A Personal Appeal Just For You
Mike Krause needs a big TeeVee like candidates need cash:
After the flurry of pre-deadline fundraising emails, am considering starting my own campaign to fund much needed new Sony 42′ TV.
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Are You Embarrassed Now?
I am. From Mike Krause:
Wish the news would cover the death of two soldiers in Iraq the way they do Michael Jackson. RIP: Sgt. Ricky Jones and Spc. Rodrigo Rivas
Kraus Sues Oak Hill
Bill Kraus, Oak Hill’s former city manager, is suing Mayor Tommy Alsup, the city of Oak Hill, commissioner Austin McMullen and city attorney Robert J. Notestine for violation of rights surrounding the circumstances of his termination/coerced retirement.
See the full legal document here.
Previous coverage available here.
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A Name Clearing Hearing
For former Oak Hill City Manager Bill Kraus.
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Should Obama Risk His Political Capital In Georgia?
Josh Kraushaar makes the case against:
It would be a huge gamble for Obama to put so much political capital on the line before he is even inaugurated. Historically, African-American turnout in the Peach State during non-presidential elections is low and even a high-profile Obama visit wouldn’t guarantee that black voters would show up to support a little-known Senate candidate.
Obama has been notably reticent so far to campaign for downballot candidates. As the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza notes, the Obama campaign’s “trickiest political problems was dealing with other Democrats who wanted Obama to campaign for them and spend money on their races.”
He only cut one television advertisement for a Congressional nominee, Oregon Senator-elect Jeff Merkley (D), and that was largely in response to Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) airing ads connecting himself to Obama. He only recorded a handful of radio ads for downballot candidates as well.
Another risk for Obama is that there’s some serious voter fatigue among Georgia Democrats. Democrats have already voted three times in the Senate race– once in the primary, once in a primary runoff and in the November general election.
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Did Matt Drudge Play The Race Card?
Stephen Kraus says yes.
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The Search For One Eyed Willy
The satellite city of Oak Hill is currently in search of a new City Manager despite the fact the old one still maintains he holds the job:
The candidates so far are Oak Hill residents Lynn Fuson, 56, and Rick Sinclair, 57, and Lebanon resident Robert Shearer, 53.
Vice Mayor Austin McMullen said no one will fill the position without a background check, something the Oak Hill never conducted on Kraus.
Kraus stepped down in June after soliciting votes for the most recent commissioner’s election. He tried rescinding his retirement, saying he shouldn’t have agreed to leave the position during a meeting with Mayor Tommy Alsup.
Kraus said he still plans to be reinstated in the position and has consulted an attorney.
Made Man
The Oak Hill Gazette doesn’t believe that Oak Hill Vice Mayor Austin McMullen is truly his own man:
Now we are willing to accept McMullen’s statements as the truth. The problem is that McMullen’s statement is only half of the truth.
The other half of the truth that McMullen failed to mention is that according to the Davidson County Republican Party website, McMullen is the chair of Region III. And McMullen’s “boss” the chair of the Davidson County Republican Party, is none other than City of Oak Hill power broker, Tom Lawless.
Let’s face it. McMullen popped up out of the woodwork, then challenged Kraus and the rest City of Oak Hill establishment…and won! At McMullen’s young age that was a very impressive feat by anybody’s standards.
There is no question that McMullen is a very talented politician and attorney. He graduated college with nearly straight A’s. There is little doubt that McMullen is one of a very few people his age being groomed to be a future Governor of the State of Tennessee . And it is McMullen’s political ambition that should make one question his affiliation with Tom Lawless, who also chairs the City of Oak Hill Board of Zoning Appeals.
Through the eyes of City of Oak Hill Commissioner Austin McMullen , the road the Governor’s office runs directly through Tom Lawless.
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Naming Names: TNGOP and Democratic Leader Want To Know Whose Info Was Accessed By Politically Connected Trooper
The Tennessee Republican Party joins Democratic state House Majority Leader Gary Odom in requesting an investigation into the developing scandal surrounding unauthorized background checks made by a state trooper with a political history. The Party believes that records may have been accessed for political purposes:
It seems there is was not a coincidence that the information about Oak Hill City Manager, Dr. William Kraus, was released publicly about his background immediately after the citizens of Oak Hill challenged Governor Phil Bredesen on the waste of taxpayer money to build an underground entertainment facility at the Executive Residence.
