Headlines from the Mt. Juliet News, June 18, 2008

Former MJ mayor throws his hat in the ring once more
Former Mt. Juliet mayor Kevin Mack has decided he wants another chance at the top level position and said he has thrown his hat in the political race because the city “needs a steady hand once again.”

Commissioners OK hefty raise for city manager
$17,000 and some other perks as an incentive to stay on the job. D4 Commissioner Bradshaw voted no.

Del Webb officially opens $15 million clubhouse
24,000 square foot facility for the retirement community

Two Rivers Ford opens doors in Wilson County
40,000 square foot building on Belinda Parkway, 500 new cars and 100 used

Shoplifting increases 115 percent in MJ
37 cases in 2007; 55 so far in 2008 (with 52 arrests)

July 4^th Parade, entertainment (p.2)
Location: Providence Marketplace
concert starts at 4:00pm, fireworks scheduled for 9:00pm

Location of YMCA is key issue (p18)
Sports Editor George Page votes for the McFarland property behind HG Hills, says the old MJES property is too small

• Publius

City Commission preview – 04/28/2008

Here’s the link to the agenda: 4-28-08 Agenda

The file is still in MS Word .doc format.

Of interest:

C.	Ordinance	Re:	Amend Title 6, Chapter 4, Section 6-3-201 (g) (2) of the Mt. Juliet City Code Privilege Tax Levied (Hotel/Motel Tax) Sponsor: Vice Mayor Ed Hagerty (3/24/08 – vote was 2 – 2, Justice absent) (4/14/08 – passed 1st Reading, 3 – 2)
D	Ordinance	Re:	Amend Ethics Ordinance – Board Members Sponsor: Commissioner Ray Justice (4/14/08 – deferred)

Item C is the much talked about amendment to the hotel/motel tax, so that the money can be used to purchase the old elementary school property from the county and give it to the YMCA.

Not quit sure still what Item D is about. Anybody seen the actual proposed ordinance?

Under new business, we have this:

C.

Ordinance

Re:

Amend Title 1 – Board of Commissioners meeting times and order of business Sponsor: Commissioner Ray Justice

Don’t know whether Commissioner Justice is following through on his plan to move citizen comments to the end of the meeting or not.

– Publius

Headlines from The Chronicle and The Mt. Juliet News, March 26, 2008

from The Chronicle:

Concerned citizen claims City staffer attacked
inside headline: Citizen concerns prompt investigation
‘Falsified documents, unreported crimes’ surround alleged attack on city employee
RFMJ frequent commenter Chris Sorey took the microphone during citizen comments on two topics (he had to have the rules suspended so he could take up the second one when he ran over his alloted three minutes). “Chris Sorey alleged retaliation had been used against a former employee in the storm water department.” We don’t think you mean “former” did you Chris? Chris’s second charge concerned an alleged assault against a city building inspector by a building contractor. It’s not clear what his concern is from the story, but we’re sure he’ll let us know.

Another “hot topic” on the agenda was whether to require sprinkler systems in new residential construction. [the bad puns are killing us!]

Tempers flared at the commission table when the issue of the City purchase of the old MJ Elementary School property resurfaced.

Commissioner Jim Bradshaw asked if anyone on the commission had a “conflict of interest.” Bradshaw would not elaborate on what he meant, but Commissioner Will Sellers took offense, his face reddening.

The ordinance to use the proceeds of the hotel/motel tax to purchase the MJES property failed to pass on a 2-2 tie (commissioner Justice had to leave for work)

The Mayor’s ordinance to begin planning a new police station on the Paddocks property failed for lack of a second – much to the annoyance of the Mayor.

Curd Road improvements could start in 45 days
[but it won’t be open for traffic for at least a year. The new high school opens in five months.]

MJ welcomes new planner at commission meeting
[and says goodbye to planning attorney Louis Oliver]

from the Mt. Juliet News:

Proposed sprinklers in new homes sparks debate
[nobody can resist the bad puns, it seems]

It’s morning in Mt. Juliet, says Elam
[but it’s a cold bitter morning!]

Crews to break ground on safe passage to MJHS
Officials scramble to put together a traffic plan until road is complete
[whole lot of scrambling going on!]

MJ Commissioners adopt Vision Statement for city
[we can’t bring ourselves to print it. Apparently the vision statement doesn’t include making the vision statement available on the City’s web site]

Commissioners ‘redo’ vote to buy old school site; officers concerned issue of new police precinct might be ‘political pawn’
[best lines: “The commissioners continued snipping at each other over the issue..” and “Ray Justice’s ire was raised,” and “With all the bickering, are there any plans for a new police station?” asked police commander Michael Mullins.]

– Publius

What’s wrong with the YMCA deal

The Y’s own survey research shows that only 10% of the households in Mt. Juliet will ever join.

It’s not just that the Mt. Juliet City Commission is GIVING eight acres of valuable land to the YMCA.

It’s that they’re BUYING eight acres of land to GIVE to the YMCA.

It’s not just that they’re BUYING eight acres of land to GIVE to the YMCA.

It’s that they’re BORROWING money in order to BUY eight acres of land to GIVE to the YMCA.

. . . for a facility that will be used by 10% of the households in Mt. Juliet.

And they can’t even get the procedural details right. They’ve voted on an ordinance three times now. They still don’t own the land. They still don’t have a signed contract with Wilson County. And they’re going to have to negotiate and approve a contract with the YMCA.

Is this what the citizens of Mt. Juliet want?

