Oddly, at the council meeting during the public hearing, Knoxville attorney Tom Hale, spoke to council on behalf of the concerned citizens. Five seconds after he began to speak, a lady sitting on the left side of the council table appeared to use a remote control to mute the audio portion of the live stream/recording of the meeting. As soon as Mr. Hale finished his comments, again using the remote, the lady unmated the audio.

I later learned the lady who muted the audio was Melissa Huskin, Loudon City Recorder. I did speak with Ms. Huskin. She was very apologetic about the incident and explained:

"The routine process is to turn the camera on at 6:25 p.m. and mute the audio until the 6:30 p.m. council meeting begins. This allows LCTV3 time to set up the livestream. It was coincidental and purely unintentional that Mr. Hale was speaking during the muted period." Melissa Huskin

No reason at all to doubt Ms. Huskin's explanation. However this whole thing has been a bit odd from the beginning. City officials being asked to sign a non discloser agreement (NDA), probably not legal, a city planning commission member presenting the proposal, and having a financial interest in the project. It just gives the whole project a bad smell.