| The Rhea County Newspaper |
| "Rhea County's REAL Information Source" |
| Local Newspaper Reporter Decides to "Become" the News Instead of "Reporting" the News ~~~~~~ Roy L. Denton, contributor |
I am sitting here in a computer chair typing this story, report, article, news cast,
whatever it is called. In any event, I’m stuck here typing it. Okay, the truth is I
volunteered to write this story.
Max Hackett is a reporter for the world renowned Herald-News (wow, I typed that
without passin’ out) and he went to one of those famous county commission
workshop meetings.
You know, just to veer off subject for a second, but did you know that at these
workshops which can number several workshops a month, no minutes are kept. No
record of any kind. The logic and reasoning for that is “they don’t have to keep
minutes because they ain’t voting on anything”. You have got to be kidding me!
Surely to goodness these people are not that stupid.
Now I may be wrong, but I thought that the law required a meeting of ANY kind
had to be advertised “X” many days before the meeting. Also, these meetings are
fully open to the public. These meetings function under the Roberts Rules of
Order. In every sense of the word, it does not matter when, where or what you want
to call it, when 2 or more commissioners are at one spot and talking it can be
construed as a violation of the Tennessee Sunshine Law.
And no, I am not going to stop, take the time to link from here to there and all
around showing these laws. We all pretty much know that a meeting is a meeting
and we also know how these meetings are to be conducted. So either the Rhea
County Commissioners have not read nothing about conducting a lawful meeting
and/or they must have an attorney that is brainless.
Now wait, I may be wrong. Maybe the commissioners simply don’t know, or they
know and they are scheming… in other words, a form of sneaky cheating. And on
top of that, the county attorney MUST know these meetings are going on and the
county attorney MUST know what the legal definition of a “meeting” is. And no.
The excuse of, “oh, we don’t have to keep minutes or record what we say in the
workshop meetings because even though they are “meetings” they aren't “real
meetings” because nobody is voting on anything, just talking about how they'll
vote".
You can see how just for an instance as I was typing that moronic paragraph, I
could almost feel myself morphing into a rock, well, at least my head was…
Now once again, I may be totally wrong. Perhaps these workshops are actually
meetings defined under the law but even as such, those meetings are exempted
from current state statutes because this is Rhea County. Always seems to work
every other time, so why not use the excuse again?
For the record, and for those of us that do not know, or fully understand the
“legal” sense of the word let us now open our Bible, I mean law book to page yada,
yada, yada…
Here is what the state of Tennessee says a “meeting” is, not me.
TCA 8-44-102. Open meetings — “Governing body” defined — “Meeting” defined. —
(a) All meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings
open to the public at all times, except as provided by the Constitution of
Tennessee.
(b) (1) “Governing body” means:
(A) The members of any public body which consists of two (2) or more members,
with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on
policy or administration and also means a community action agency which
administers community action programs under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 2790
[repealed]. Any governing body so defined by this section shall remain so defined,
notwithstanding the fact that such governing body may have designated itself as a
negotiation committee for collective bargaining purposes, and strategy sessions of
a governing body under such circumstances shall be open to the public at all times;
(2) “Meeting” means the convening of a governing body of a public body for which
a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a
decision on any matter. “Meeting” does not include any on-site inspection of any
project or program.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as to require a chance meeting of
two (2) or more members of a public body to be considered a public meeting. No
such chance meetings, informal assemblages, or electronic communication shall
be used to decide or deliberate public business in circumvention of the spirit or
requirements of this part.
And then we could gaze just a tad further into the legal crystal ball to and we can
see that no matter what sort of business, votes, talking about votes, anything at all,
then it is a MEETING.
Now, since it sure appears that these so called “workshops” are legal meetings as
defined by this state (not me) then the meetings are bound to all the public open
meetings laws. Am I crazy? Is any of this making any sense?
All I know people is it seems that EVERYTHING the county, this city the local
newspaper, even lawyers and judges, the state of Tennessee says differently from
what they all do. It is either that, or I need to walk into a mental clinic and check
myself in. I have always said, we have federal law, we have state law and we have
Rhea County law.
I swear folks, you are doomed. I say "you" because my happy butt is soon to be out
of this place, bye-bye. So you people should wisen up and educate your mind and
by doing so, the Billy Rat’s, the whosever’s of the world will know that they can’t
cheat you because you know the truth.
