Public emails, calls about sex offender ban

I got curious about public reaction to county Mayor Tim Burchett's new ban. You know, the one where he officially kicked sex offenders out of county libraries.

And no, I didn't want to read what the knuckleheads thought about it over at the KNS comment section. Most of those notes are the same people just posting under different names, anyway. No, seriously, check it out. Visit the site around midnight when a story gets posted and then watch two people start arguing. Love how the syntax is the same. And they just coincidentally are up at the same hour. All the time. Always picking fights with each other.

Damn, I'm rambling.

Anyhoo, I sent in a request to the administration. Apparently, since Monday – when King Tim announced the new policy – and as of yesterday morning, 16 people have phoned his office, according to the call log.

Another 10 folks emailed the office.

That's not too bad, I suppose. Communications Manager Michael “Big Sexy” Grider said “it's close to being the most” in regards to feedback.

He said the Carter Elementary School debate probably takes the cake, but feedback for that issue continues to trickle in all the time.

They also got some feedback on the budget. I'm assuming it was from the seniors who were upset that the mayor hates them and took away their free bus rides.

And, they also got quite of bit of correspondence late last year when the mayor wanted to hold public hearings for the proposed Midway Business Park project that he still won't publicly say he wanted done, but – yeah – he did. Heh.

Course, the county was soliciting feedback for that one, so let's just say it doesn't count.

Soooo, if you're interested, you can click right smack here for the call log. And you can click right smack here for copies of the emails.

Please note that I have the originals but also requested that the county redact the email addresses and phone numbers, so the crazies that post over on the KNS site don't get a hold of them. (I know my people wouldn't do that.) I only mention it in case someone wants to talk about transparency on behalf of the county. It was my call.

Based on the records, it appears that two out of the 16 callers didn't like the ban. One said she would not vote for the mayor again. Wow. For banning dirty old men and women from a library? Pretty sure she has bigger issues than that.

The other wanted proof that a sex offender in the library had ever molested a child. Wow. I think the idea behind Burchett's plan is to make it to where a sex offender never does molest a child.

Others pretty much said they supported the move, and one person said: “They can have two options – castration or stay out of the library.”

Most people who sent emails to Big Tim were in favor of the ban, although about half of them don't live in the county. One person sent some bizarre response, so I'm not sure what side of the fence he is on.

He probably doesn't know either.

Anyway, have fun.

I just figured I'd post something today.