Recall efforts against city council members Danny Wyatt and Pam Harris ended

A press release issued by Howard Burnette of Crossville, the man behind recent recall efforts, says he is no longer perusing the recalls against Danny Wyatt and Pamala Harris.

The letter gives a number of reasons and outlines issues with city councilman Jesse Kerley including incidents previously reported on social media that he Danny Wyatt had confronted Burnette at the Crossville flea market a few weeks ago.

Burnette's letter says that he believe ending the the campaign "is in the best interest of the safety of me and my family." The timing of the letter is interesting considering the group had only four more days (June 24) to come up with the necessary 2225 signatures needed to put the recall on the ballot for November 8 election.  

Burnette's letter alleges "threats and actions by council member Kerley."  Burnette also wrote that he had witnessed what he called, "the assault on council member Souza" and described alleged vandalism incidents at the Mockingbird Drive home of J. R. Blankenship.  None of the items brought up in the letter have resulted in any known charges.    

We attempted to reach Burnette hoping to find out how many signatures the group had actually collected, but when he returned the call, he said he had told all his supporters to stop collecting signatures.  Burnette said he did not know how many signatures they had.  There has been much speculation that the group was still short of the necessary number of signatures.  

Councilman Danny Wyatt, one targets of the recall efforts, commented on the end of the recall efforts, "There's no hard feelings.  I'd like to thank Howard and his supporters, They exercised their first amendment rights and did what they thought was right.  I'd especially like to thank the people of Crossville that supported me and didn't support the recall.  I think we need to dust off and try to continue to make Crossville be the best place that its been for years."

Here is a video of Howard Burnette speaking before the Crossville city council at the April regular meeting stating that he wanted a completely new city council.

Recall proponents mailing letters and petitions to city voters

Letters promoting the recall of council members Danny Wyatt and Pamala Harris are being mailed to registered Crossville city voters along with copies of the two petitions that need 2225 registered Crossville city voter's signatures by June 24 in order to get the recall question on the November ballot.

The letters are signed as "Crossville Citizens for Good Government, Howard Burnette, Jr. Treasurer and include a self addressed stamped envelope for them to be returned.

The letters include statements saying that Wyatt and Harris "took away Crossville citizen's rights to make public comments or ask questions until after the council has already voted on any issue or resolution."

The letter talks about scheduling called meeting during the day and on short notice and doing away with the monthly work sessions.  The letter concludes by claiming that because the work sessions have been eliminated, that "the city's business gets discussed in secret conversations and in violation of the states open meeting laws."

The letter asks the recipient to sign the petitions and get their friends and neighbors to sign as well and return them in the envelope provided.  An image of the full letter is below.

The recall proponents have not responded to questions concerning how many signatures they have collected so far.  If petitions are turned in to the election commission they do become a public record.

Animosity apparent in relations between some council members. Accusations and shoulders thrown.

The Crossville city council's budget work session had a few moments of friction between some council members but the real issue came after the meeting was over when according to statements, one council member allegedly bumped another council member as they were leaving city hall.

The incident involved council member Pete Souza and Jesse Kerley. Kerley stated that Mr. Souza was speaking angrily to Jerry Kerley, Kerley's father and Crossville director of water resources.   Councilman Kerley said he informed Mr. Souza to stop. According to  Councilman Kerley, Mr. Souza then bumped councilman Kerley with his shoulder as he was going out the door.

Howard Burnette of the Crossville Recall group was reportedly in the parking lot at the time of the interaction and others are believed to have seen the incident as well. The city hall's video camera's may have captured the incident and Councilman Kerley reported the incident to Crossville Police Chief Rod Shoap right after it happened.

Several times during the meeting discussion Mr. Souza and Mr. Kerley traded glares with each other. In addition, during the discussion of the downtown sidewalk project, Mr. Kerley and Mayor James Mayberry had brief angry words over Kerley's accusation of benefit to Mr. Mayberry from the sidewalks.

Animosity continues to surround the council over Mr. Souza's involvement with the recall movement against Council members Danny Wyatt and Pamala Harris and the split votes over firing the previous city manager.

During the budget work session, the council cut all funding by 10 percent to the non-profits while adding a number of project back into the budget that took the budget from $557,041 in the red up to just over $1 million in the red. Funds to cover the deficit will come from the city's rainy day fund that holds over $10 million.

More details on the budget changes to come.

Kerley questions info on Recall website--Jeff Dahlbergh responds--questions remain.

An item on the agenda of the May Crossville city council meeting requested by councilman Jesse Kerley was to question Howard Burnette, the man that leads the group behind the recall efforts against council members Danny Wyatt and Pam Harris.

Kerley said there was information he had read on the site that he questioned but had since been changed.  Also, Howard Burnette was not present at the meeting so Kerley made brief comments and the council meeting moved on until the end of the meeting and the time of public comment.

One man got up to speak on behalf of the recall website and gave an explanation of the website and at one point it appeared he might be removed from the meeting by police.  The man refused to identify him self but had spoken previously at another council meeting and is car salesman Jeff Dahlberg.

Dahlberg tried to tell the council that Howard Burnette had nothing to do with the website crossvillerecall.org but at the bottom of that site's home page it states that the page is "copyright 2016 by Crossville Citizens for Good Government" The paperwork filed with the local election office shows that the only name on those filings lists Howard Burnette as the groups treasurer.  

Another notice indicates that artwork is copyrighted by Advantamax with a link to that businesse's website that says it is still under construction.  Checking sources, it appears that Advantamax was once registered as a corporation with the state of Tennessee at an address in Goodlestville but has been administratively dissolved since 2002 for failing to file paperwork.

