Justice for none

The News Sentinel reports this morning that Judge Blackwood, in a re-run of an earlier election hearing, yesterday denied Joe Lee’s petition to void the results of the 7th District County Commission race based upon errors and complications that occurred in the race that Lee lost to John Shuey by one vote.

It was essentially a repeat of the ruling in David Stuart’s earlier case, with a couple of twists: Lee’s attorney had affadavits from three people who had stood in line long enough to obtain ballot applications, but had to leave before reaching the end of the line to vote. All three swore that they planned to vote for Lee, which would have given him a two-vote victory.

Unlike the individuals who allegedly threatened election officials to obtain paper ballots, these three were not given the opportunity to vote by alternate means.

Lee’s attorney also presented that the vote tally, machine results, and certified results did not match, but echoing his earlier ruling in the Stuart case, Blackwood opined that absent evidence of fraud, errors and ommissions don’t matter.

Neither candidate sought to have the result reversed; each asked only for a re-vote in November. A firm precedent exists in the 7th District County Commission race from just four years ago, and the November repeat yielded a solid victory for Jerry Creasey.

If the law only applies when fraud can be proven, why should election commissions anywhere follow an inconvenient law? For that matter, why should anyone?
I respectfully disagree with Judge Blackwood, and hope that both Stuart and Lee pursue appeal.

Must-read

Anotherthing2’s been on a roll this week: check it out. Like AT2, my focus is on football this evening — not the apocalypse, war, famine, hurricanes, or any of that extraneous stuff.

That, and Alpha’s coming home for the weekend… her first return in a month (except for dinner on Labor Day).

There’s been a lot of offline feedback on a couple of this week’s posts: three congratulating me on scooping the Oak Ridger (Pshew-ee!), and two asking me to expand Educational Improvement into a guest column for one of the local dead tree editions.

I’ll think up something controversial later, but for now, GO WILDCATS!

All in a day’s work

Yippee! Thanks to Daco’s good luck charm — the phone number of a real person at UPS– my long-awaited new laptop arrived yesterday at 5:25 p.m. (I had to leave at 5:30). I didn’t even have to call… just the option to do so was enough.

It’s light. It’s fast. It has little niceities like a slot for my camera card, so when I forget the Nikon-specific cable, I don’t have to go buy a new one like I did last Summer. The wireless is internal, so I don’t have to worry about a PCMCIA card sticking out the side, waiting to break off. The USB ports are 2.0, so it won’t take as long to back up as the old one did.

The experience is a decidedly mixed blessing, though: while I ordered it on Friday and received it on Wednesday (good show of agile manufacturing), it isn’t perfect. Before ordering, I called and was heartily assured by a Dell consultant that the Dell 1500 (802.11n) internal wireless card would definitely work with a Belkin pre-n router.

Not.

Also, when I key in my service tag number on the Dell support website (useful for things like bios upgrades, driver updates, and battery recall notices), I get some weird error message about this being a machine sold outside the country.

Funny, the UPS tracking slip shows that it was manufactured in Nashville, and went straight from there to here.

The entire day was spent 1) loading the 16Gb of stuff I can’t live without from the backup of my old system, deleting all the garbage (AOL, Google Desktop, etc.) they ship on it, while bouncing around between a couple of folks at Dell and five at Belkin.

TIP: Linksys has the world’s greatest tech support, and they’re open 24/7. Belkin tech support speaks with a heavy Mexican accent (until you get to level 2, anyway) keeps California banker’s hours, and couldn’t fix it.

I strongly suspect that the Dell 1500 wireless adapter is simply incompatible with the Belkin router, even though both are pre-n. If this is the case, Dell has agreed to send a new card for me to install.

Left with the choices of 1) buy a Belkin 802.11-g USB adapter, or 2) rig something from what I have lying around the house, I chose the cheap option to tide me over. As it turns out, an old Linksys 802.11-b wireless access point cabled into the back of the Belkin provides enough of a signal for me to work on the deck.

That’s all I want… I want to be able to go outside, where I can think.

Only now, I can publish what I think so much faster… which might or might not be a good thing.

Educational Improvement

This morning, the Nashville City Paper carried a story about a new initiative proposed by the governor: that every student scoring at least a 19 on the ACT could attend any of Tennessee’s community colleges at no cost.   The purpose is to motivate students to stay in school, raising the graduation rate.

