No WhiteWash!

I have previously written concerning the proposal that the City of Kingsport buy the old State Theater  See post Kingsport Developer gets in over his head, thinks old theater may be haunted and wants city to bail him out.

Now the completed study by the Cinema Preservation Group is out and can be read in its entirety in the link below.  Read and form your own conclusions.

Kingsport Economic Development Board recently voted to spend nearly $10,000 to fund a study to determine the economic impact of a restored theater in downtown Kingsport. The Cinema Preservation Group is now conducting the work.

KEDB Chairman Bob Feathers said he contacted Beatty about the possibility of the city purchasing or investing in the theater after learning that Beatty was considering nonprofit status for the facility.

Feathers said he believes some type of investment can occur to complete the theater project — regardless of what the economic development study shows.

Read more via City may consider buying State Theater building – Kingsport Times-News Online.

In the recent Kingsport Times-News article below, Mayor Dennis Phillips denies that the city plans to buy the State Theatre outright.  I wonder what Mayor Phillips has in mind when he stated “without an enormous expense to the taxpayers”?

Mayor Dennis Phillips said he hopes the study will encourage some individual or organization to invest in the State Theater, complete the renovations, and begin operating it for the benefit of the downtown district.

“I think if we can accomplish this without an enormous expense to the taxpayers, it certainly would be a service that is sorely needed,” Phillips said.

Asked about the Strand Theater, another Broad Street historic facility that has recently been used as a venue for live music and old movies, Phillips said the Cinema Preservation Group study could also be used by the Strand owners if they would want to market the facility one day. The Strand Theatre is owned by Restoration Church.

“I don’t know if the Strand Theater is available today. The Strand Theatre is a church,” he said.

But if the Strand were put on the market, “this report would apply … then it becomes a matter of economics of which one could be done at the least cost,” Phillips said.

He denied that the city plans to buy the State Theatre outright.

via Study envisions new future for State Theatre – Kingsport Times-News Online.

The report from the Cinema Preservation Group states that there are major problems when a non-profit theater is aligned too closely with city hall.  Below are two paragraphs from the study.  I would encourage you to read the entire report.

Non-profit theatres aligned too closely with city hall often fall prey to two particular problems. The first occurs when the theatre building comes to be perceived as a public facility. Various public entities feel that they should be allowed to use the facility for significantly discounted rates, or even for free. Though currently not an issue in the case of the State, this type of agreement is often adopted in order to ensure initial approval for restoration by the council and guarantee the allocation of funds for building renovations and/or other expenses. Severely discounted rates take revenue away from the theatre and occupy blocks of time that could be filled by other groups who would pay to use the building. The second problem arises when city residents perceive the theatre to be a municipal building. When this happens, it becomes extremely difficult to raise money from the community. Fundraising efforts are either simply ignored or opposed outright, and individual donors become wary of contributing to an entity they feel could and should be largely financed by tax dollars.

…….Though ticket and concession sales are the primary sources of revenue for a theatre, there are other means of earning revenue that must be explored. The vast majority of live theatres in America today will never be self-supporting, they can simply never make enough money on ticket sales and concessions to cover expenses. Even in good economic times many theatres are fortunate to earn 50% of their revenue from events. Two strategies for overcoming this revenue shortfall are fundraising and rental.

Read more via The Cinema Preservation Group Study

The survey that was used in the study is questionable because the Cinema Preservation Group chose to use the blog that is maintained by Kingsport’s Assistant Manager, Jeff Flemming.  The readership of Jeff Flemming’s blog in my opinion would show a bias for the city of Kingsport and would not reflect the majority views of the Kingsport citizens.  See Time Sensitive: How do you feel about State Theatre?  I am sure that the response would have been different if this blog posted the survey.

It is interesting that the Cinema Preservation Group is from Asheville, NC.  Prior to coming to Kingsport, Doug Beatty lived in the Asheville area.

Also, it is interesting that  Richard Rose, artistic director at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, sent a letter of support for the State Theatre restoration to Kingsport City Manager, John Campbell.  Rose said he reviewed the Cinema Preservation study.  It is also interesting that Doug Beatty lives in the Abingdon, Virginia area

See also DKA to partner with Restoration Church on Strand Theater project,

Drama unfolds at DKA press conference on old Strand Theater

A reader of this blog has submitted information below on the series of events that certain Kingsport city officials took to help out their friends.  In my view, the City of Kingsport should keep it’s nose out of other organizations business.  See previous post on Kingsport’s downtown turf battle.  Mayor Phillips photo is on the above left and Vice Mayor Mallicote is on the above right.