Kerley seeks to question recall proponent on information on his website

While he is not a target of the current recall drive as he is already up for reelection in November, councilman Jesse Kerley put an item on the May Crossville city council meeting concerning information on the website promoting the recall.  Operated by the organization known as "Crossville Citizens for Good Government," the webpage has information criticizing actions of council members Danny Wyatt and Pam Harris the group is hoping to remove from office. 

Kerley's agenda item seeks permission from the council to question Howard Burnette about information on his website.  

The council has no way to force any response from Mr. Burnette.

A list of questions pulled from the recall website included the following:

"1. Do you agree with Harris and Wyatt’s vote to silence the taxpayer’s comments prior to ALL council votes?

2. Do you support the vote by Harris and Wyatt to eliminate work session meetings which were a forum to discuss the issues in detail and for you, the voter, to hear ALL the facts prior to a council's final vote?

3. Danny Wyatt not once but twice stated citizens who have concerns about illegal drugs in Crossville might want to move somewhere else. Do these statements reflect your views?

4. Did you agree with Pamala Harris and Danny Wyatt to give away annually $90K of city taxpayer money to golfing events held outside of the city limits?

5. Do you support Harris' and Wyatt’s decisions to block a vote to audit Crossville’s multi-million dollar airport?

6. Do you agree with Harris' and Wyatt's refusal to provide evidence or conduct an audit to determine the guilt or innocence of the city manager prior to termination of employment?

7. Do you agree with Harris' and Wyatt’s abuse of special called/emergency meetings during normal work hours for the purpose of avoiding voters' availability? (These meetings are to be reserved in severe cases where the welfare of the community demands it, in order that the public has full access, per the city charter.)

8. Would you have preferred council member Pamala Harris have disclosed in her initial campaign her close relationship with, city marketing department head, Billy Loggins? Would it bother you to know, Harris’ fraternization with her boyfriend, Billy Loggins, was brought to the attention of the public when she was forced to divulge her close personal relationship during a vote to make him City Manager?

9. Do you support Harris' and Wyatt’s decision to hire an interim city manager without going through proper human resource recruitment processes as would be required of any other city employee? (For example; an employment and background check.)This decision was made in less than one hour without any voter input or professional vetting.

10. Would you support Harris and Wyatt if they wanted to oust from office both Mayor James Mayberry and block the efforts of law enforcement, who have both stepped up efforts to stamp out drugs on the Plateau?

11. Did you know Harris and Wyatt have meet in secret away from the view of the public in violation of the Open Meetings Law? Do you support this form of corruption and backroom dealings?

12. Do you support Harris' and Wyatt's decision to pay a small vendor over $1M to manage his own business, in addition to his normal contract agreement, while voting against ALL first responders and other city employees receiving a meager 5% pay raise? How will this affect the moral of highly skilled professionals you depend on?"

My latest article in the Upper Cumberland Business Jounal

Some background on why this is the first ever attempt to recall any city council members in the history of Crossville.

New Crossville Recall Provision Making Waves

Crossville city council recall battle keeps escalating (part 2)

Late this afternoon, Crossville city councilman Danny Wyatt issued the following press release in response to the recall efforts that he describes as "a handful of over-zealous and uninformed people." Wyatt responds to some of the accusations and accuses the recall effort of being instigated by councilman Pete Souza.  

PRESS RELEASE FROM CROSSVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER DANNY WYATT

As some may know, a small group of people who are displaying ignorance of facts has begun a campaign of sorts with the intent of recalling myself and Pamela Harris from the Crossville City Council. The issues brought by the group simply are not accurate.

 I cannot speak for Council member Harris, but I sure can speak for myself and I have an important message for those who would try to slow down progress of our city: Your actions, no doubt instigated by Council Member Pete Souza, is achieving nothing but hurting Crossville and will continue to cast a shadow over our town for some time to come.  For the life of me, I have never understood Mr. Souza's motive for doing everything in his power to disrupt the progress of Crossville with continuous investigations and  allegations of wrongdoing by our public servants and citizens (32 so far by my count) and yet none, not one allegation, has ever proved to have any merit. His ranting and raving has only proved to be a colossal waste of time.  Time that could have been spent on Crossville projecting a positive and lucrative image for new industry and businesses looking at Crossville for locating and employing our citizens.

 We have some very good things happening in Crossville and as a representative of city taxpayers, I will continue to look after the best interest of the City.  If that means voting against a program that I feel is wasteful or ineffective, that's what I'll do.  Where the Horizon Initiative was concerned, it simply is not what it started out as and, as time went on, it became clear to me that the changes taking place were not using taxpayers money wisely and effectively. Period. If spending $90,000 on Golf Tournament promotion continues to bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue for our City and schools as it has done over the years, then I'll vote yes every time. Also, in my opinion if a City Manager is not exercising sound, conservative monetary policy, he or she needs to go.  And remember, the vote to dismiss our City Manager was 4 to 1 in favor.

 It greatly disturbs me that a handful of over-zealous and uninformed people would spend the time and energy to put our City in a negative light.  As far as the recall is concerned, I'm doing my job with a clear conscience that my actions reflect the best interest of Crossville's citizens - if they get the votes needed for a recall and it passes on a ballot - then yes, I need to go home.  Otherwise, I'll be right here working for the betterment of Crossville and its people.

Two public comments from 4-14-16 meeting of the Crossville city council

Two of the public commentors that spoke at the end of the Crossville city council's meeting on April 14, 2016.  Both speakers criticize the recent actions of the council.  The second speaker is Howard Burnett, proponent of recalling two council members over firing the latest city manager and failing to support the Horizon Project community development program.