The Oak Hill Slideshow
The Oak Hill Gazette posts the full PowerPoint presentation by Oak Hill Mayor Tommy Alsup designed to refute accusations made by Commissioner Chip Throckmorton, former City Manager Bill Kraus and others at a forum for citizens at the Woodland Hills Church Of Christ.
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What You Talkin’ About, Oak Hill?
Oak Hill Vice Mayor Austin McMullen thinks the citizens requesting an investigation of the City of Oak Hill by Metro District Attorney are up in arms about not a whole lot:
After The Tennessean went to press Wednesday evening, McMullen and Mayor Tommy Alsup returned calls requesting comment on a request for an investigation of the Oak Hill government that dozens of residents made to District Attorney General Victor Johnson III.
The Tennessean caught up with McMullen by phone on Thursday. Asked about the letter requesting an investigation, he said the matter is “in the hands of the district attorney as to what he wants to do about that.”
But McMullen said he has read the letter, and “I’m not really sure what they’re talking about.”
“I’m not aware of the sort of wrongdoing that they’re talking about in the letter. Where I’ve heard specific allegations, I’ve tried my best to look into those to see if there was any wrongdoing, and what I’ve found so far leads me to believe that there isn’t any wrongdoing,” he said.
As to allegations of wrongdoing in letters that Kraus has circulated around Oak Hill, McMullen said he couldn’t address those because of the possibility of litigation.
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In The Name Of The Father: NewsChannel5’s Jennifer Kraus Speaks Out At Oak Hill Forum
Oak Hill residents hoping for a reprise of the shouting matches at the last Board of Commissioners meeting at last night’s Mayoral Forum may have come away slightly disappointed.
The meeting, called by Mayor Tommy Alsup to address the concerns of Oak Hill residents in the wake of the disputed resignation of Bill Kraus and accusations of a “shadow government” by one of Oak Hill’s Commissioners, was a much needed political maneuver on the part of the embattled mayor.
In a methodical, bullet by bullet, PowerPoint presentation, Alsup addressed many of the allegations leveled against him. Alsup defended the infrequent, yet controversial practice of issuing checks from the City of Oak Hill bearing only one signature, his. Alsup projected onto two screens in the Woodland Hills Church Of Christ auditorium checks, also bearing only one signature, checks signed by Bill Kraus as well as some by former Mayor and current Commissioner Chip Throckmorton. Both are Alsup detractors.
Alsup also defended his hiring as a consultant, lobbyist Rob Ikard, to repair relationships with state officials outside of Oak Hill which had been damaged by Oak Hill’s prominent opposition to the so-called Bredesen Bunker.
However, the highlight of the evening’s festivities was the appearance of NewsChannel5 Anchor and Investigative Journalist Jennifer Kraus, daughter of former City Manager Bill Kraus. Kraus the Father was not at the forum on the advice of counsel, John Herbison, who has reportedly sent a letter requesting that Kraus be reinstated as City Manager.
Despite the absence of both him and his attorney, his side of the story was not without representation.
While Mayor Alsup repeatedly demurred from answering questions from the audience about the retirement of the City Manager citing the advice of counsel, Kraus the Daughter seemed less restrained.
Appearing at the forum as a “private citizen and resident of Oak Hill”, Kraus expressed “deep appreciation and gratitude” for the support of her father by many in the community and said that her father would “strongly disagree” with much of the defense Mayor Alsup had laid out.
Kraus took issue, in fact, with the very nature of the gathering. She told the assembled Oak Hill citizens, in a cautionary tone, that this forum was not a “public meeting” on the record like other Board of Commissioner meetings and as such nothing being said or done was either official or binding.
Kraus asserted that Mayor Alsup was in the wrong when, she says, he took unilateral action in a meeting with her father about his resignation leaving the other two commissioners out of loop. Kraus contended that the law is not in any way clear on whether a City Manager can endorse and contribute to a candidate for Commissioner.
