October 20, 2014 City Council Set To Vote on Changing Distance Requirement for Beer Sales

The Morristown City Council agenda for tomorrow includes a reduction in the distance requirement between businesses selling beer and schools, churches, and parks.


This latest change comes after the Popkin Food City (on part of the old Berkline property) was built and then "suddenly" Food City discovered that the building was too close to the City's Popkin Park to get a beer permit under the city's current distance guidelines.


No problem. Whenever a law inconveniences the City or certain well-heeled companies or  councilmembers, the solution is always the same: change the law.


[Remember the George McGuffin Law that LeBel, Senter, Bivens, Garrett, and Jinks passed overturning a referendum to help the LeBel Five put George McGuffin back on the MUS Board. Click here or here or on the label "McGuffin Law" at the side of this blog]




Now some of the changes being made tomorrow are general changes that need to be made. But the change in the distance requirement is specifically for Food City. 


Whether the distance requirement should be changed or not should not come up suddenly--particularly in response to a situation where a corporation that is very knowledgeable about beer permitting in localities throughout Tennessee and designs and builds a store in Morristown that is too close to a city park to qualify for a beer permit.


Food City already has numerous stores in Morristown that sell beer. Food City knows and knew the beer permit distance requirements when they bought the Popkin property (with City Councilman Paul LeBel involved in the sale) and when they located and began construction on the store.


So let's not act like, golly-gee, we're shocked and need to do something (change the law) to help these poor souls.


There will be lots of posturing tomorrow--and lots of claims about needing to take this action to "create jobs" or to help a business/corporate/friend. Plus there will be claims that the old distance requirements are "suddenly" out-of-date. See Gary Chesney's October 17 Facebook post here.


Job creation is extremely important, but there are some who say that "job creation by Food City" in Morristown is largely smoke and mirrors as Food City is opening two new stores (Masengill Springs on W.A.J. and Popkin on E. Morris Boulevard) with great fanfare---and with the help of millions of local tax increment dollars (TIF) used on each site--and then with far less fanfare Food City will quietly close down one or more of its other Morristown stores.

Watch what Councilmember LeBel, who was involved in the sale of the property to Food City and who profited by that sale, says and does.


Watch them all as they skirt around the fact that the major change being made tomorrow is a change to the beer permit distance requirement to accommodate Food City at Popkin Center--a corporate business that knows the local beer permit law, built its building too close to a park to get a beer permit under the existing law, and then turned to LeBel and company to have the law changed.


And when the law is changed tomorrow and customized for Food City, it is changed for all businesses. And if. in the future, another favored business builds its building too close to a school, church, or park to get a beer permit, we will go through this same customized change to the law, the same political charade.

May 23, 2013 LeBel Questions James Craine on East End Food City TIF and Masengill Springs Food City TIF

On May 21, the Morristown City Council approved a $2.5 TIF (tax incremental financing) for the Masengill Springs Food City by a 4-3 vote. In favor were Alvis, Bivens, Chesney, and Thomas and opposed were Garrett, LeBel, and Senter.

These videos show what took place before the vote on the Masengill Springs TIF.

James Craine, vice-chairman of the IDB, stated that he performed the Masengill Springs economic impact study that is the basis for the IDB's recommendation of a TIF. Craine said that he was requested to perform the study by the IDB of which he is a member. He added that he was paid approximately $5,000.00 for his work. [Apologies for the poor video but the audio is clear]



LeBel then grilled Craine about the IDB's handling of the only currently active TIF--the east end Barton Springs Food City TIF.



LeBel also questioned Craine about the Masengill Springs TIF that was on the council's agenda and that was later approved by a 4-3 vote.

 

September 19, 2012 Masengill Springs Rezoning Fails: Morristown's Charter Zoning Provision Applies

Opponents of the Masengill Springs development on West Andrew Johnson Highway won at least a temporary victory yesterday when the Masengill Springs rezoning failed with 3 YES votes (Danny Thomas, Chris Bivens, and Gene Brooks), 2 NO votes (Kay Senter and Bob Garrett), and 1 ABSTENTION (Paul LeBel).

Residents have repeatedly cited flooding, traffic, and quality of life issues in opposition to the rezoning. The bombshell, however, was their discovery in recent weeks that there is a provision in the Morristown City Charter that requires the City to provide three public notices of a proposed rezoning and allows certain nearby residents to sign a petition protesting the rezoning and thus require a 4/5 council vote for approval instead of a simply majority.

[The City admitted that it has ignored the Charter provision requiring three public notices and apparently citizens and council have previously been unaware of the petition process provided for residents.]

Initially, it appeared that the entire matter would be delayed two weeks at the request of the developer--a move which is normally accomplished by a simple motion and majority vote of council.

Kay Senter, however, made a move for postponement to October 2 as a "special order."  The "special order" terminology surprised many members of council and the city attorney. Kay had her Robert's Rules with her and pointed out that the "special order" term meant that her motion to postpone required a 2/3 vote of council for the postponement.

Amidst the confusion and discussion, the motion to postpone by "special order" failed to get the required 2/3 majority.

Kay then quickly made a motion to approve the rezoning.  At that point, City Attorney Dick Jessee stated that he had received an opinion on Monday (the day before yesterday's vote) from MTAS (Municipal Technical Advisory Service) that upheld the City Charter zoning provision requiring a 4/5 vote to approve a rezoning when the required number of residents have protested the rezoning by petition.

More discussion and controversy. When the vote was taken on Kay's motion to approve the rezoning, a majority voted YES, but not the required 4/5.  Voting YES were Gene Brooks, Chris Bivens, and Danny Thomas. Voting NO were Kay Senter (who had made the motion to approve the rezoning) and Bob Garrett. Abstaining was Paul LeBel.