I am sure that a lot of our citizens are now familiar with an East Tennessee county that has recently had a situation to develop that may well have implications for the city of Jellico. According to television and other news reports, a member of the County Commission in that county was caught in a situation concerning receiving his salary for the position. Under the law he was forced to take the authorized compensation but chose to resign rather than do so since accepting compensation for his service could potentially have affected his other sources of income.
Our City Council months ago voted to allow members of Council to refuse their pay (and I cast the deciding vote in favor because I and some other members of Council were not thoroughly familiar at that time with the law dealing with that issue and we had never before been faced with such a request according to anyone's recollection.) As a result salaries have been unpaid for two members of Council for differing lengths of time.
However we were later twice furnished opinions from a municipal advisory service's legal section stating that courts have held that elected officials must accept their authorized salaries - maintaining that any salary specified by applicable statutes for elected officials cannot be refused since it would give a wealthy candidate who does not need the money an advantage in an election over one who does need the salary for his/her income. And I and members of the Council were also informed by our city attorney Jeff Hall that the Tennessee State Attorney General when contacted has always maintained that any salary specified by applicable statues for elected officials cannot be refused. I further notified the Council of the legal advisory service's opinions and I later furnished every member of Council a copy of an editorial from the Knoxville News-Sentinel reporting that even the governor of our state must accept his salary, have all federal and state taxes and fees deducted and then donate the remainder back to the state if he wishes to do so. And as I understood the article, the state had to go back and pay all federal taxes and fees on the previously unpaid governor's salary that had not previously been deducted.
In view of all of the above cited court rulings, the attorney general's opinion, the requirement for the governor to accept his salary and the situation in the above referenced county, it would now seem almost certain that we are in violation of the law. And we could now well be the only governmental entity within the state of Tennessee that is! However our council as yet has taken no action on the information that I and the city attorney have furnished them and although we will now be withholding only one Councilman's salary since one recently resigned, no required federal income tax, social security, medicare, etc. has been deducted upon the two non-paid salaries for all of the months that they have been withheld. The amount would be relatively small but we could eventually be forced to go back and pay the uncollected taxes and fees plus any interest just as happened with the governor's salary. And penalties of any amount could be assessed against the city by the state and or federal government and I made that fact clear to the Council when I brought their attention to the News-Sentinel editorial article.
We are now faced with the task of naming a replacement for former member of Council Gene Beck who resigned the position and I have no idea when the appointment will be made or who any member(s) of Council may have in mind. But we definitely need to name someone - man or woman - who is totally committed to the welfare of our town and not interested in becoming involved in any way in small town politics and personality conflicts.
Our Christmas lights are beautiful as always and I want to again thank our Tourism Committee, the utilities department, our city crews and all who make sure that they are in place year after year. They sure help to get folks in the Christmas spirit as does the annual tree lighting in Veterans Park on Thanksgiving eve.
(I love to flip the switch and watch the faces of the children in attendance light up as the Christmas tree instantly comes to life with all of the colored lights. And folks, the hot chocolate that is always served isn't bad either! Take it from me!)
And speaking of our city crews: An individual told me last week that he once did not have a very favorable impression of our town but that after having business dealings here and meeting and working with our people, that he is now convinced that Jellico is the finest town anywhere around for living, working and raising a family.
And he was extremely complimentary of our city crews and said that of all public employees that he has observed and dealt with in other areas, that as a whole we have the best group anywhere. And he especially mentioned the sanitation crew that he has found to be so cooperative, friendly and helpful.
But in a negative light, he said that he was in a local eating-place recently having lunch and noticed a tourist picking up an article laying on the counter and reading it - an article that was very critical of our town and our people. He said that it embarrassed him to see someone reading it who in all probability, had no idea of what Jellico is truly like. He asked me to continue to write positively of our town and our people and I assured him that building up Jellico - and not tearing it down - has always been and will always be, my only objective in writing these articles. And it's great to have someone working in our town like that individual. We need more like him!