– Publius

Mt. Juliet City Commission violates its own rules (again) – UPDATED

We noted in a story last week, that the newspapers were reporting an upcoming debate on requiring sprinkler systems in all new residential construction. There was no way to tell last week from the city website whether or not the sprinkler ordinance was going to be on the agenda, because the City hadn’t posted the agenda.

The Mt. Juliet City Commission meets tonight – and the City still has not posted the agenda (as of 10:00 am). This is not just an inconvenience to the citizens, it’s a violation of the City’s own rules.

“The proposed ordinances and resolutions to be included on the agenda will be placed, in abbreviated caption form, on the City Web Site and caused to be placed on the Intermedia Cable Program by the Tuesday immediately preceding the meeting of the Board of Commissioners.” Resolution 5-99 passed on Feb 16, 1999.

Beyond keeping citizens in the dark (a favorite tactic of former Mayor David Waynick), the failure to follow their own rules means the City may have failed to give proper notice for the items on its agenda tonight.

It’s sloppy, it’s incompetent, and it betrays a cavalier attitude towards the rules. But then, all of that has been typical for this City Commission.

– Publius

UPDATE: Well, at least SOMEBODY is reading Radio Free Mt. Juliet! Sometime after 10:00am this morning, the City belatedly added a link to the agenda for tonight’s City Commission meeting. A “Discussion” of the Sprinkler Ordinance is on the agenda. So is a “Discussion” of the City’s Vision Statement (we note with interest that the Vision Statement discussion has been deferred twice).

Also of interest are agenda items G & H:

G.	Discussion	Re:	Correction to 2006-14 – Paddocks Sponsor: City Manager Randy Robertson (3/10/08 – Deferred one meeting)
H.	Ordinance	Re:	Re-approve the purchase of the old Mt. Juliet Elementary School Property and donate 8 acres to the YMCA Sponsor: City Manager Randy Robertson

Apparently, they’re still trying to correct the confused record on the Paddocks approval and they’ve realized that there was a procedural defect when they amended the YMCA grant at the last minute to increase the acreage from 5.5 acres to 8 acres.

Headlines from the Mt. Juliet News and The Chronicle, March 12, 2008

from The Mt. Juliet News:

Commission super sizes land donation to YMCA; deal clinched
[deal clinched? Maybe, maybe not. Turns out there’s a little bit of TCA that doesn’t allow a city to increase the size of a grant between 1st & 2nd reading. When Commissioner Ray Justice sponsored an amendment to increase the size of the donation to the YMCA from 5.5 to 8 acres, according to TCA they should have started over again and treat last Monday nights ordinance as first reading. The deal can probably still be clinched, assuming three commissioners are still in favor of it, but its a shame that the Mayor (who is an attorney), the City Attorney (who is an attorney) and the other four Commissioners (none of whom are exactly rookies) still don’t understand how to conduct business properly at their meetings. The City Manager has some excuse. He’s never been a City Manager in Tennessee before. He’s only had a few months to pick this stuff up. Its a crazy idea, but they can’t even procedurally do it right]

And now Commissioner Justice is talking about using the remaining four acres on the old MJES to build a new police department. Wonder if the City of Mt. Juliet will ever build a road again?

Peace along railroad back on track
[the Quiet Zone is back on the table. Quiet Zone = the train NOT blowing a whistle at every grade crossing. All it took was a meeting with the RTA (the agency that runs the commuter trains) & the TML (who provide the City’s liability insurance) to sort things out. The new City Manager put this one on hold back last fall shortly after arriving when someone mentioned the word “liability” to him at a meeting in Nashville. One can understand why he would be concerned. The blame for dropping the ball rests squarely with the Mayor and her two allied Commissioners who decided to switch City Managers in the middle of the project]

from The Chronicle:

Old MJES  site approved for YMCA donation
[same story as above – the two newspaper accounts don’t differ much at all]

The City Commission did have two interesting “discussion items on their agenda: 1) a city of Mt. Juliet “vision statement” (we can hardly wait!) and 2) correction to an ordinance concerning Paddocks Plance (that two should be interesting). Both items were deferred due to the late hour.

– Publius

The YMCA story in last week’s Chronicle (March 5, 2008)

I know… that was last week! Deal with it!

from The Chronicle of Mt. Juliet:

YMCA land donation challenged by officials

Challenged? The quotes do sound like they’re challenging the donation. Which raises the interesting question of why elected officials would be opposed to a landowner donating land to the YMCA? Is there more going on here than meets the eye?

Dr. Kaelin’s comments were interesting. He’s concerned a) why “the city seems to be in such a hurry,” b) why is the City using $950k slated to correct Curd Road to buy land for the YMCA, and c) why is the city “cramming” the YMCA into 5.5 acres.

Commissioner Ray Justice (who represents the Little League on the Mt. Juliet City Commission) transparently hopes the YMCA turns down Dr. Kaelin’s offer and that Dr. Kaelin will then “offer the land to the youth sports organizations in our community.”

Commissioner Will Sellers (who represents Willoughby Station) said, “The Y looked at that area last year and had many concerns.”

Commissioner Ed Hagerty (who used to represent Davy Crockett and MJ penny-pinchers) said, “the old MJES site was identified as the number one site.”

Commissioner Jim Bradshaw (who represents Belinda City) said, “Mt. Juliet already has a Y – I went to the ribbon cutting already.”

City Manager Randy Robertson could not be reached for comment.

And Mayor Linda Elam is not mentioned in the article (what’s up with that?).

hmmmm…….

The question remains, “Why would elected officials challenge the land donation?”

– Publius