FACE OF COURAGE
‘MAJOR’ WINS
Woman recalls ‘Bama civil rights struggle
Marvin recalls big games from Majors era
LARRY VAN GUILDER, A-6
MARVIN WEST, A-7
POWELL
Vol. 50, No. 8 • February 21, 2011 • www.ShopperNewsNow.com • 4509 Doris Circle, Knoxville 37918 • 922-4136
A community comes together School, clubs helping young mother who lost everything By Greg Householder Around 8 a.m. last Tuesday, Ana Perez’s fragile world collapsed in flames. The 20-year-old single mother of two just received a call on her cell phone from her friend and babysitter, Raven Dreier, who called to tell her that her house was on fire. Perez arrived just as the first firefighters came on the scene. All she could do was watch. The blaze in the Woodland Meadows trailer park, formerly known as Green Acres trailer park off Clinton Highway, took everything the family owned. Perez is a mature young woman for her age. She had purchased the small, two-bedroom singlewide mobile home that she shared with her children, 2-year-old David and 1-year-old Cecilia, and her sister, Lupita, a freshman at Powell High School. While technically “paid for,” Perez had borrowed the money to buy the mobile home and still owed on it. To support her young family, Perez holds down two jobs: one with Prestige Maintenance USA, a firm that provides janitorial services for the Clinton Highway Target store, and another with Wishbones Famous Fingers and Wings on Clinton Highway. Perez did not have insurance on the home, something she was intending to purchase with her next paycheck. She was also unaware that by living in Knox County she would need to subscribe to Rural/ Metro or pay an expensive hourly rate for fire service. Estimates of her Rural/Metro bill (the Karns Volunteer Fire Department also
Above: all that remains of Ana Perez’s home is the steel frame and lots of rubble. Perez is responsible for site cleanup. At right, Ana Perez stands near the wreckage of her trailer with her two children, David and Cecilia. Photos by Greg Householder
responded but will not bill her since they were assisting Rural/ Metro) run anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000. And then there is the site cleanup, something else she is responsible for. Sales of scrap metal might net enough money to pay for the cleanup, or might not. Fortunately, the community has responded. Tamara Shepherd, one of the leaders of the relief efforts, heard of the disaster because her son is also a freshman at Powell High School. Shepherd has been working with Powell High principal Ken Dunlap and Dunlap’s administrative assistant, Greta Stooksbury, to funnel funds through the school to help the family. Shepherd told the Powell Lions Club at the group’s meeting last Thursday that those helping with the Perez relief effort had obtained
a donated storage unit at Clinton Crossing Self Storage and that they have received pledges of furniture to furnish a three-bedroom home. She told the Lions that a church in Corryton has offered to open the doors of its clothes closet to the family. The Lions voted to donate $100 to the relief efforts. According to Perez, the fire started due to a faulty plug on a space heater. She was using space heaters to heat the small mobile
home because her last electric bill from KUB was $362, a high amount considering how little she and her children or sister were there. Laura Bailey, of the Knoxville Realty Office of Realty Executives, is also helping with the relief efforts. C and V Vending set up shop in the parking lot of Bailey’s office on Emory Road last Saturday and plans to do so again Saturday, Feb. 26. Half of the proceeds from the
sales will go toward the relief effort. According to Shepherd, the greatest need currently is to figure out the site cleanup. Anyone wishing to donate should mail a check payable to Powell High School to the school at 2136 W. Emory Road, Powell, TN 37849 to the attention of Perez Relief Fund. Anyone wishing to donate clothing or furniture should contact Shepherd at 947-0660.
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-
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
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
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. 2707 Mineral Springs Ave. Knoxville, TN 37917 Ph. (865) 687-4537
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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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