“I think holding people accountable and having rules is good for transparent government, but I don’t know enough about the committee to know if it’s a useful tool. “We have an ethics policy and it’s good to have it and I think it’s good to have an ethics committee,” Jay said. Jay said he’d like more information about the ethics committee: how many complaints does it hear, how many complaints arise in election years, how many complaints are legitimate? The committee on committees was formed this fall by Commission Chairman Larsen Jay as a way to review the counties' various committees and decide which should remain. “It provides an opportunity for transparency and the open vetting of situations that fall within the rules and guidelines of the committee," Covington said. Busler was running unopposed.ĭailey said the county already has an internal audit department that takes reports of waste and abuse.Ĭovington told Knox News before Monday's meeting he thinks the ethics committee is an important oversight body. It was unclear whether the ethics committee would end up amending the rules as requested.ĭailey mentioned two complaints against officials who also were running for office that came before the committee right before elections and were quickly dismissed: one against Commissioner Brad Anders as he was running for county mayor and one against former Knox County Sheriff’s Assistant Chief Lee Tramel as he was running for sheriff.Īnother complaint against Commissioners Bob Thomas and Charlie Busler was filed in October 2017 but was resolved in April 2018, the month before an election that included Thomas running for county mayor and Busler running for county commission.Īnders, Tramel and Thomas all lost their races. “It’s turned into nothing but a political hatchet committee.”ĭuring Monday's meeting, Knox County Law Director David Buuck advocated specifically for an ethics policy that would protect those who have filed to run for office. “All we're doing is looking at the ethics committee to see if it’s still a viable committee,” he said. It takes the votes of six county commissioners to approve committee recommendations.Įarlier Monday, Carson Dailey, a county commissioner and the chairman of the committee on committees, told Knox News the ethics committee has become a “political hit tool” used in election years to smear candidates. The ethics committee chairman, Michael Covington, promised to take the suggestions back for discussion at the group's next scheduled meeting in February.Īny decision made by either the committee on committees or ethics committee would act only as a recommendation for the full commission. Instead Monday, the committee asked the ethics committee – which is made up of appointed volunteers and a single commissioner – to discuss whether to require statute of limitations of 90 to 180 days on infractions, and whether to shield people running for office from complaints during the election. Any chance of that happening, however, was dismissed during a meeting Monday of the newly formed committee on committees, which was created to determine whether the county commission needs each of its committees. The Knox County ethics committee will not be eliminated, though some of the committee bylaws could be changed to make it harder to bring a complaint against an official during an election cycle.Ī group of commissioners had discussed the possibility of doing away with the ethics committee that – in theory – helps keep public officials honest with taxpayer dollars.
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