| The secret continues. Back in
December, Lenoir City mayor, Tony Aikens, released a video on his
official mayor's Facebook page, which he despises by the way, to promote
the city. The theme of the video is, Lenoir City, We Are Here For You.
The video is well done with fixed and drone footage. The video was
produced by McCosh Films out of Knoxville.
Click Here For
Video
On January 3rd, I put in
a records
request to the city for all the cost information associated with the
production of the video. Some time later, I received an email from
city manager, Amber Scott Kelso, that she couldn't give me that
information because of the county's lawsuit against the city for mayor
Aikens two illegal annexations. Of course, that's absurd. A second email
from Kelso stated that my request had been turned over the the city
attorney, Walter Johnson and I might want the county attorney to contact
the city attorney for the video information. I wasn't about to do that.
akelso@lenoircitytn.gov
To:
(Van
Shaver)
Mr. Shaver:
Good
afternoon. I am unable to fulfill your request.
Your request
will now be turned over to our City Attorney for
handling due to the ongoing legal matters between
the City of Lenoir City and Loudon County. Please
let our City Attorney know if you would prefer him
to deal with your attorney or the County’s attorney.
Thank you,
Amber Scott Kelso
City
Administrator
akelso@lenoircitytn.gov
To:
(Van
Shaver)
Mr. Shaver:
Good
afternoon. I am unable to
fulfill your request.
Your request
will now be turned over to
our City Attorney for
handling due to the ongoing
legal matters between the
City of Lenoir City and
Loudon County. Please let
our City Attorney know if
you would prefer him to deal
with your attorney or the
County’s attorney.
Thank you,
Amber Scott Kelso
City
Administrator
So a few days later, city
attorney Johnson took it on himself to contact Kyle Baisley, the
attorney representing Loudon County in the two illegal annexation
lawsuits, to ask him if he could communicate with me.
Walter Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 10:30 AM
To: Kyle Baisley
Cc: Amber Scott Kelso
Subject: Fw: Records Request
Kyle
Here is correspondence I
received regarding a records request made by Van
Shaver. Given the lawsuit and his being the
representative for county commission, I wanted to send
any response through you. Let me know if you want me to
do that or any other means of response that you
prefer.
Please stay safe in this
weather.
Walter
Kyle Baisley
To:
Walter Johnson
Cc:
Amber Scott Kelso, Van
Shaver
Tue,
Jan 23 at 2:18 PM
Walter:
Thank
you for the heads up and professional
courtesy. I have discussed the matter with
Commissioner Shaver and it is apparent that
his FOIA request is in no way, shape or form
related to our ongoing annexation
litigation. You and/or Amber are more than
welcome to correspond directly with
Commissioner Shaver on this matter in
response to his lawful request as well as
any others that he or other Commissioners
make in the future on matters unrelated to
the ongoing annexation litigation. You may
also do so without copying me. I am sure
that they will loop me in if ever needed.
I hope
that you and yours survived snowpacalypse.
Finally drying out here in Knox County.
Kyle A. Baisley
Mr. Shaver
Thank you for
your interest in Lenoir City
government. In response to
your recent record request,
please be advised that a
thorough review of the
records of Lenoir City
revealed no records
responsive to your request.
Sincerely,
Walter
Johnson
From:
Van Shaver
Sent:
Thursday,
February 1,
2024 7:33 AM
To:
Walter
Johnson
So,
for
reporting
purposes,
you
are
saying
there
are
no
documents,
RFP,
RFQ,
Bid
Documents,
Cost
Estimates,
Billed
or
Unbilled
invoices,
Invoices
of
any
kind
for
the
McCosh
Films-Lenoir
City-v1,
"Here
For
You"
video?
The
video
was
produced
free
for
the
city? McCosh
Films
charged
nothing
for
producing
the
video?
Just
want
to
be
sure
I
understand,
this
is
what
you're
saying.
Van
__________________________________________________________________________
On Tuesday,
February 6,
2024 at
09:16:25 AM
EST, Walter
Johnson
wrote:
Mr. Shaver
Thank you for your email. I am saying that there are no documents responsive to your request.
Walter Johnson
TBN 011014
City Attorney
___________________________________________________________________________
From Van Shaver
2/6/2024 11:12
am
To:
Just
because
I always
want to
be as
accurate
as
possible
and that
I fully
understand,
I will
take
your
latest
email
statement
to mean
that
there
are no
invoices,
no
invoices
pending,
no money
encumbered,
no money
paid and
no
estimates,
cost
proposals
for the
production
of the
video,
"We Are
Here For
You"
produced
by
McCosh
Films
and
recently
released
on Mayor
Tony
Aikens
Facebook
page,
within
city
finance
department
or any
other
city
department?
I also
checked
with
LCUB and
they
have not
paid the
bill and
don't
expect
to.
Van
____________________________________________________________________________
As of 2/12/24, no other response
has been received from the city.
When dealing with Lenoir City
officials, you have to be able to play their word games, "no records
responsive". That's not exactly a firm no. So I tried to ask the
question in every way possible to make it as clear as I could so they
could understand it.
According to Johnson, there are
no records responsive to my request. I did check with LCUB to see if
maybe they paid for the video, they said no. So, I can only assume the
production was free or city officials lost all the cost information or
city officials are very incompetent and just can't find the information
or maybe a squirrel got into city hall and carried off all the
information or maybe the video cost so much, they're afraid to let that
information out or maybe, as I suggested in the previous story that the
video looked more like an Aikens re-election video, maybe Aikens paid
for it himself?
This is a great example of how
Lenoir City government works.
I'll keep digging. |
