It’s time to wrap up the mega site proposal

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Letter To The Editor

Submitted by: Glen Bibbins

1 I hope that the commission will direct that all funding for this project that was approved for EDOC and Industrial Development Board be returned to the county.

2 The fair thing to do at this point would be for the commission to direct EDOC to cancel any option contracts that were executed by land owners in the target area. Because there will be no mega site on their property, these people should not be held to a contract to sell their land.

I have serious concerns about the way the Chamber and EDOC handled this proposal. EDOC documentation indicates that they “studied six areas in Jefferson County as potential sites in March – November 2011.” It seems to me that the site that was selected could have and would have been eliminated by simply contacting a few of the largest land owners and explaining the plan in that time frame. And, most significantly, determining the willingness or non-willingness of the land owners to sell. I believe that the answers that would have been obtained with this approach would have allowed EDOC to quickly abandon the site they selected and move on to Plan B, C, D, or E. This proposal didn’t go public until January of 2013. As Commissioner Carmichael said – “We were Pearl Harbored on this thing.”

The county finance office has informed me that the county provided $160,000 to the Chamber in the most recent year. It seems to me that the taxpayers deserve an open communication from the Chamber as to how these funds are being used. When I worked for a large corporation, I required my direct reports to write a monthly progress report detailing the activities and accomplishments of the previous month. Is such a system in place for the Chamber to report to the county on a regular basis? If not, there should be. Any organization that takes money should be obligated to explain in some detail how it is spent, especially when it is tax payer money.

Ads in local papers by Business People of Jefferson County (an alias for EDOC?) suggest misinformation by opponents of the mega site. These ads continue to claim that the plan had support from the state and TVA. These claims directly contradict statements made by Mr. Palmieri after his phone call to the governor. Is tax payer money being used to run ads in variance with the facts of this matter? Citizens deserve to know.

It seems to me that the Chamber and EDOC demonstrated significant lack of good judgement with this plan. From the outset it was clear to many that this was a bad plan – first and foremost, the land was not available, plus there are already three vacant mega sites in Tennessee, the plan ignores the first rule of investing – diversification, there was no financial support from the state, as well as several other critical issues such as infra structure and power requirements, the EPA designation of a non-attainment area for ozone pollution, no dual rail capability, no sewer plant etc. Yet in spite of all these clear cut and formidable barriers, EDOC ignored the signals and kept marching toward an impossible goal. They are now running ads that claim that this was a “missed opportunity”. They just don’t get it. They refuse to face stubborn facts. The actions of the Chamber and EDOC throughout this process have created wide spread bad feelings toward some of the decision makers of the county. I believe it’s time to take a good long hard look at the value the county is receiving for $160,000 and decide if this is a valid way to spend county tax dollars in a county with debt greater than the annual county budget.

Glen Bibbins, Dandridge