Former Mayor Victor Ashe asked Mark Mamantov, KCDC’s legal counsel to rule on the the clause last year. Mamantov concluded that “it appears that a person residing in the unincorporated areas of Knox County should not have been appointed to serve as commissioner.”

So when Bruce Bosse’s term on the board expired, and Bill Lyons, KCDC’s most recent chairman, resigned his seat to become economic development director in Mayor Bill Haslam’s administration, Ashe used the Mamantov opinion to nix the reappointment of Bosse, who had moved outside the city.

Ashe appointed two of his staffers, Ellen Adcock and Craig Griffith, neither of whom were being retained by Haslam and both of whom had to resign their city jobs in order to accept the vacant KCDC board seats.

Along with current board member David Hutchins (who resides in the city and is the longest serving commissioner), Renee Kessler applied for the vacant chair, despite the fact that she lives outside KCDC’s formal jurisdiction. Ironically, despite Mamantov’s legal opinion and their old boss’ refusal to appoint Bosse because of that opinion, Both Adcock and Griffith now support Kessler for the interim chair.

“[The ruling is] his opinion, and it has never been adjudicated by a court of a law,” says Griffith. He adds that while Hutchins has done a good job on the board, “Kessler better represents KCDC.”

Griffith also says that, because Kessler already serves on the board, she can’t be removed unless she decides to resign. “The problem is that we don’t have a mechanism in KCDC bylaws to remove a member that is already on the on the board,” Griffith says.

Seven members serve on the KCDC board. The vote to fill the chair yielded a three-to-three outcome, with one member absent on each occasion a vote was held. As a result, board member Culver Schmid (appointed by Mayor Haslam in February to replace Lyons) was elected chairman pro-tem. The interim role is voted on monthly, but it is now considered likely that Schmid will hold the position until the Annual KCDC Meeting in May. Chief Operating Officer Art Cate doesn’t know what will become of the Kessler situation, but says, “something is going to happen between now and May.”

Adding to the controversy, an anonymous letter was sent recently to each City Council member about the matter. The letter cries foul, implying that pro-Kessler commissioners are playing the race card at the expense of the law. While the letter states, “The issue here is not about Ms. Kessler being an African American female...,” it mentions that fact three times, and twice points out that Bosse, who was not reappointed because he does not live in the city, is “Caucasian.”

“Anytime you get something anonymous it’s usually someone with an axe to grind,” says City Council member Rob Frost. “And how do you respond to an anonymous letter?”

KCDC is now negotiating with Knox County to allow the corporation to take on projects in unincorporated areas of Knox County. Should county government approve that change, it would be acceptable for Kessler to serve as chair on the board without objection. If elected, Kessler would be KCDC’s second African-American female chairperson.

—Clint Casey