Summary: The recent numerous public accounts of continuing disputes in downtown Kingsport are unfortunately the result of extraordinary biased “leadership” by the Mayor and Vice-Mayor of Kingsport, that have emboldened and enabled bully tactics by the very small group of businesses that call themselves the downtown business alliance (dba).

The dba has been grossly misrepresented publicly as having over seventy members; while in reality it is led by two important downtown businesses (Adaptcore and Urban Synergy). The dba only has a handful of strong supporters, none paying membership dues while the Downtown Kingsport Association (DKA) has 160 dues paying members and represents a broad range of downtown interests and has been doing so successfully for 70 years. The leaders of the dba have been key campaign supporters of city leadership preferred political candidates while the DKA board has been perceived as political opponents of city “leadership” The DKA has taken extraordinary measures to accommodate the legitimate interests of the dba; the DKA has met 100% of its contract deliverables to the City of Kingsport, which has not been disputed; yet demands for extraordinarily detailed and unfortunately increasingly stringent organizational changes have been placed upon the DKA by the Mayor and Vice-Mayor accompanied by unwarranted public attacks and bias by them.

The dba has failed to meet its few minor commitments to the DKA, but the city “leadership” has never requested the dba to comply. These actions by city “leadership” have harmed downtown Kingsport and are apparently driven by personal vendettas and agendas by them and not by any desire to improve Kingsport This is the second effort by city leadership to destroy the DKA as the Mayor attempted to force a “merger” with the Chamber of Commerce last year that made no sense.