I first heard this news last night from Gary Nixon, Executive Director of the State Board of Education, at the TSBA Fall District Meeting at Scott County High School.  However, Nixon brought along some more sobering statistics on the level of high school coursework and ACT performance required to secure “zone 3” employment — jobs that do not require a college degree, but that provide an income sufficient to sustain a family of four (about $39,000 per year).

According to Nixon, an analysis by the College Board determined that the threshold for success either as a college freshman, or as a candidate for “zone 3” employment, are the same: an ACT science score of 24, math score of 22, English score of 18, and at least a 21 in reading.  The College Board also provided a listing of high school coursework generally required to achieve those scores, which for math and science, exceed State requirements: biology, chemistry and physics for the science portion, along with Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Trig.

It’s not just the number of hours that makes the difference, but the actual courses taken.  Physics is the big predictor in the science score, he said, because it has a strong tie to math and logic, boosting both scores.  Most kids don’t take physics in high school; many never take trig — the requirement is simply three years of math, and passing the Algebra I gateway exam (which most Oak Ridge students easily pass in the 8th grade).

The State Board of Ed is seriously considering requiring math all four years, so that students don’t slack off in their senior year.  They’ve also debated adding reading classes to every year of school, K-12.

The Legislature continually talks about adding more mandatory PE classes, “personal finance” curriculum, and other wellness-type coursework.

School board members are wondering where we’re going to fit in all these new requirements — will school go until 5 p.m.?  Will they drop some other requirements?  Will our students be able to take any elective courses at all?

Board members in areas not blessed with the wealth of math and science talent that Oak Ridge has are asking, “where will we find all these new math and science teachers, since they have to have a degree in their subject area (in addition to teaching certification)?

Statewide, of every 100 9th graders, 35 will pursue postsecondary education.  Half of those will require developmental (remedial) courses in college.  About 16 will graduate in 150% of the expected time (3 years for an AA or AS, 6 years for a BS or BA).  The numbers are dismal; if we are to improve our economic standing and quality of life, we must find a way to raise the bar.

Is it possible to require more rigorous courses and raise the graduation rate at the same time?  I think it is, but it will require change going back to the middle grades, 5-8, to ensure that high school students are adequately prepared for more rigorous courses.  And, that change may well have some impact on AYP, or “adequate yearly progress,” as defined by No Child Left Behind.

While opportunity for all is a wonderful concept (as is “no child left behind”), we’re faced with evidence that a 19 on the ACT is neither sufficient preparation for college, nor for a job that produces a decent living wage.  While I applaud Governor Bredesen for his ambitious goal of sending everyone to college, I believe that we must first ensure that they’re adequately prepared — whether for work or higher education.

That will mean increasing funding for K-12 first.  It can be done.

Pshew-eee! County payroll fails the sniff test

It’s your money, and you have a right to know how it’s being used.
Each court in Anderson County (which, by itself, comprises the 7th Judicial District) has a bailiff. He’s the guy who says “all arise,” and generally keeps order in the courtroom.

Four of the bailiffs are simply employees of the sheriff’s department, and their salaries accounted for as such: Mark Tackett, BH Barker, Steve Gordon, and John McCulley.

Two bailiffs — those working for Judges Murch and Layton in the General Sessions Courts — are paid out of multiple sources, including General Sessions, Sheriff’s dept., Probation, and Buildings & Grants. Colon McCarty, who is not a sheriff’s department employee and is therefore unarmed in Judge Layton’s courtroom, is paid from the General Sessions fund and the probation department funds, plus $3,000 to work the driving school on Hwy 61 twice per month. John Shuey is paid from three different sources: Sheriff, Probation, and Buildings & Grants (and now, by one vote, also draws a County Commissioner’s salary).

Shuey earns $13,373.38 more than the next-highest paid of the group, thanks to $17,496 kicked in from the Buildings & Grants fund, courtesy of his buddy, Alan Beauchamp.

The payroll records are here.

Gee, I wonder how Shuey will vote on matters pertaining to Beauchamp’s department — both the sunsetted Probation Department, and the ongoing Buildings & Grants line item?

