Black Wednesday: A look back on the 10th Anniversary

The meeting was a spectacle of backroom politicking that local observers would quickly go on to call “Black Wednesday.”

It certainly wasn’t one of the Knox County Commission’s finest moments but in the end it changed the face of county government – and probably for the better.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Jan. 31, 2007 special called meeting in which a number of deal-making, vote-trading lawmakers filled 12 term-limited offices with friends, family and insiders, and with much of the decision-making taking place in backroom recesses of the City County Building, on the phone, and out of the public’s view.

It was devoid of light. It was devoid of public participation.

The meeting would lead to anger, frustration and major public backlash.

Lawsuits were filed, political careers came to an end and the 19-member board itself was reduced almost in half by voters a few years later.

All of this because commissioners violated Tennessee’s Open Meetings Act, the state’s so-called “Sunshine Law” that prohibits two or more members of a voting body to deliberate out of the public eye.

The story, however, doesn’t actually start 10 years ago.

No, it goes back much further – to 1994 when Knox County residents overwhelmingly approved term limits for local officeholders.

The state attorney general at the time, however, issued an opinion that said the vote wasn’t valid.

That led many elected county leaders to continue holding office long after the two-term, four-year limit.

Flash forward to March 2006 and a lawsuit filed was filed on the other side of the state – in Shelby County.

There, residents also approved term-limits in a 1994 referendum and – like Knox County officeholders – some leaders refused to step down. In 2006, the state Supreme Court sided with the Shelby County voters.
So, in mid-2006 five Knox County commissioners and a number of residents filed their own lawsuit that challenged the validity of Knox County’s charter, which includes the term-limit provision.

The state Supreme Court again settled the matter, this time in early January 2007 when justices upheld the county charter.

That meant eight commissioners and four countywide officials – the sheriff, clerk, trustee and register of deeds – were out of office and the county commission needed to fill the vacancies.

That then led to Black Wednesday.

A ‘SHAKEN’ GOVERNMENT

The Jan. 31, 2007, meeting kicked off at 9 a.m. before a packed Main Assembly Room of the City County Building and would last almost three hours and 30 minutes.

Some 70 people applied for the 12 vacancies, but many on the commission – those who conspired in the weeks prior – knew just who they would pick.

The meeting was riddled with accusations of vote-trading and marked by numerous restroom breaks as officials sneaked off to cut deals. At one point a newly appointed commissioner was even secretly sworn-in, so he could help cast a deciding vote for another officeholder and hook up a political friend.

At the time, then-Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale said the “people’s faith in government has been shaken,” but urged the commission “to heal” and “move forward.”

Three of the appointments were family members of commissioners or outgoing commissioners, and of those three officials only Mark Cawood – whose wife was appointed – recused himself from voting.

At the end of the meeting, here’s who made the final cut:

• Sheriff: Jimmy “J.J.” Jones, a Knox County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy
• County Clerk: Billy Tindell, one of the then-commissioners forced out because of term-limits.
• Register of Deeds: Sherry Witt, the office’s chief deputy
• Trustee: Fed Sisk, the office’s chief deputy.
• 1st District Commission: Josh Jordan, the son of then-Commissioner Diane Jordan, who was forced out because of term-limits.
• 2nd District Commission: Charles Bolus, a local educator
• 4th District Commission: Richard Cate, a manager at Heritage Log Homes
• 4th District Commission: Lee Tramel, a KCSO assistant chief deputy
• 5th District Commission: Frank Leuthold, a former commissioner who retired in 2002 and the father of then-Commissioner Craig Leuthold
• 6th District Commission: Sharon Cawood, wife of then-Commissioner Mark Cawood, who was forced out because of term-limits
• 8th District Commission: Jack Huddleston, a retired Knoxville firefighter
• 9th District Commission: Tim Greene, owner of Betty’s Florist
Only three of those appointed to office on Black Wednesday would keep their positions when it was all over.

THE SUNSHINE SUIT

A few hours after the meeting concluded, Knoxville attorney Herb Moncier filed a lawsuit in Knox County Chancery Court alleging that the commissioners violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act and seeking to nullify the appointments.

Knoxville News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy filed a similar lawsuit within a week and the two would later be merged.

The lawsuits led to a three-week trial in September, and in early October that year a jury ruled that the meeting did indeed violate the open meeting act. The 12 appointees were then required to step down.

In addition, then-Chancellor Daryl R. Fansler issued a permanent injunction that barred commissioners from deliberating in private, an order that still stands today.

Also, Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood would later rule that one commissioner – Scott Moore – committed perjury during the trial and lied under oath. Moore was forced to give up his right to hold office but at the time suggested that he wouldn’t run again anyway.

THE FOLLOW UP

The Knox County Commission in February 2008 – a year after Black Wednesday – again made appointments to the 12 term-limited seats. That time, however, the board deliberated publicly. Some of the Black Wednesday picks were re-appointed and others were not.

Also in February that year, the county held its primaries and by late August the new officeholders took over.

Of the three Black Wednesday appointments, only Jones, Witt and Sisk won election. Jones and Witt are still in office but are serving out their final terms.

The 2008 election, however, wasn’t the end of Black Wednesday’s fallout.

In November 2008 voters also approved a charter amendment that reduced the size of the county commission from 19 members to 11 – one member for each district and two at-large seats.

The change went into effect in 2010.

Two years later, a charter review committee charged with making changes to the county’s governing documents looked at potentially increasing the board’s size again, but it gained little traction.

Officials at the time said the meetings under the smaller board were more open and efficient. They also cited Black Wednesday.