• In 2008 the Mayor demanded that the DKA enter into “merger” discussions with the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce or receive no funding with no explanation of why this was appropriate This was a bad idea by the Mayor, and after brief discussions between the Chamber and the DKA both parties agreed If the Mayor had been successful, it would have meant the end of the DKA.
• The DKA negotiated a detailed list of 8 pages of deliverables with the city for the fiscal year ending June 30; and every single deliverable was met successfully. which has not been disputed.
• Late 2008 an informal alliance of a few downtown businesses (dba) approached the city regarding what that they perceived as problems within the DKA. The Mayor apparently saw this as second opportunity to destroy the DKA. Despite the dba refusing to be members of the DKA and work from within for improvements, the city “leadership” encouraged and emboldened the dba to compete with the DKA, to demand board seats and to further demand a long list of detailed organizational changes still without even joining the organization. The city “leadership” should have advised the “dba” to join the DKA and work from within instead of encouraging the bullying tactics employed by the dba.  If city “leadership” had acted appropriately at this point all the competition and disputes between downtown organizations would have been avoided.
• In February at a joint meeting attended by the Mayor, the dba and the DKA, the Mayor unfortunately showed his bias by opening the meeting prior to any discussions of the parties by advising the DKA to provide 6 board seats to the dba. He did not advise the dba to join nor make any suggestions to them on how to better work together.
• Also in February the DKA submitted a funding request with a detailed set of deliverables and at a proposed funding level to address increased downtown marketing as targeted by the dba. The city “leadership” provided no feedback on the proposal and the proposal was not even provided to the rest of the BMA for consideration. No opportunity was provided for the DKA to discuss this proposal with the BMA.
• Instead the city “leadership” scheduled a BMA work session in May regarding funding for downtown activities; they provided substantial advance notice to the dba who were given an opportunity to make a formal presentation while the DKA was given only one hours notice. This was a blatantly unfair by the city “leadership” The BMA tentatively split funding, which led to further competition between the groups and ultimately to formal mediation. This was a serious mistake as the dba was not a qualified non-profit organization legally able to accept city funding. In fact the dba were not even a legal entity, but only an informal alliance, which is still true today.
• City “leadership” is well aware that the dba has been grossly exaggerated in public descriptions of its size. In fact it is led by AdaptCore (owners of Bonefire Smokehouse, The Bus Pit, Kingsport Grocery and the apparent failed attempt to renovate the State theater) and Urban Synergy (developers of numerous lofts and business building renovations downtown) and a very small group of other moderate supporters. While these two companies are important to downtown, they do not represent broad interests downtown such as manufacturing, professional services, medical, banking, churches, etc. as the DKA does.
• Despite its funding cut, the DKA led an effort to have Kingsport’s greatest July 4th concert and fireworks display ever.
• At the first mediation meeting in July the Mayor and Vice Mayor were not neutral parties, they completely advocated on behalf of the dba; and made extraordinarily disparaging remarks about specific DKA board members. The dba had three pages of specific organizational demands and the DKA placed no demands upon the dba. The mediator stated that certain key corporate sponsorships were threatened unless the DKA met the demands of the dba and city “leadership” This meeting with two BMA members attending may have been a violation of State sunshine laws, which should be investigated.
• On September 28 at a BMA work session the Vice Mayor presented a completely one sided proposal to the BMA and falsely portrayed it as a “middle of the road” proposal. In fact if it had been accepted that evening by the BMA (which it was not), the DKA would have been required to meet 100% of every onerous demand by the dba, including a ridiculous demand for twelve Board seats or the DKA would receive no funding; and the dba would not have been required to do anything!
• At a DKA press conference on Oct 2, an extraordinary positive announcement was explained about downtown Kingsport. A joint arrangement had been reached between DKA and the Restoration Church located in the previous Strand Theater to lead to immediate and regular stage performances focused on family based dramas in this currently fully functioning state of the art performing arts facility. Instead of city “leadership” attending the press conference to praise these efforts, the Vice-Mayor attended, had no positive statements to make, and focused all his statements on creating false charges about timing concerns related to these actions. In the Kingsport paper the next day a great positive story for downtown Kingsport should have been the focus, but instead because of the Vice-Mayor’s almost unbelievable anti Kingsport actions another negative story was the focus.
• Alderman Munsey agreed to work over next two weeks (from Sept 28) to attempt resolution. During that period much real progress was made and only four detailed issues remained to be resolved by the next BMA work session on Oct 5, at which the BMA had targeted for final resolution. Note that while the DKA continued to make concessions in good faith the dba reduced its commitment to bring in new members to 15-20 from the 50-70 they first made in July and from the 30-40 new members promised just two weeks earlier.
• Well in advance of the Oct 5 BMA work session, the DKA prepared and submitted to the city manager’s office an 11-page presentation to be reviewed with the BMA that clearly laid out the case for the value of DKA and its rationale for funding. Unfortunately the Mayor advised the DKA ten minutes before the meeting that the DKA would be given no opportunity during the alderman discussion of potential DKA funding to discuss or review the presentation. Again this was grossly unfair.
• At the same meeting Larry Munsey covered the progress he made as described in his Oct 2 report and the four remaining issues were identified (number of board seats, term limits, election procedures this year and nominating committee). One alderman suggested the dba and the DKA representatives go outside the room and see if agreement between the parties could be reached. After a brief meeting, full agreement was reached, and it was explained orally to the BMA. The DKA, the dba and the DKA thought all of the BMA understood final agreement was reached that evening between the dba and the DKA, and that funding would be released right away to the DKA so that a completely unified downtown would be put into place immediately.
• Unfortunately the next evening the Vice Mayor continued his vendetta and convinced the BMA to impose additional requirements upon the DKA before funding would be released that had not been agreed to the previous night. The vice-mayor publicly criticized the DKA and funding was to be further withheld until the city attorney certified DKA had met its obligations. This was a serious mistake, and the BMA was advised of such as city “leadership” had previously demonstrated on numerous occasions they could not be trusted as described herein.
• Nevertheless the DKA continued to work in good faith to meet its commitments. Its Board met and made all the bylaw changes that it had agreed to. It added two representatives to the dba to the Board nominating committee and worked in good faith to pick six Board candidates from their list of 12 suggested (as was agreed to). The dba had agreed at the last BMA work session to have all of its board candidates join the DKA, generally for small business at the relatively small cost of $150, but unfortunately the dba did not comply.
• On Oct 28 a meeting of DKA, dba and city representatives was held. The dba admitted they still had not met their requirement for any of their Board nominees to join, but the dba now pushed ahead attempting to negotiate additional concessions from the DKA. On one issue the city attorney clarified that what the DKA had changed in its bylaws was consistent with the agreement previously reached and the dba position was wrong. On another issue the dba was again wrong as they were citing a preliminary report from Alderman Munsey not the final report. The DKA clarified such that evening to all parties. Despite the fact the dba had not met its meager commitments and the DKA had met 100% of its very demanding commitments, the Vice Mayor requested nothing from the dba, but insisted that the DKA make concessions beyond the agreement previously reached. The dba again agreed they would bring in the promised membership checks by the end of the day.
• By an Oct 29 called BMA work session, the dba still had not brought in any memberships as repeatedly promised and the DKA had met all its requirements that it agreed to on Oct 5. In fact the dba now was demanding several additional new concessions mostly of a technical nature. Instead of allowing the city attorney to discuss how the DKA had complied with its requirements and allow his certification for funding as the BMA had previously voted, the Vice Mayor convinced the BMA to support (subject to a final vote on Nov 3) funding for downtown through the KCVB, which already receives nearly a million dollars in city funding. There is no logical reason to take away DKA funding for additional funding to KCVB.
• At the November 3 BMA meeting the BMA voted by 5-2 to fund the KCVB. The two aldermen that voted on principle were Ken Marsh and Larry Munsey.
• The DKA has fully met all its commitments. The dba has not. The city “leadership” is continuing to deny funding to the DKA despite this, and has demonstrated that the Mayor and Vice-Mayor never intended to negotiate in good faith.
• It is now clear to the DKA that the Kingsport Mayor and Vice-Mayor are biased regarding the DKA.