After he was elected the first time in 1998, County Mayor Rex Lynch told me personally that Beauchamp would have no budget and no employees. In 2002, he asked me why I don’t like him: I responded that I don’t dislike him — I distrust him, because he has lied to me.

This was only the first of several. My level of trust in him is unlikely to change, but for his own sake, you’d think he’d have learned by now that cronyism is a bad way to do business, and people will find out the truth.

9/11 and Economics

Today’s WSJ has an interesting page 1 article: Economic Fears After 9/11 Proved Mostly Unfounded. It begins as follows:

After terrorists attacked the U.S. five years ago, many worried that the economy would lose its hard-won vitality. Companies would need to hire security staff instead of production workers, build up costly inventories and face delays as goods moved across tightened borders.

This is what has happened instead: The number of security guards on business and government payrolls has declined, companies are holding less inventory, and the amount of freight moving though the nation’s ports has soared. Not only has the economy grown, it has become more efficient. And office construction in downtown New York and Washington has continued.

I don’t know that I, as a consumer, feel the economic warm-fuzziness, but that’s most likely a result of other personal factors — two of us are driving much newer vehicles than we used to (and four of us now drive, as opposed to two, pre-9/11), we began about then the practice of taking the family on a big ski trip every year, and we’ve now taken on college costs for one child.

Oh — and I quit my job about midway through the last five years. Freelancing is a wonderful thing, but it requires a couple of disciplines that a “real job” does not: finding work, and getting used to the fact that paychecks do not come on certain days (or even certain months). Actually doing the work has never been a problem, since I just take on the kinds of work that I enjoy doing to begin with.

The WSJ piece points out that one of the mitigating factors is that US businesses have invested in technology for a number of years, which enabled them to embrace the philosphies of agile manufacturing and just-in-time delivery.

U.S. businesses, on average, held inventories equal to a bit more than 43 days’ worth of sales in mid-2001, just before the terrorist attacks. If businesses had decided to build up stocks as a buffer against supply disruptions, the ratio of inventories to sales would have risen. Instead, it fell to under 38 days by mid-2006, as companies used new technology and new business practices to hold less on their shelves for every dollar of sales.

That much is evident to me, even as one lowly and budget-conscious consumer.

Yesterday, I ordered a new laptop, as mine is now nearly four years old and is a bit slow in operations requiring a lot of processing power (high end graphics editing is the best example). The new machine features the brand-new Intel Core 2 Duo processors (30% faster on half the power), along with the usual complement of features that are now standard, like a memory card-reader built-in for my camera, an internal pre-n standard wireless card, DVD writable drive, etc.

The whole package cost a couple hundred less than the one I’m using now, despite being lighter, faster, and with more features. The online order was confirmed by Dell at 12:16 yesterday afternoon, and when I checked this morning, they’d already finished the custom build and the box is in testing. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have it by the end of next week.

That means Alpha gets this one, which is entirely fast enough for the limits of her needs for this year. The ancient Sony Vaio she’s now using will go to one of the younger kids (who also have a fairly new and fast desktop when they need it).

We really have improved efficiency in the face of financial, political, and security uncertainties. We’re going to be just fine.

Young man going places

Recently-elected County Commissioner David L. Bolling is a young man on the move: just a week after being sworn in to his first full term on County Commission (he served the remaining few months of his father’s term last year), the Oak Ridger reports that he has been named the new City Manager of Oliver Springs.

Public service experience in County government, financial expertise, a degree in management, plus experience as a city manager… looks like a good candidate for higher office at some point. Like maybe County Mayor?

Yes, I do know him, and think quite highly of him. Oliver Springs is getting a good deal.

Observer Today!

Want to see a 98-yard touchdown, slam-dunk, knock-it-out-of-the-park home run all at once? Go right now and get a copy of the Oak Ridge Observer (if you lacked the foresight to subscribe and have it delivered, that is). It’s free — no excuses!

Turn to page 10 and read the guest column, “Oak Ridge Schools deserve stronger funding,” by Jacob Kilpatrick. Then read it again.

If Mr. Kilpatrick should read this, thank you. People like you make me really happy to call Oak Ridge home.

Local Government 101: a citizen’s guide (day 1)

The forum on the Oak Ridger’s website is often entertaining, sometimes frustrating, but usually thought provoking; reading comments from the past couple of days on the “Have you been schooled” thread reminded me that the most common cause of citizen frustration with local government stems from not knowing where to go for information or action.

