Last night, City Council recessed their budget work session when it was apparent that Channel 12 had to leave just prior to 7 p.m. to accommodate paid programming back at their studio. I commend the Council for their decision to wait and hold further financial presentations until a time when they can be broadcast for all to see.<\/p>\n
Open government is a much better process for everyone. It protects officeholders from false accusation, since everyone can see what really happened.<\/p>\n
* * * As a matter of fact (two school board members and one member of the general public have confirmed this), Abbatiello was given a detailed answer to his question about the number of new students and staff — the question he referenced in last night’s meeting as not having been answered — by Assistant Superintendent Ken Green, at the same meeting where the question was originally posed.<\/p>\n I guess that’s why those meetings are held in a small room, not televised, and are scheduled at times when many cannot attend. Three school board members (myself included) and the Superintendent were at a NSBA meeting in San Francisco when the Budget & Tax Committee discussed the schools’ request. The League of Women Voters’ Candidate Forum<\/a> for City Council and Board of Education candidate<\/a>s is tonight, 6:30 p.m., in the auditorium at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge. I found a bit of irony in the fact that the COR group (opposing Crestpointe in the June 5 ballot measure) scheduled their meeting at exactly the same time in a different location; it gives the impression that local governance isn’t important to them.<\/p>\n The candidates may be just as happy to have the hecklers otherwise occupied. In Nashville, the House K-12 Subcommittee<\/a> takes up a bunch of bills<\/a> this morning, including HB0303<\/a> (McCormick) that would immediately convert us to the Fiscal Capacity Prototype<\/a> devised by TACIR — an utter and complete financial disaster for most school systems in Tennessee. It’s designed to force consolidation to only one school system per county across the state, through financial deprivation. I hope it dies a swift and sudden death, in light of the fact that Gov. Bredesen is in the process of announcing<\/a> his own BEP proposal.<\/p>\n I confess that I don’t know the specifics of his proposal, but word got back to me on Friday that "Oak Ridge would be happy." Not that I want to appear cynical, but I won’t be comfortable until I see it for myself. I do confess some significant apprehension about basing the Oak Ridge Schools’ FY08 budget<\/a> on proposals that haven’t yet been approved by the Legislature, which is showing all the signs of going long this year. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night, City Council recessed their budget work session when it was apparent that Channel 12 had to leave just prior to 7 p.m. to accommodate paid programming back at their studio. I commend the Council for their decision to … Continue reading
A more open process would have been helpful in the Budget & Tax committee<\/a> meeting of April 17<\/a>. Even though the meeting was open to the public and a few did attend, it wasn’t televised, and there’s a heated dispute now brewing over Councilman Abbatiello’s statement in last night’s work session that "the school board refused to answer" his questions.<\/p>\n
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