Comments are welcome on this blog.

Last night the Kingsport, Tennessee Board of Mayor and Alderman voted to borrow $41.1 million for various projects.  According to the Kingsport Times-News quote below, the total debt has doubled in the last five years.  I might add that this has occurred during Mayor Dennis Phillips terms as mayor and John Campbell as city manager.

With this bond issuance, Kingsport’s total debt has doubled in the past five years, from $110 million in fiscal year 2006 to $218 million in fiscal year 2010, according to city records. Kingsport’s general fund debt will increase from the current amount of $92.6 million to $103.4 million for fiscal year 2010, while total city debt will go from $173.5 million to slightly more than $218 million.

Read more via Kingsport BMA approves $41.1 M in bonds – Kingsport Times-News Online.

Things must really be in bad shape for the city because they are borrowing $200k to replace a roof on the Renaissance Center and financing it for 20 years.  Borrowing money to replace a roof should be a maintenance item that is planned for and funded from within a yearly budget.

It would not surprise me that Kingsport will be the subject of many discussions by other cities on Kingsport’s management practices or lack thereof. 

Mayor Phillips, when can we expect the property tax increase?

Below is the spending that was approved

Below is data that was obtained form the website NeighborhoodScout which gives some interesting data concerning the high crime rate in Kingsport, Tennessee.  Kingsport is ranked as having a high crime rank by NeighborhoodScout and states that  Kingsport’s crime rate is higher than the average for the State of Tennessee and  United States.

Are our city officials more concerned about putting in a new swimming pool, expanding the convention center, building more hotels, annexing more property, getting more restaurants, etc. than reducing the high crime rate in Kingsport?

Kingsport, TN Elected Officials – Board of Mayor and Alderman

Mayor Dennis Phillips	Vice Mayor Ben Mallicote	Alderman Larry Munsey	Alderman Jantry Shupe	Alderman C. Ken Marsh, Jr.	Alderman Tom Parham	Alderwoman Valerie Joh

NeighborhoodScout

With a crime rate of 89 per one thousand residents, Kingsport has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 11. Within Tennessee, more than 90% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Kingsport.

Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city’s crime rate with those of similarly sized communities – a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 44,560, Kingsport has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Kingsport does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Kingsport.

The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.

Now let us turn to take a look at how Kingsport does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Kingsport.

For Kingsport, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included forcible rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout’s analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Kingsport is one in 107.

In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Kingsport is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Kingsport, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 13, which is a rate of 80 per one thousand population.

Click here to see the data below as well as a map showing where the safest places are in Kingsport.  At the top of the page you can get data for a different city.

I have done many posts concerning the median age and population in Sullivan County, Tennessee and  Sullivan County has one of the oldest populations in the state (click here to view the data).

The data below is from the state and I hope will help illustrate exactly what will happen if Sullivan County continues as it has in the past.

Below in the graph is a breakdown on the population for the different age groups in Sullivan County for the census year 2000 and projections for year 2025.  Sullivan County population in year 2000 was 153,048 and is projected to be 161,262 in year 2025.

