At our required public hearing, the mayor, four members of council and the city recorder who were present, reviewed the proposed balanced budget for 2004-'05 that has been the subject of so many meetings, workshops and long hours of study. In answer to my direct question, all four members of council were clearly understood to agree on finally bringing it before the Thursday night regular meeting of the council for the month of August and to recommend its passage on second and final reading by the entire council - and then forwarding to the Office of the Comptroller, State of Tennessee in Nashville for approval by the state.
But we got a shock at the Thursday night regular meeting when the proposed budget was brought up for discussion. Two members of council who were not at the public hearing were joined by one who was there in voting against its passage on the second and final reading. Members of council Elsie Crawford, Jim Dobson and Finance Director John Davenport voted "yes" thereby setting up a 3-3 tie. Upon the concurrence of city attorney Jeff Hall that my vote could be cast in a tie on budgetary matters, I then broke the tie by voting for passage - insuring that we can finally put a budget in operation for fiscal year 2004-'05 that began July 1st.
I agreed with member of council Crawford who stated after the meeting that the proposed budget was the result of an awful lot of hard work and was the best financial document that we could possibly have come up with under our current budgetary constraints. It is not a perfect projected revenues and expenditures. But the main thing for the budget that we now have in place is the fact that it is balanced on both the revenue and expenditure sides - although no one knows for sure the severity of the impact that legalized alcohol in Corbin and possibly London will have upon our economy and budget through reduced receipt of alcohol taxes.
A second major issue was raised due to the fact that the Council had passed an earlier resolution that no new hiring of personnel could take place without the approval of Council and/or mayor. And I agree with the members of Council who passed that restriction including Crawford who pointed out that we do not need to have rules that we don't enforce.
Councilman Jim Dobson was the object of the criticism because he had recently hired a new but experienced police officer for a possible thirty (30) days on an emergency basis and subject to later council/mayor approval. Dobson agreed that under the terms of the resolution, he should have brought the issue to the mayor or Council for the actual hiring. But he said that he was faced with a bad situation at that time that he believed qualified for the emergency hiring; that he could not reach me; and that he did not feel that he could wait for a regular or special call meeting of the Council. Two (2) police officers had been cut from the staff under the new budget constraints; one officer had left the force to take another position (the vacancy which Dobson filled on the emergency basis); one officer was injured while investigating a suspected break-in at a local school; officers were experiencing illnesses; taking usual summer vacations, etc. He said that just covering the minimum required patrol duty had become an extremely difficult task.
We need rules and regulations or there is chaos. But one time Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge, himself a stickler for rules and regulations, was later elected President of the United States based upon his insistence that there are no rules, regulations, labor unrest or anything else that can be allowed to take precedence over public safety. That's as true now as it was then!
(I wish that everyone could have seen me and my neighbors just before the Council meeting as we attempted to help officer Wayne Conrad spot a fugitive who he said was wanted and among other things, had been "ranting and raving" (Sound familiar?) before hiding in very thick underbrush behind our homes near the Interstate. Conrad stated that he would call for backup but that none was available. Later I understood that Conrad too may have been injured in the chase.)
I was visited in my office at Boston Elementary School last week by Virginia Swain White of Williamsburg who has recently returned here after spending years in Wichita, Kansas. She made a special effort to come and talk with me concerning what she sees happening in Jellico at the present time. According to Ms. White, tremendous improvements have been made in the appearance of our town in the past very few years and she was extremely impressed with the fact that our town is so much cleaner now than she could ever remember it. And she has been looking for property here to possibly purchase and to establish residence.
That is exactly the kind of possibilities that I have been impressing on everyone that is so important to the future of our town - and especially to the younger generations coming on. (Jellico would sure be a tremendous change of pace for Ms. White since she has worked professionally in public relations, as a consultant and performing similar functions for organizations connected to former Presidential candidate Bob Dole, Senator Pat Roberts, and several notables on the national scene.)
Bill and Mike Neely have really been getting the attention and favorable publicity stemming from the fact that they probably have the oldest unbroken business in town - and certainly the oldest barber shop anywhere around of which anyone is aware. I hope that everyone saw the recent feature story on Bill and Mike and their shop that was recently run on the front page of the "Local" section of the Knoxville News-Sentinel that was complete with photos. The story made for some very entertaining reading including Mike's response to the reporter's question as to what his reaction would have been had he been in the shop when that huge bear broke out the front glass of the shop. According to Mike, he would have gone out the back door. But since the building has no back door, Mike without hesitation added, "I would have made one"!
By the way, did you hear the story concerning a summer retreat attended by several area high school football coaches at Cumberland Falls several years ago. According to the story, the coaches had to bring their lunches that they carried in lunch boxes. The Jellico High coach opened his box to find the same bologna sandwich every day while the Williamsburg coach always had pinto beans and cornbread. No variation whatsoever for a single lunch!
Finally the Jellico coach got so disgusted that he swore to jump off Cumberland Falls the very next time he opened his lunch box and found another bologna sandwich. The Williamsburg coach likewise swore to join him if he found pinto beans and cornbread one more time. And of course the inevitable happened the next day. And after opening their lunches and finding that same fare, they both kept their word and jumped.
Two or three nights later at the funeral home, the Jellico High coaches widow was really grieving, feeling very guilty and stating that she had not realized how badly her husband had hated those bologna sandwiches. She said that if she had known how he felt about them, that she would certainly have changed his lunch menu that morning. The Williamsburg coach's wife was in total shock and did not know what to say. She explained that she worked everyday and that her husband always prepared his own lunch. (I don't make them up! I just repeat them!)
GO BLUE DEVIL(S) LOOSE AT JELLICO HIGH! SWAT THOSE YELLOW JACKETS!
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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