Kraus the Father’s signature on a post card supporting incumbent Tommy Jacobs, as well as his financial donation, was the stick Alsup is allegedly to have held over his head when he resigned.
The law seems to be ambiguous as to whether Kraus’s action was or was not permissible. The oft-cited part of the state code T.C.A § 6-21-106 would seem to support the assumption that the Kraus was in the wrong in supporting Jacobs. A competing code, T.C.A § 7-51-1501 would seem to say the opposite. And the code on what to do when the codes contradict each other, um, I don’t even what to talk about.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that, while the Oak Hill Charter reads exactly as T.C.A. § 6-21-106 does, the commission passed a ordinance in 1998 (similar in language to the wording at this link) which seems more in line with T.C.A. § 7-51-1501.
Regardless of the legality of the action, Kraus the Daughter argued that there was never a board vote either firing or officially accepting her father’s resignation so that, having rescinded his retirement, her father is still the City Manager of Oak Hill.
Alsup repeated what he has maintained all along, that Kraus was not forced to retire and that other Commissioners were kept apprised of his actions. However, Alsup stopped short of a full point-by-point rebuttal of Kraus, again, citing advice of counsel.
“I’ve already ventured too far,” Alsup explained to the crowd in his response to Ms. Kraus.
Oak Hill Mayor Forum Tonight
From the Oak Hill Gazette:
Mayor, Tommy Alsup, will address the citizens and stakeholders of the City of Oak Hill tonight and the Woodmont Hills Church. The forum will start at 7 p.m
Alsup will attempt to put an end to all the misinformation that has been circulating throughout the City of Oak Hill in recent months. Hopefully, he will also admit to a few mistakes.
Please keep in mind, this is not a “Kraus” meeting. Mayor Alsup has stated that “were moving on”.
Please understand that Mayor Alsup is having to deal with a unique set of circumstances. He didn’t create the problems that currently exist in the City of Oak Hill. Unfortunately, Alsup is having to deal with a myriad of problems he inherited from the previous Mayor.
Now granted, there some situations and decisions he could have handled better. However, the lessons learned over the past year will enable Alsup to be a better Mayor going forward.
Remember we are all neighbors, so let’s be respectful and agree to disagree on a few issues.
Armour Alsup
The Oak Hill Gazette questions the city of Oak Hill’s expeditures on public relations:
Commissioner Throckmorton asserts that Alsup paid the firm of Armour and Armour $11,400 for consultation related to the Kraus retirement. In both cases Alsup had acted without a public vote from the commission. There were two invoices that totaled $11,400. The first invoice was for $3600 for “services” provided June 13-18, 2008. The second one was for ’services” provided June 20-24, 2008.
According to Throckmorton most of the above mentioned checks were signed by Alsup without a required second signature
The total amount paid to Armour and Armour in the month of June was close to $30,000 depending on who you speak with. The City of Oak Hill paid a “so called” consultant Rob Ikard $15,000. In is unclear what he did, if anything, to earn that money.
Dead By Election Day
Some states will throw out your ballot if you die before the votes are counted:
Steen was confined to a hospice bed in Rapid City, S.D., when she was brought an absentee ballot weeks before the June 3 primary. She studied it a long time, then marked her choice with such determination her daughter feared she would poke through the paper.
Steen died on Mother’s Day. With a heavy heart, her daughter took the ballot and dropped it in a mailbox. “In my mind, her vote counted,” Krause said. “My mother believed she had voted for a woman to be president.”
But the women down at the county courthouse told Krause the ballot had to be tossed because state law declared a voter must be alive on Election Day.
So Krause passed that word to the Clinton campaign. And Clinton drew great applause when she told the story in her concession speech four days after the South Dakota primary.
“It’s just a goofy law, and it needs to be changed,” said Krause, who plans to lobby state legislators to reverse that statute just as soon as her grief eases.
“What about the soldiers in Iraq? What if they vote and they’re killed in action, God forbid? Should we take away their vote because they died for their country?”
Former Oak Hill City Manager Under Investigation
Bill Kraus, the former City Manager of Oak Hill currently embroiled in a controversy over what he says was a forced retirement, is now under investigation by an organization overseeing Tennessee city managers. Paul Boyer, City Manager of Columbia, Tennessee, representing the Tennessee City Managers Association confirmed the investigation. Boyer could not confirm the nature of the investigation only that it was ongoing.