Note that in the graph below that the 2025 population for all age groups are less for age groups that are under the 55 to 59 age group.  The year 2025 graph shows that the population numbers shows the population growing for for ages group 55 and up.  The largest single age group with the largest population is the age group 75 and up and the larger part of them are females.

Is Sullivan County equipped to handle the aging population?  There should great demand for those businesses offering services to the elderly.  But, if you are a pediatric physician, you might want to start your practice elsewhere because of the low birth rate in Sullivan County.

The table below gives the actual population numbers for the different age groups.  I have added the year 2010 which is not plotted in the above graph so you can see what is projected for 2010.  The data from the state is given as number of males and females for each age group and I have added the male and female population numbers together in the table below and the graph.

Population Projections for Sullivan County, TN

You can view the data for other Tennessee Counties which includes projections for every five years up to year 2025.  Click on the link below to go to the Tennessee webpage

Demographic Information on Age-Gender Composition

In addition to the population projections for each Tennessee city and county contained in the report above, you may access more detailed cohort-component data for a city or county below. (Please note that updated demographic projections will be forthcoming.)

Please either click a county on the Tennessee state map or click a county name in the alphabetical list below the map to access the cohort-component data. Note the Word of Caution following table listed below.

Click here to view state data for Tennessee Counties

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I am one of the older population and am concerned about the future of Sullivan County.   No, you can’t move us out of the county, but you should be concerned about the future of the county when we have left this world.  There must be something in place to keep young people in Sullivan County.  A good start would be get companies that have good paying jobs to locate here.   If you too are concerned, talk to your elected officials.  You can email them at the following links.

Comments are welcome.

There is a turf battle occurring between the DKA (Downtown Kingsport Association) and DBA (Downtown Business Alliance).  These two competing organizations are trying to get funding from the City of Kingsport.

It is documented that Mayor Dennis Phillips has in the past attempted to merge the DKA into the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce.

The Kingsport Times-News reports that Mayor Phillips stated that at the Oct. 6, 2009 BMA meeting they would vote on Vice Mayor Mallicote proposal to withhold funding to the DKA if the DKA did not change their board leadership guidelines.  To me, this sounds like blackmail and it also points out that Mayor Phillips and Vice Mayor political allies are in the DBA organization.

If the DKA has a problem with the current BMA decisions, they could band together and vote out the current BMA in the next election.

There has been much that has been written on this dispute in the last few years.  See the links below.

Drama unfolds at DKA press conference on old Strand Theater

Kingsport leaders seek resolution to DKA, DBA dispute

Merchants air concerns over concert stage, moving concert location

Concerts causing friction between downtown organizations

DKA, DBA at loggerheads over best way to promote downtown Kingsport

DKA leaders set for merger meeting with chamber

City may consider buying State Theater building

DKA to partner with Restoration Church on Strand Theater project

Kingsport Developer gets in over his head, thinks old theater may be haunted and wants city to bail him out

Comments are welcome.

Since the City of Kingsport, Tennessee is buying up real estate, I have included a sample classified ad that could be used by the city.  You can see a list of properties that the city owns by clicking here.  Copy the following in bold, kingsport city of and paste into the Owner Name on the Real Estate Assessment Data form.

Hint:  If you are serious about selling property to the city, then it would be a good idea to become a political ally first with the City of Kingsport elected leaders.

Merriam-Webster – ally

Meaning: someone associated with another to give assistance or moral support <in trying to convince his parents to send him to soccer camp, Toby had a real ally in his coach>

Synonyms abettor (also abetter), backer, confederate, supporter, sympathizer

Related Words well-wisher; accessory, accomplice, collaborationist, collaborator; adjunct, assistant, coadjutor, helper; associate, cohort, colleague, fellow, partner; buddy, chum, companion, comrade, confidant, crony, familiar, friend, intimate, mate, pal

Famous Quotes from the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen

Mayor Dennis Phillips – ‘We need MeadowView to keep from reducing fire, police protection, and reducing trash pick-up to every two weeks.” October 21, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips –“We need to annex so we don’t have to raise taxes”  February 5, 2008

Alderman Munsey – “We need to do the MeadowView expansion to keep from raising taxes” September 15, 2008

Alderman Munsey – Debt is neither good or bad,”   June 3, 2008

Vice Mayor Mallicote – “I do not believe all of the doom and gloom about the economy”.  June 3, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips – “If the taxpayers wanted the city to cut the spending, then we could collect garbage every other week”  June 3, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips – “If there were no money to spend, then you would not need politicians”  October, 2007

A developer comes from another state and buys the old State Theater on Broad Street in Kingsport, Tennessee.  This developer (Douglas Beatty) starts work to renovate the State Theater building and finds that with the economy and his other investments that it might be better to sell his unfinished State Theater building to the City of Kingsport.

