I have never been faced with a situation like I faced at our special call meeting on Thursday, January 7th.
Myself and councilmen Jerry Neal, Lonnie Vann and Allen McClary all ran on a platform favoring the hiring of a City Administrator (the city charter had already been changed to that form of city government by the previous council of which I was a member).
Councilmen Jim Dobson, Bill Barton and Alvin Evans were elected after voicing their strong opposition to going away from our long existing Mayor/Council type of administration.
However after we assumed our offices, we all began to work together to try to get things accomplished that we believe are in the best interests of Jellico. And some of us began to rethink our position on the issue of the city administrator.
I originally unequivocally supported hiring a City Adminisrator because I felt that Jellico was lagging badly behind other area towns that were making progress by utilizing either a City Administrator or a City Manager. But once I began working as Mayor, I quickly realized that I and the Council, through hard work, could achieve many of the things that we cited as goals for our four years terms and also save money allocated for the Admistrator's salary and benefits: (1) solve the trememdous problem that we are experiencing with liquid waste disposal at the lowest possible cost to our citizens; (2) renovate and revitalize our downtown area, and (3) create employment opportunities for our people wherever possible.
We feel that we are making progress toward those goals in others. And we have additional plans for future development. In short, we feel that we are now doing the things that the City Administrator will be expected to do.
The almost unbelieveable situation eventually developed whereby the three Council members who were originally opposed to having a City Administrator then declared their support for me to be appointed to the position because they felt that I was performing that job anyway. But those who always favored establishing the position (including myself) were expected through campaign committments to vote for hiring an individual from outside our area.
The four of us felt that we were duty bound to take the action that we took in hiring a non-resident for the job. Some suggested that I should have had my name placed on nomination for the position and then broken the tie vote by voting for myself. And I must admit that I was very tempted to do that. But I did assure several people when I was campaigning that I did not have that in mind. And I did not at that time!!!
But as I stated earlier, my mind began to change after I started doing the job. It then became a question as to whether by taking the job I would lose the trust of those to whom I had made that committment. After agonizing over my decision for a long time I finally decided that it was all important that I remain a man of my word. But it was sure hard to know that what I was doing was, in a sense, voting against my own hiring.
And after the meeting, I came to the realization that no matter how hard I had worked, how much I had or had not accomplished or anything that I had tried to accomplish had meant anything, or would have meant anything, in the final outcome of hiring an administrator. That is discouraging to say the least.
A question was raised during the meeting as to my educational background in the field of Public Administration. All of my doctoral level work in administration at the University of Tennessee included numerous credit hours in the field of Public Administration. In fact my transcript from U.T. reflects more hours in Public Administation than a large percentage of the twenty-five or so applications and resumes' that we received!!!
And I am very proud of the fact that in 1972-73, I was awarded the "Orin Graf Fellowship" as the outstanding graduate student in the field of administration while competing against students from all over Tennessee, the United States and several foreign graduate exchange students. And I posted a 3.93 grade point average based upon a 4.0 scale while I was engaged in those two years of study.
I also participated in several governmental studies during that time and one of those studies was used in the original proposal to unify the City of Knoxville and Knox County into Metro-Knoxville. Although that action was not taken, the two school systems were eventually consolidated. I have been told that one of the studies we completed is still used as reference material.
But all of that is irrelevant now. We have Mr. Mike Jones hired and in the position and we are all going to do everything that we can to help him to be successful. We all want Jellico to grow and we can only do that through hard work and cooperation.
In the meantime I want everyone who expressed their support for me to know that I appreciate all of their efforts on my behalf. Mr. Jim Dobson especially worked hard to secure the job for me and he had help from several other individuals including Mr. Bill Barton and Mr. Alvin Evans. Many of the City of Jellico and Jellico Utilities employees openly supported me and numerous citizens expressed similar support during the days leading up to the special call meeting. And I want them all to know that I sincerely appreciate their support.
I also want to mention that I equally appreciate those who have taken the time to write complimentary letters to the paper commending what myself and the Council have tried to accomplish.
Letters were earlier published from a lady in Ohio and from Mr. Diendoefer here in Jellico.
Last week Mr. Condy Alley wrote from Birmingham, Alabama to say that he enjoys this column and appreciates the efforts that are currently being made in Jellico. Mr. Alley expressed what I believe most of our out of town readers feel - a desire for news from the old hometown.
And as I stated earlier, I try to keep that desire in mind when I write this column.
I recently received a $200.00 donation from Mr. Dick Davenport of Charleston, South Carolina. Mr. Davenport indicated that he wanted the money to be used for "Christmas in the Park". He also mentioned that he would be willing to help our town in another area should I contact him concerning possible needs in that area.
We certainly appreciate Mr. Davenport's contribution and we will apply the money toward the expenses of "Christmas in the Park, '99" if we decide to continue with that project. If not, we will donate it to the local PTA or Habitat for Humanity or some other equally deserving organization or project.
Final note: Being from an earlier generation, I never fail to be amazed at the technological advances that are presently taking place.
As young boys, many of us used to climb all the way to the top of Indian Mountain just to see a television in operation (Mr. Jim Cantrell set one up there with a portable generator back in the early fifties to experiment with the possibility of running a cable down into town).
Now we can attach our personal computers to the internet and gather volumes of information too large to comprehend and correspond with people from all over the world.
A few weeks ago I was asked by Interstate 2000 to give permission for my cloumn to be place on the local web site. And I was happy and honored to give that permission.
Shortly thereafter I received "e-mail" from Mr. Bobby Eldridge now living in Arizona who had found my column on his computer. Mr. Eldridge grew up in Tannery "Holler" (that's hollow to present generations) and left Jellico may years ago. I had not seen or heard from him in something like forty five years.
I responded to his contact by assuring him that I was the same John Clifton who used to get up at four in the mornings to go black berry picking with him in Procter Holler. And we always tried to pick two "water buckets" (I can't remember the last time I ever saw a water bucket) full and leave the fields around noon - always managing to stop at Proctor Falls for a dip in that clear, cold water to "wash off the chiggers" and if we were lucky, we could sell the berries for 25 cents a gallon. If not, our mothers canned them for winter.
How times have changed!!!
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