Ken Whitehouse reported last month that Kraus had retired as City Manager of Oak Hill. It was subsequently revealed that Kraus had lent both his name and his money to the reelection campaign of then Oak Hill Commissioner Tommy Jacobs. Both Tenn. Code Ann. 6-21-106 and the International City/County Management Association’s Code of Ethics would seem prohibit this type of activity.
Kraus disagrees saying that he had cleared his actions with more than one attorney. Kraus also asserts that the Oak Hill Mayor Tommy Alsup coerced his letter of resignation and that his retirement was forced, never acted upon by the board and thus, invalid.
During the battle over renovations at Tennessee’s Executive residence, which is in Oak Hill, it was revealed that Kraus had been convicted of felonies while serving as a City Manager in California. Kraus was also found to have attempted to conceal that fact on his Davidson County voter registration form. Temporarily relieved of his right to vote, Kraus is now, again, a registered voter in Tennessee.
SEE ALSO:
Kraus fights his retirement at raucous Oak Hill town meeting
Former Oak Hill City Manager Speaks At Commisioner’s Meeting
Oak Hill Commissioner Austin McMullen recounts a raucous Commissioners meeting in the City Of Oak Hill last night:
[Former Oak Hill City Manager Bill] Kraus also had an opportunity to address the Board of Commissioners and those present for the meeting. Unfortunately, Kraus chose to make several false statements or claims that were inconsistent with his previous statements. Kraus, who retired from the position of city manager last month, asserted that he was “forced” to retire based on what he claims is an incorrect interpretation of the law. Yet Kraus, in his letter dated June 21, wrote that he consulted with “five well-known and renowned attorneys” who he says told him that the law he violated did not require his termination. Despite this advice, he chose to retire. A person who consults with five attorneys before acting can hardly claim that he was “forced” to do anything.
There is no question whatsoever that Kraus violated Tennessee law when he openly campaigned for and contributed monetarily to the efforts of a candidate for the Board of Commissioners in last month’s election. In tonight’s meeting, Kraus claimed that the postcards he wrote for a candidate “specifically said” that they were “not an endorsement.” You can read the postcards and decide for yourself. I don’t see anything there “specifically” saying that Kraus’ signature is “not an endorsement.”
Although Kraus’ conduct in violation of Tennessee law raises concerns — especially in light of Kraus’ previous felony conviction — it probably does not matter in the end because Kraus retired from the position of city manager. Several questions were asked about Kraus’ resignation and whether it had to be accepted by the Board in order to be effective. My understanding is that Tennessee is an “at-will” employment state. This means that a person can terminate his employment “at-will” and without any acceptance by the employer of the employee’s decision to quit.
Commissioner Throckmorton falsely claimed that I campaigned on a promise to get rid of Kraus. I walked throughout Oak Hill during the campaign and talked to hundreds of residents. My position on Kraus was always the same — his undisclosed felony conviction raised concerns for me, but I was keeping an open mind because I felt he had done a number of good things for our residents. The fact that the City of Oak Hill would hire a city manager without conducting any background check or even requiring the completion of a job application — all while Commissioner Throckmorton held the position of Mayor — was a serious concern to me, one that I expressed on the campaign trail. The more recent revelation of Kraus’ additional violations of Tennessee law raised even more concerns for me, but Kraus ultimately decided to retire. It is noteworthy that during the citizen comment portion of the agenda — long before the end of the meeting — Commissioner Throckmorton walked out of tonight’s meeting without any explanation.
SEE ALSO: Oak Hill Gazette
Theater In The Cramped
Despite threats by former City Manager Bill Kraus to engage in a bit of political theater, the City of Oak Hill does not seem to be interested in moving their commissioner’s meeting to a larger facility:
As you can see from the above pictures the City of Oak Hill seems to be anticipating an overflow crowd. They have posted a sign on the door stating that only a certain number of people are allowed inside weeks in advance of the July 17th meeting. From all indications it doesn’t appear that the City of Oak Hill will move the July 17th meeting to a larger facilty.
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