Doug Beatty, the developer has stated that he wants to get out what he has so far paid for the building and renovations which is about $450,000.  He further states that the entire cost to renovate the building would be about $900,000.

It appears that Doug Beatty is well connected with Mayor Phillips, Vice Mayor Mallicote, BMA members and the Kingsport Economic Development Board recently voted to spend nearly $10,000 to fund a study to determine the economic impact of a restored theater in downtown Kingsport.

The Kingsport Times-News reports that Bob Feathers with the Kingsport Economic Development Board believes some type of investment can occur to complete the theater project — regardless of what the economic development study shows.  I guess the question is, why is the city of Kingsport spending $10,000 for a study when they are going to do what they want to do to make this developer happy.

Let the private sector take care of this. The city of Kingsport has no business bailing out someone who got in over his head.  I am sure that there are many folks in Kingsport would like for the city to bail them out of their current financial situation.

During the renovation process, Doug Beatty became aware of apparently paranormal occurrences inside.  According to L.E.M.U.R Paranormal Investigation website, Doug Beatty met with L.E.M.U.R and permitted an investigation.

Kingsport Times-News

“I need to,” he said. “I want to at least get what I’ve got in it so I can satisfy the bank note.”

The theater is now appraised at $1.6 million by private professional appraisers, and at $1 million for county tax purposes.

Beatty said work is still progressing on the theater. But he doesn’t want to invest in any more big-ticket items such as $30,000 in sheet rock or new theater seats, until he’s in a better position or the city moves forward with an acquisition.

“I’ve got two restaurants that I really have to tend to and make sure that they’re able to pay their bills and stay open. That’s really distracting me financially and time-wise from the theater,” Beatty said.

“I really want to get it done, but I’m at a point right now, because the economy has taken so long to come back, that I’m not sure how much more I can plow ahead without putting myself at risk. I want to make sure that I’m acting responsibly and cautiously as it relates to all the development we’re doing downtown,” he said.

Feathers said he believes some type of investment can occur to complete the theater project — regardless of what the economic development study shows.

“I sincerely doubt it will be dropped altogether. But you never know,” Feathers said. “Economies could drive something different from our perspective and what we’re trying to do from an economic development perspective.

“But from a priority standpoint, this is a very important component to what we see as a good fit for the community.”

The owner of the State Theater is DB3 Development Company, LLC and is North Carolina company.  DB3 Development Company, LLC is listed as a FOREIGN company according to the Tennessee Secretary of State.  Below is from the State of Tennessee website

According to Sullivan County, DB3 Development Co LLC also owns property at 227-229-23 Sullivan St.  It appears that there is construction work occurring at this location and the 2008 Sullivan County property taxes are not paid.

Let your Kingsport Board of Mayor and Alderman know your concerns about bailing out one of their pals.  Keep in mind the money spent to buy the State Theater will be your tax dollars.

email Kingsport BMA

• Mayor Dennis Phillips
• Vice Mayor Ben Mallicote
• Alderman Larry Munsey
• Alderman Jantry Shupe
• Alderwoman Valerie Joh
• Alderman Ken Marsh, Jr.
• Alderman Tom Parham

Feel free to leave a comment.

This blog was started in February 2007 with the title of “Kingsport, TN Government”.  The name was later changed to “No WhiteWash!”, a name less focused on one local government.  We are still focused on Kingsport, TN Government and have expanded into issues that affect Sullivan County, North East Tennessee area, and the State as they are in a lot of case interrelated.

The direction of this blog for the future will be for the average citizen and not the elites who choose to run things for their own self-interest.  There will be no favoritism toward a political party in this blog.  WARNING:  If you are a elected official or running for office and make statements that you can’t back up or not exactly telling the full story, then this blog will expose them.  If you are running for office or an elected official who wants to use this blog for political advantage, then I would suggest you go elsewhere to peddle your story.  This blog is for the people!!