Every January several present and former staff members who worked at Jellico High School during all of those years that I served as principal at that school, get together to reunite, celebrate birthdays and recall stories concerning those "good ole days" at alma mater. A lot of now comical stories that were not so comical at the time of their occurrence, are told and retold and get better with each recounting. One incident that I will never forget and one that had the staff and student body buzzing for days that we always recall came about on a day when a huge rat somehow got into the main hall of the building. In an attempt to escape from several of us who were pursuing him, he ran full speed into the girls' rest room during the afternoon break when it was crowded. A teacher told me just a few months ago that in her memory she can still hear the screams and see the mass exodus of girls from that rest room that probably established some type of speed record. And that particular rest room was a very unpopular place for several weeks.
As a high school principal I got telephone calls of every kind imaginable and I will never forget one that I know had to be the strangest call of all of the hundreds of comical, irate, unusual, and ridiculous calls that I received. School Secretary Barbara Baird informed me that I had a call and when I answered, a man in a somewhat agitated tone informed me in no uncertain terms, "I ain't dead!" Having no evidence to the contrary, I quickly assured him that I would certainly take his word for it. And it made me silently wonder about his sanity.
But things were not what they seemed to be! We were in the process at that time of financing and erecting our Veterans Monument and the late Jim Tidwell, Chairman of the Committee to Erect the Monument, had contacted the Department of Defense and obtained a list of all area servicemen and women whose death had occurred as a direct result from armed conflicts in which our country had been engaged up to that time. The list was then published in local media and citizens were asked to furnish us with the names of any of whom they were aware and who were missing from the list. The gentleman on the telephone was one of those listed as killed in action during World War II and he had found his name on the roster.
It turned out that he had been a prisoner of war for an extended period of time and the then War Department had officially declared him killed in action. And his name was never removed from the list once he was released from the POW camp. The list furnished to us for placement on the Monument still had him among those cited as having been killed in action.
To make a long story short, he came to the dedication ceremony for the Monument. And as Post Commander of a then active Jellico American Legion Argonne Post, I served as Master of Ceremonies for that dedication. And I had the high honor of both recognizing him and expressing the appreciation of all of our citizens for his service to our country and for what he had suffered in his long period of captivity.
It was great news when Lisa at Netlink informed me that she has now listed all of the names on the Monument on our Jellico website. To view, call up www.jellico.com/jellico/jellico.htm and then click on link "See the List of Names on the Jellico Veterans Memorial".
One of my fellow Whitley County principals, Larry Brown, principal of Pleasant View Elementary School and a 'Cat fan, accompanied me to the Kentucky game. And as I had predicted it would, the weather turned chilly and the cold rain that started early in the fourth quarter made things pretty miserable for those of us without enough rain gear. (But my nerves more than kept me warm.) I don't know how they do it, but the Wildcats, no matter how undermanned they may be, just completely play our socks off and keep us biting our nails.
The fact that we were able to win the game was a miracle and in all fairness to Kentucky, they more than deserved the win. But we will accept it and count our blessings. And it sure made my ride home from Knoxville with Larry a whole lot easier - although he is not the kind to gloat.
It is always good to see Dr. Joe Smiddy at the Jellico High School Homecoming each year. Joe was reared on Branam Hill, served in the Army during World War II, taught school and served as high school principal in Virginia, virtually began the University of Virginia Clinch Valley Campus, rose to be Chancellor and later Chancellor Emeritus, has entertained the Virginia State Legislature on more than one occassion and was highly honored by being named to the Virginia Hall of Fame that includes some of America's most famous individuals.
(Dr. Joe and I always get together during homecoming and we once even sang a duet of the "Tennessee Waltz" during the alumni assembly. We discontinued after that one rendition fearing that my singing would discourage a lot of folks from coming back the next year.)
In addition to being one of America's top educators and an extremely musically talented entertainer, Dr. Joe has a great sense of humor and can keep the annual assembly in stitches with his home spun humor that he has often displayed at the Museum of Apppalachia Homecoming. This year we were discussing how poor some of us were raised and I told him that we were so poor that we spelled it "por" because we couldn't afford two "o's". Not to be outdone, he informed me that a friend of his was raised so poor that the only thing that he had to play with as a kid was a loose tooth. Now that's POR and I sure couldn't top that one!
E-mail me at: mayor@jellico.tn.us
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