The sweetest thing to knowing the truth is to know the truth and you know that
they know, that you know they know you know the truth… Never fails, and then
they always get mad, or pout in some way. Hey people, we all do that. We have
done it since kindergarten. Geeez Uss.
But continuing on, now that we have actually read what a legal meeting is (not
what everyone says one is) we now must find out and see if any “Minutes and
Recording” laws apply. Hmmm, you read this state law and you decide…
TCA 8-44-104 (a) clearly states:
Minutes recorded and open to public — Secret votes prohibited.
"The minutes of a meeting of any such governmental body shall be promptly and
fully recorded, shall be open to public inspection, and shall include, but not be
limited to, a record of persons present, all motions, proposals and resolutions
offered, the results of any votes taken, and a record of individual votes in the event
of roll call."
Now what have you learned people?
You have just read Tennessee Law on what a meeting is, how they are to be
conducted. You now are armed with the truth. So now what do you do if you go to
Billy Ray Patton, or any one else, and ask for a copy of the minutes of every
workshop conducted for the past 6 months, even just the minutes of Tuesday’s
meeting and they say, “ahhhh, we don’t have to keep ‘em in a workshop”.
(there I went morphing again)
Well, now you can deal with the public official in whatever way you normally treat
someone who just looked you in the eye and lied to you. Yep.
Then again, since you are armed with the law, your golden shield so to speak, you
now need to find the “teeth”, the power of enforcement of that particular law that
you just learned. After all, law enforcement is by it’s very own definition “law
enforcement”.
All laws must be enforceable because how can something be a law if it is not
enforced? Makes absolutely no sense. And furthermore, it seems equally as
ignorant to think that there is a difference of deliberately NOT enforcing a law as
opposed to knowing a law is being broken and law enforcement, even the courts
neglect to enforce or correct it.
Come on people…
So you now have your golden shield of law along with your cloak of truth. You just
need a sword of justice so as to enforce the law in the “name of something”. People
seem to always be able to do anything and somehow justify it by doing the act “in
the name of…”
Now we turn and look tucked away inside our cloak and we find another state law.
Hey, is this the sword we need that gives authority to someone to enforce this law
on someone else. Let’s read it and see:
8-44-106. Enforcement — Jurisdiction. —
(a) The circuit courts, chancery courts, and other courts which have equity
jurisdiction, have jurisdiction to issue injunctions, impose penalties, and
otherwise enforce the purposes of this part upon application of any citizen of this
state.
(b) In each suit brought under this part, the court shall file written findings of
fact and conclusions of law and final judgments, which shall also be recorded in
the minutes of the body involved.
(c) The court shall permanently enjoin any person adjudged by it in violation of
this part from further violation of this part. Each separate occurrence of such
meetings not held in accordance with this part constitutes a separate violation.
(d) The final judgment or decree in each suit shall state that the court retains
jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter for a period of one (1) year from
date of entry, and the court shall order the defendants to report in writing
semiannually to the court of their compliance with this part.
As you can see, each of these laws are found in the same Title, same Section and
same Part. No denying it folks.
Well I completely got off the subject about how Herald-News reporter Max Hackett
messed up again.
Who is Max Hackett?
You remember… He’s the dude that was fired from WGOW in Chattanooga. He’s
the dude that works at the Herald-News as a reporter. He’s the dude that skips out
of county commission meetings, not showing up for a meeting at all, yet somehow
wrote a story about what happened at the meeting. He’s the dude that wrote a
story about this months Dayton City Council meeting and he wasn’t there for that
one either. The dude obviously was thinking that since he worked for the Herald-
News that nobody else is watching. Whoaaaaa boy…He must have forgotten about
us at RheCountyNewspaper.com Click here to read the story of how he got busted.
Well, now I need to think of a title for this “report”. It started out being about Max
Hackett lobbying for the Alliance for the Cumberlands at Tuesday’s workshop
MEETING.
Sorry folks. I just had to veer off the subject and address what really needs to be
addressed. We have illegal activity going on all around us and the funny thing is,
you never see their names in a crime blotter. And you never will, or so they think.
You have just learned that by state law a workshop is indeed a public meeting by
definition and as such it is required that a full accounting of the minutes be kept.
It does not matter who flops their mouth open spouting out anything to the
contrary. Show them the law. If they cannot or will not give you a copy of the
Minutes for any meeting you desire, then simply use the law above and file a
simple piece of paper in court. Use the courts as a tool, not as something to fear.