This little blog now has readership that is around 1,000 visits per day and that number could be much higher because other blogs re-publish this blog posts to their blogs.  There have been over 1,700 posts written in this blog since inception and the posts are not forgotten as they slide down the page as newer post take their place on the first page.  The search traffic coming to this blog is very large because this blog posts are indexed on all of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc).  All of the posts go into a RSS news feed where readers can read the posts without having to visit the blog.  The folks using the RSS feed amounts to many hundred per day.

Over the last few years I have seen more local people become more vocal about expressing their views concerning how the local governments operate.  They express their views in the comments areas in the local newspapers, blogs, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc)  There have been many local blogs that have been started in the North East Tennessee area in the last few years and I think we will see more of it.

Blogs do get a lot of readership.  The Tea Party protests got their start from blogs and with very little help from local media.

The Show blog is another local blog that has come online and also has it own local talk radio show on Monday and Thursday from 6-8pm on WMCH AM1260.  Local issues are discussed in this radio talk show and in many cases the posts from this blog are discussed and the radio talk show does allow callers to phone in and express their views. 

I have learned much about the City of Kingsport government on how they operate.  The research that I have done has me very concerned about how the “elites” control the city and do things that are in their self-interests.  I do have a concern about their lack to fully understand the problems the area has such as low median wages, declining population, high unemployment, lack of good paying jobs, and young adults leaving the area to find work, etc.

I also have a concern how the mayor selects political appointees to serve on different committees so he can be assured that he get what he wants.  The reporting in the Kingsport Times-News is almost always, in my view, protecting the city officials.  One has to understand that if they reported anything negative about the city, then it would reflect on the upper management at the Kingsport Times-News.  This is because there are many of the top management at the Times-News that are Mayor Dennis Phillips’ political appointees.

We could go on about how certain people decide who should run for political office and then campaign for them and put up the money for them to get elected.

We could talk about the Ridgefield County Club elites or look at the details of the spending of city money by the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce, but these could be posts for another day.

There have been many that have sent this blog information concerning the operation of our local governments and I want to say thank you.  Please continue reporting as you have in the past.

If you have anything to report concerning the below areas, feel free to use the email icon below to report it. The source of the information will be kept confidential.

• City of Kingsport, TN
• City of Bristol, TN
• Sullivan County, TN
• North East, TN
• Tennessee Government

Issues such as wasteful spending, local elections, annexation, ethics, crime, conflicts of interest, backroom deals, open government, abuse of taxpayer money, etc., are examples to report, but not limited to those listed.

Below is a comment submitted by former Kingsport Alderman Pat Shull.  He raises some good points and I agree with his concerns about the two year contract at $35,000 per year and the pick-up truck gift.

I would also like to add that Mayor Phillips appointed his friends, Pal Barger , Dr, Bill Locke, and former Alderman Mike O’Neil to be on an oversight board for the Kingsport Convention and Visitors Bureau.  I think I am seeing a pattern of cronyism here.

The act of the BMA approving a $35,000 consulting contract for Dr. Bill Locke is clearly a conflict of interest.  During the deliberations regarding the City building the KCHE and RCHP it was absolutely crucial that the BMA receive assurance from the Dr. Locke, as Northeast State President, that NE State would fund the operating costs of these two centers IF the city would pay for construction of the buildings.  Also, there was no discussion for any need for a consultant to perform the services described in the Times-News article.  In my opinion, the city staff and elected officials are capable of performing the tasks cited.  Hiring Dr. Locke to fix problems that he should have anticipated and briefed the BMA about during the higher education discussions is simply absurd.

Several weeks ago Dr. Locke received a gift of a brand new pickup truck.  This donation effort was organized by the Mayor, Dennis Phillips.  The gift coupled with the consulting contract have the strong appearance of a political pay-off to Dr Locke for his cooperation during the BMA deliberations about higher education support.  Further, it is well known that Dr. Locke is good friends with the Mayor AND the publisher of the Times-News newspaper. Again, hiring Dr. Locke for various services appears to be the granting of a favor to a friend rather than a responsible, necessary action by the city.  Further, why would the current President of NE State (charged with administering the two centers) want her predecessor involved in her business?  This is a bad management precedent.

I am familiar with Federal regulations regarding "conflicts of interest".  Simply put, the above described acts would never be permitted at Federal level, and it is a disgrace that our BMA is so ethically blind that they would approve it at municipal level.  

Patrick W. Shull, COL USA (Ret).