Late last year, Cook Brothers filed suit against the county after commission denied his request for a rezone with a PUD, Planned Unit Development, overlay.

The suit claims Cook Brothers met all the requirements to be granted the rezone and overlay. Of course this is false.

Most recently, Cook's attorney, Sandy Sharp of Cope, Williams, Sharp and Mann PC, requested newly elected chancellor, Tom McFarland recues himself from hearing the case. In the filed court documents, the Cook attorney said McFarland should recues due to the fact circuit court judge, Mike Pemberton's, wife works in Sharp's office and that McFarland and Mike Pemberton had previous legal disagreements in the past. However, during last week's hearing on the recusal, Sharp argued that McFarland was close to county commissioners, walking the halls with them. McFarland called a halt to that discussion pointing out that none of that was in his court document.

Ultimately, McFarland declined to recues himself from the case. The next hearing is set for January 17. Both sides have asked for declaratory judgments, meaning to find that one party or the other should prevail on the facts without going to trial.  

You may remember, back before the May primary election when mass over development was the hottest issue on the ballot, Mr. Cook may have thought by investing in the primary elections, his odds of getting his rezone might be better. He made significant contributions to most of the pro-development county commission candidates. Of course, all his picks lost badly.

Cook donated:

$500 to Mark Matlock
$500 to Julia Hurley
$300 to David Ball

Cook also donated $5,000.00 to the Home Builders Association of Knoxville. This is the group that sent out all the mailers for Matlock, Hurley and Eddie Simpson. Seems Mr. Cook spent a lot of money and got nothing for it.