And as you do use those courts, remember this always…Truth is not to be found in
a court room, the truth is found at the bottom of the bottomless pit”…or so they
want you to think.
whatever it is called. In any event, I’m stuck here typing it. Okay, the truth is I
volunteered to write this story.
Max Hackett is a reporter for the world renowned Herald-News (wow, I typed that
without passin’ out) and he went to one of those famous county commission
workshop meetings.
You know, just to veer off subject for a second, but did you know that at these
workshops which can number several workshops a month, no minutes are kept. No
record of any kind. The logic and reasoning for that is “they don’t have to keep
minutes because they ain’t voting on anything”. You have got to be kidding me!
Surely to goodness these people are not that stupid.
Now I may be wrong, but I thought that the law required a meeting of ANY kind
had to be advertised “X” many days before the meeting. Also, these meetings are
fully open to the public. These meetings function under the Roberts Rules of
Order. In every sense of the word, it does not matter when, where or what you want
to call it, when 2 or more commissioners are at one spot and talking it can be
construed as a violation of the Tennessee Sunshine Law.
And no, I am not going to stop, take the time to link from here to there and all
around showing these laws. We all pretty much know that a meeting is a meeting
and we also know how these meetings are to be conducted. So either the Rhea
County Commissioners have not read nothing about conducting a lawful meeting
and/or they must have an attorney that is brainless.
Now wait, I may be wrong. Maybe the commissioners simply don’t know, or they
know and they are scheming… in other words, a form of sneaky cheating. And on
top of that, the county attorney MUST know these meetings are going on and the
county attorney MUST know what the legal definition of a “meeting” is. And no.
The excuse of, “oh, we don’t have to keep minutes or record what we say in the
workshop meetings because even though they are “meetings” they aren't “real
meetings” because nobody is voting on anything, just talking about how they'll
vote".
You can see how just for an instance as I was typing that moronic paragraph, I
could almost feel myself morphing into a rock, well, at least my head was…
Now once again, I may be totally wrong. Perhaps these workshops are actually
meetings defined under the law but even as such, those meetings are exempted
from current state statutes because this is Rhea County. Always seems to work
every other time, so why not use the excuse again?
For the record, and for those of us that do not know, or fully understand the
“legal” sense of the word let us now open our Bible, I mean law book to page yada,
yada, yada…
Here is what the state of Tennessee says a “meeting” is, not me.
TCA 8-44-102. Open meetings — “Governing body” defined — “Meeting” defined. —
(a) All meetings of any governing body are declared to be public meetings
open to the public at all times, except as provided by the Constitution of
Tennessee.
(b) (1) “Governing body” means:
(A) The members of any public body which consists of two (2) or more members,
with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on
policy or administration and also means a community action agency which
administers community action programs under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 2790
[repealed]. Any governing body so defined by this section shall remain so defined,
notwithstanding the fact that such governing body may have designated itself as a
negotiation committee for collective bargaining purposes, and strategy sessions of
a governing body under such circumstances shall be open to the public at all times;
(2) “Meeting” means the convening of a governing body of a public body for which
a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a
decision on any matter. “Meeting” does not include any on-site inspection of any
project or program.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as to require a chance meeting of
two (2) or more members of a public body to be considered a public meeting. No
such chance meetings, informal assemblages, or electronic communication shall
be used to decide or deliberate public business in circumvention of the spirit or
requirements of this part.
And then we could gaze just a tad further into the legal crystal ball to and we can
see that no matter what sort of business, votes, talking about votes, anything at all,
then it is a MEETING.
Now, since it sure appears that these so called “workshops” are legal meetings as
defined by this state (not me) then the meetings are bound to all the public open
meetings laws. Am I crazy? Is any of this making any sense?
All I know people is it seems that EVERYTHING the county, this city the local
newspaper, even lawyers and judges, the state of Tennessee says differently from
what they all do. It is either that, or I need to walk into a mental clinic and check
myself in. I have always said, we have federal law, we have state law and we have
Rhea County law.
I swear folks, you are doomed. I say "you" because my happy butt is soon to be out
of this place, bye-bye. So you people should wisen up and educate your mind and
by doing so, the Billy Rat’s, the whosever’s of the world will know that they can’t
cheat you because you know the truth.
The sweetest thing to knowing the truth is to know the truth and you know that
they know, that you know they know you know the truth… Never fails, and then
they always get mad, or pout in some way. Hey people, we all do that. We have
done it since kindergarten. Geeez Uss.
