September 25, 2009
The City Manager and the Police Chief continue to beat the drum for hiring more police officers. In a story in the Tennessean’s Wilson A.M. section on 9/23/2009 they tried their best to build support for increasing the Mt. Juliet Police Department.
“We are the smallest state per capita police department,” Robertson said. “We don’t have enough police officers.” “A city the size of Mt. Juliet should ahve 70-75 officers,” Robertson said.
Those statements are laughable and only make sense if you believe that the crime rate in Mt. Juliet is the same as inner city Nashville, the Lebanon public housing projects, or Detroit. (You can review comparative crime stats and analysis here).
The truth is, of course, that it’s not. In fact, the same Wilson AM story reported that crime in Mt. Juliet is down by 12 percent from the previous year. If Mt. Juliet’s crime rate is decreasing, how can it be true at the same time that the Police Department is too small?
Robertson and Chief Garrett point to an increase of 67% in “calls for service,” but even this, by itself doesn’t prove the need for more officers. If an eight hour shift of officers handled 10 calls a shift last year, and now they’re handling 16 calls a shift, then calls for service are up 67%. But that doesn’t mean you have to hire new officers. They still might not be at capacity.
If Mt. Juliet did have 70-75 officers (that would be about 67% more than the 43 they have now) they might write a lot more tickets for city court, but there’s very little prospect that the 32 new officers would make much difference in the already low crime rate in Mt. Juliet, which, despite the population growth and the opening of new retail centers, has been going down.
First rule of sociology: Every organization or department wants to grow. And police officers (like firemen or building inspectors) always want you to hire more police officers. Ocassionally they’re right. But they can hardly be expected to be objective about it.
September 24, 2009
The laughably neutered Mt. Juliet City Ethics Ordinance, passed in September, 2007, contains this language:
13-1-108. Use of position or authority
An official or employee may not use his position to secure any
privilege or exemption for himself or others that is not
authorized by the charter, general law, or ordinance or
policy of the municipality.
There is a plausible case to be made that in attempting to secure a health insurance privilege benefit for herself, the Mayor violated the city’s ethics ordinance.
It might have been ethical to propose a health insurance benefit for a future commission, but it was certainly un-ethical for an elected official to sponsor, advocate, and vote for an ordinance that would have extended that benefit to herself.
And it may have violated the city’s ethics ordinance. Rounding up witnesses with first-hand knowledge of the facts shouldn’t be a problem. You can always show them the video recording of the meeting. Are there any Mt. Juliet citizens who care enough about responsible government to file a complaint?
It was a further breach of ethics for the mayor to have snuck this on to the agenda on first reading by suspending the rules and getting it passed without any prior notice to the public. Thankfully, the rest of the commission came to its senses and voted this un-ethical proposal down 1 – 4.
The public would be well-advised to pay close attention at the next city commission meeting to how the minutes report the debate on this proposal. The Mayor has a documented history of intervening in the writing of the minutes to alter them and make sure they rewrite history they way she wants it to be remembered.
September 17, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009.
Mayor Elam attempted to pass a new benefits package for the Mayor and City Commissioners. It was defeated.
Mayor Elam proposed converting the 60-acre York Road property (home of the police department’s firing range) to a “passive park.” It was defeated.
A study committee had unanimously recommended the repeal of the restrictive “town center overlay” zoning from the center of Mt. Juliet. Mayor Elam has previously pointed proudly to this as “her baby.” It was repealed, with even Mayor Elam voting to repudiate it.
The Mayor had sharp words for the other commissioners.
The Mayor had sharp words for the city attorney.
The Mayor had sharp words for the city manager.
The Mayor had sharp words for the acting parks director.
And the Mayor went 0-for-three.
When the City Attorney opined that adding full health insurance benefits for the Mayor and Commissioners might be considered salary or compensation, and could be challenged unless it applied only to commissioners elected in the future, the Mayor blew up.
“I want to see that! They’ve acknowledged there are no Tennessee cases on any of this and they are looking at other states and that’s not binding!”
“We can do as we choose. . .”
Got that citizens of Mt. Juliet?
According to Mayor Elam, she and the other commissioners “can do as we choose. . .”
(the headline comes from the Mt. Juliet News story. We’d link to it, but they’re website seems to have the hiccups. Click through if you want to try on your own.)
August 19, 2009
so runs the headline in today’s Mt. Juliet News (not up on their web site, but we’ll link to it, once it is).
Interestingly, Elam says that if she runs, “it would be as a Republican, an acknowledged party alliance she would have preferred kept under wraps a bit longer.”
[heh]
The jokes just write themselves. . .
July 29, 2009
Story from the WKRN (Channel 2) web site:
MT. JULIET, Tenn. – The city of Mt. Juliet will allow handgun carry permit holders to carry their weapons into city parks when a new law goes into effect in September.
City commissioners Monday night voted 3-2 against a measure to opt out of the new law.
Read the rest of the story. You can watch the Channel 2 video here:
Here’s the video from Channel 5.
There’s also coverage in The Chronicle:
Mt. Juliet Mayor Linda Elam, the “pistol-packing mama,” said she had originally wanted to separate the various areas covered in the new law, but that wasn’t possible to do with the way it is written. She said for her it was “a pretty easy decision,” and she thinks guns should have been allowed in state parks for a long time.
Commissioners voted 3 – 2 for Mt. Juliet to not opt out of the new law, with Floyd, Hagerty and Elam voting against the ordinance and Bradshaw and Sellers voting in favor of the ordinance to opt out.
Read the rest of the story.
July 15, 2009
She’s not happy that the other four Commisssioners called a special meeting of the City Commission on Monday, July 6th and met without her. At that meeting they voted unanimously to name Andy Wright as the new city judge.
The Mayor blasted the other Commissioners AND City Manager Randy Robertson a the regular meeting on Monday July 13th. Acording to stories in The Chronicle and The Mt. Juliet News, she charged that the Commission AND the City Manager had been “meddling” with the City Court and stated that she was “offended as a lawyer.”
City Manager Robertson shot back at the Mayor, “Some of the things you said are wrong.”
Later, he charged that Mayor Elam had “thrown down the gauntlet.”
Since the Mayor’s vote for or against Andy Wright as the new City Judge would not have made a difference, why was she so incensed?
Anyone have any ideas?
July 6, 2009
Story up at The Chronicle of Mt. Juliet website.
Apparently he will hold both positions simultaneously.
Does this seem like a good idea?
June 29, 2009
Story up on The Tennessean website.
There have been a series of disputes between the police department, the City Commission, and the City Judge.
Recently, Judge Grauberger had dismissed citations issued to realtors for violating the new sign ordinance. Apparently the sign ordinance says violators must be given 10 days notice before a citation can be issued. The codes department was unable to show that they had provided 10 days notice, so the judge dismissed the citations.
Might or might not be related to the Judge’s resignation.