Knowledge is power; an informed constituency is the most powerful force for good government.

** Preface: The following information begins that the beginning. I recognize that many in this community could jury a dissertation on this subject, and if you are one, please do not take offense at the simplified format.
Lesson 1.1: Be courteous. The people you contact, whether elected officials, city or school system administrators or employees, are subject to the same emotions as anyone else (although we learn to hold it in check most of the time), so you’re much more likely to get productive results if you do not initiate the conversation with an insult or accusation.

Lesson 1.2: Understand the roles and responsibilities of elected officials and staff. The role of the School Board is to set policy and allocate resources in accordance through adopting the budget; similarly, the role of the City Council is to set policy for the City, adopt a budget allocating resources in support of its policies. Included in the City Council’s policy responsibilities are things like adopting local ordinances (laws), appointing citizens to various boards like the Planning Commission, and so forth.

It is the job of the City Manager, Jim O’Connor, to implement the budget and policies adopted by Council, which includes managing the departments and personnel. Likewise, the Director of Schools (also known as Superintendent), Tom Bailey, implements the policies and budget adopted by the School Board, and is accountable for all the schools and staff.

Both City Council and the School board have only one employee each: the City Manager, and the Director of Schools, respectively. The School Board does not hire (or fire) teachers, principals, coaches, or custodians; the City Council does not hire (or fire) department heads (fire chief, police chief, etc.) nor employees in any city department.

Both the City Manager and the Director of Schools have a great deal of authority over personnel, primarily through the respective department heads.

1.2(a): Finance. The school system receives approximately one-fourth of its general purpose education funding from the City of Oak Ridge. The School Board has no taxing authority, and must rely on the will of City Council to fund our local school system (above State and County funding levels) according to the justification of needs presented by the Board in the budget. In turn, City Council cannot dictate how that money will be used, as appropriating funds within the school system is the job of the School Board.

City Council must balance the needs of the school system with needs of other city departments and services. If necessary, they have the authority to increase the property tax rate to meet the combined needs.

Lesson 1.3: Follow the chain of command first – it usually works much better and faster.
Generally, speak first to the individual with whom you have a problem or disagreement. If the situation cannot be resolved or the person is unresponsive to reasonable efforts to contact them, go next to that person’s immediate supervisor.

  • School system chain of command and contact info (quick reference)
  • City government chain of command and contact info (coming soon)

Live Wire

At the City Council meeting on Sept. 25, one of the items for consideration is a 2.5% reduction in electric rates — following a 4.5% drop in the wholesale rate charged to the City by TVA.

Overall, TVA raised rates 17.45% last year. At the Council meeting where local rates were raised, I remember there being explicit clarification that the increase was a direct pass-through of the wholesale increase. Why then, not a direct pass-through of the wholesale decrease? The explanation provided by Janice McGinnis in yesterday’s Oak Ridger was this:

Oak Ridge’s proposed rate reductions are smaller than the approved TVA reductions because wholesale power costs do not account for all retail power costs, McGinnis said.

Also, Oak Ridge officials want to keep about 1 percent of the rate reduction to cover their costs, she said.

I’d be reallly interested in a more detailed explanation of the city’s costs, and what they plan to do with the extra 1% they’ll use “to cover their costs.” Shouldn’t that be 2%, since that’s the difference between TVA’s lower rate and the proposed decrease for Oak Ridgers?

She also alluded to a difference in the actual rate reduction for residential and commercial users, which makes me wonder how the school system is classified (being neither residential nor commerical), and how much of a decrease we might see. To be certain, any decrease in costs is most welcome in this tight budget year, but the schools have seen the short end of the stick before. And, the huge jump in energy prices was one of the big hairy monsters in this year’s budget… one we’d like to get away from now with Payless Power.

I realize that watching City Council meetings is almost as boring as watching School Board meetings, but it’s your money. It might pay to pay attention to this one.

FOOTNOTE: Oak Ridge Schools has budgeted $1,081,763 for electricity usage this year.  A 2.5% decrease would yield a savings of about $27,044 — about a quarter-mil short of replacing the lost bus service (just in case you were wondering).