But continuing on, now that we have actually read what a legal meeting is (not
what everyone says one is) we now must find out and see if any “Minutes and
Recording” laws apply. Hmmm, you read this state law and you decide…
TCA 8-44-104 (a) clearly states:
Minutes recorded and open to public — Secret votes prohibited.
"The minutes of a meeting of any such governmental body shall be promptly and
fully recorded, shall be open to public inspection, and shall include, but not be
limited to, a record of persons present, all motions, proposals and resolutions
offered, the results of any votes taken, and a record of individual votes in the event
of roll call."
Now what have you learned people?
You have just read Tennessee Law on what a meeting is, how they are to be
conducted. You now are armed with the truth. So now what do you do if you go to
Billy Ray Patton, or any one else, and ask for a copy of the minutes of every
workshop conducted for the past 6 months, even just the minutes of Tuesday’s
meeting and they say, “ahhhh, we don’t have to keep ‘em in a workshop”.
(there I went morphing again)
Well, now you can deal with the public official in whatever way you normally treat
someone who just looked you in the eye and lied to you. Yep.
Then again, since you are armed with the law, your golden shield so to speak, you
now need to find the “teeth”, the power of enforcement of that particular law that
you just learned. After all, law enforcement is by it’s very own definition “law
enforcement”.
All laws must be enforceable because how can something be a law if it is not
enforced? Makes absolutely no sense. And furthermore, it seems equally as
ignorant to think that there is a difference of deliberately NOT enforcing a law as
opposed to knowing a law is being broken and law enforcement, even the courts
neglect to enforce or correct it.
Come on people…
So you now have your golden shield of law along with your cloak of truth. You just
need a sword of justice so as to enforce the law in the “name of something”. People
seem to always be able to do anything and somehow justify it by doing the act “in
the name of…”
Now we turn and look tucked away inside our cloak and we find another state law.
Hey, is this the sword we need that gives authority to someone to enforce this law
on someone else. Let’s read it and see:
8-44-106. Enforcement — Jurisdiction. —
(a) The circuit courts, chancery courts, and other courts which have equity
jurisdiction, have jurisdiction to issue injunctions, impose penalties, and
otherwise enforce the purposes of this part upon application of any citizen of this
state.
(b) In each suit brought under this part, the court shall file written findings of
fact and conclusions of law and final judgments, which shall also be recorded in
the minutes of the body involved.
(c) The court shall permanently enjoin any person adjudged by it in violation of
this part from further violation of this part. Each separate occurrence of such
meetings not held in accordance with this part constitutes a separate violation.
(d) The final judgment or decree in each suit shall state that the court retains
jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter for a period of one (1) year from
date of entry, and the court shall order the defendants to report in writing
semiannually to the court of their compliance with this part.
As you can see, each of these laws are found in the same Title, same Section and
same Part. No denying it folks.
Well I completely got off the subject about how Herald-News reporter Max Hackett
messed up again.
Who is Max Hackett?
You remember… He’s the dude that was fired from WGOW in Chattanooga. He’s
the dude that works at the Herald-News as a reporter. He’s the dude that skips out
of county commission meetings, not showing up for a meeting at all, yet somehow
wrote a story about what happened at the meeting. He’s the dude that wrote a
story about this months Dayton City Council meeting and he wasn’t there for that
one either. The dude obviously was thinking that since he worked for the Herald-
News that nobody else is watching. Whoaaaaa boy…He must have forgotten about
us at RheCountyNewspaper.com Click here to read the story of how he got busted.
Well, now I need to think of a title for this “report”. It started out being about Max
Hackett lobbying for the Alliance for the Cumberlands at Tuesday’s workshop
MEETING.
Sorry folks. I just had to veer off the subject and address what really needs to be
addressed. We have illegal activity going on all around us and the funny thing is,
you never see their names in a crime blotter. And you never will, or so they think.
You have just learned that by state law a workshop is indeed a public meeting by
definition and as such it is required that a full accounting of the minutes be kept.
It does not matter who flops their mouth open spouting out anything to the
contrary. Show them the law. If they cannot or will not give you a copy of the
Minutes for any meeting you desire, then simply use the law above and file a
simple piece of paper in court. Use the courts as a tool, not as something to fear.
And as you do use those courts, remember this always…Truth is not to be found in
a court room, the truth is found at the bottom of the bottomless pit”…or so they
want you to think.
| 101 ways to to lose your job |
