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LARRY VAN GUILDER, A-6
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Vol. 5, No. 8 • February 21, 2011 • www.ShopperNewsNow.com • 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500 37932 • 218-WEST (9378)
Helping adoptions happen By Wendy Smith
W
est Knoxville mom Coby Eldridge was tired of hearing people say that they’d love to adopt but couldn’t afford it. She’s familiar with the high cost of adoption. Three of her four children are adopted. The notion that money was keeping loving families and waiting children apart spurred her into action, so she contacted Pam Wolf, executive director of Harmony Adoption in Maryville. Eldridge knew Wolf from serving on Harmony’s board of directors, and Wolf was more than happy to establish the Adoption Foundation of Tennessee in 2005. The goal of the nonprofit was to provide financial assistance to local families who were going through the adoption process. One of the foundation’s primary fundraisers was Team Adoption, a group of local runners who participated in the Knoxville Marathon. The team raised $10,000 the first year. After three years, Eldridge’s vision for the foundation grew, and with Wolf’s blessing, she took over as executive director. “Pam is the birth mother, and I’m the adoptive mother of the foundation,” she says. At the end of 2009, the foundation went statewide when the first Team Adoption ran in the Memphis Marathon. Now, anyone can race in any event in the country as a Team Adoption member, and families from all over the U.S. can apply for grants from the Adoption Foundation of Tennessee. Board member Elizabeth Salsbery has four adopted children with her husband, John. Her boys were 8 and 6 last year when the couple adopted a 1-year-old girl from Haiti and a domestically-
Owen, Grace, Ian and Sarah Salsbery are the adopted children of Elizabeth and John Salsbery of West Knoxville. Elizabeth is on the board of the Adoption Foundation of Tennessee, which now serves adoptive families from several states. Photo submitted born infant girl within two weeks of each other. The paperwork and finances of adoption are a huge struggle, Elizabeth Salsbery says, and it feels good to spare a few families some of that ordeal. “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like.” Originally, the foundation only awarded grants to couples who were both childless and infertile. But last fall, the board decided to consider any adoptive family. “I thought they were crazy,” says
Eldridge. “But they said, ‘If we are supposed to help, the money will come.’ ” The group is also developing a list of partners, like adoption agencies and for-profit companies that allow adoptive parents to sell their product to raise money, like Just Love Coffee, a fair-trade coffee company. By partnering with other organizations, the Adoption Foundation of Tennessee can help make the adoption world more cohesive and a little less mind-boggling, says Eldridge. She and her husband, Robert,
know the joy that adoption can Harmony Adoption will bring. After giving birth to their hold the Mardi Gras Gala at first son and adopting two more Cru Bistro and Wine Bar in boys, the parents thought the famTurkey Creek at 6:30 p.m. ily was complete. But the boys had a different idea and campaigned for Monday, Feb. 28. The funda sister. The Eldridges now have a raising event will include 2-year-old daughter, and her brothhors d’oeuvres and a silent ers have firm ideas about her future auction. Info: www. social life. adoptionfoundationtn.org “She will not date,” laughs Coby Eldridge. She has seen how “God parted witnessing the miracles of other the waters” to make their three adoptive families. Info: www. adoptions happen, and she enjoys adoptionfoundationtn.org.
Clothes make the (police) man By Larry Van Guilder Sheriff’s deputies are familiar with the techniques of “restraint.” It’s knowledge that could save an officer’s life. But a measure of fiscal restraint at the top in the Knox County Sheriff’s Office may be overdue.
Analysis According to information provided by the KCSO, the chief deputy and eight assistant chief deputies, earning from $71,173 to $104,000 annually (an average salary of $88,079) each receive annual clothing allowances of $575. Plain clothes and undercover deputies also receive allowances, purchasing clothing at retailers as diverse as JCPenney, Banana Republic and Nautica. Salaries for those under the rank of chief deputy range from $30,000 to $60,000 according to Allison Rogers, the KCSO finance director. Police work is a dangerous and often thankless job, and a uniform allowance for the 137 rank and file dep-
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Allison Rogers’ response to some issues raised in our story: “The uniform/clothing allowance is not based on the salary of the individual, but rather on their job title/job description. Knox County Commission approves the uniform allowance every year, and in fact increased the allowance approximately 4-5 years ago. “The sheriff ’s budget has increased over the last four years due to several events. First of all, the sheriff has taken over (with the approval of Knox County Commission) Pretrial, Juvenile Court Officers and Animal Control for an increase of approximately $1,600,000. The additional increase is from pay raises the Knox County mayor and Knox County Commission approved in FY2008 and FY2009. Also, Knox County finance increased our budget due to the rise in health insurance costs. The pay raises and health insurance premiums account for over $5 million. “However, KCSO’s operations have virtually seen no increase over the last four years. Sheriff Jones has continued to provide the same services to the citizens of Knox County over the last four years with no additional funding in the budget’s day-to-day operations.” uties in the field may be warranted in most instances. But an allowance for those earning more than double the average wage in Knox County is an unnecessary holdover from the days when even the highest ranking officers were underpaid. Last week the Shopper-News reported that 100 new patrol cars are
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on Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones’ wish list. The tab could run more than $3 million. Eliminating the clothing allowance for the rank of deputy chief and above won’t make a noticeable dent in the amount required for new vehicles, but it would signal the sheriff’s intention to get the
most from the department’s budget during difficult economic times. Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett announced a $3 million dollar budget shortfall for FY 2012 just weeks ago. New cruisers widen the gap to $6 million. Maintaining law and order isn’t cheap, but a review of Knox County’s last four budgets reveals that outlays for public safety are outstripping most all other departments in the general government. For FY 2008, public safety’s adopted budget was $63.5 million. It grew to $66.2 million in 2009, $68.6 million in 2010 and $70.4 million in the current fiscal year, or about an 11 percent increase for the four-year span. Only the school budget has shown greater growth, about $21 million over four years, but that represents only a 6 percent jump. For the same period, the general administrative budget is down $4.1 million, a decrease of nearly 25 percent. There are other indications that the sheriff should take a close look at
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costs. The Uniformed Officers Pension Plan shares the same drawback as other “defined benefit” plans: in the long run, the cost for the county is unsustainable. Corporations with assets that dwarf Knox County’s resources began dropping defined benefit plans some years ago in favor of 401(k) plans. Perhaps more than any other county employees, sheriff’s deputies deserve the best benefits we can afford to give, but the current plan has the potential to bankrupt the county. If anything, the clothing allowance for high-ranking administrators betrays a culture that has flourished for years with little accountability, other than that which comes at the ballot box. It’s telling that the KCSO’s budget has continued to grow during the worst economic stretch this country has seen since the Great Depression. The difference in fiscal practices between the economy-minded mayor and the sheriff are due for an airing before the county’s next budget comes to commission for approval.
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