Broyles on voting against committee

Photo by Michael Patrick

Knox County Commissioner Amy Broyles is fond of study committees.

In fact, she gets pretty upset when fellow commissioners vote against them.

Case in point: She took fellow members to task late last year when the board voted against a redistricting plan that a panel spent months working on. Instead, the board signed off on their own version, and one that wouldn't displace any of them.

Go figure.

Anyhoo, I figured it was worth asking the good commissioner why she was now spearheading a proposal to postpone a parking fee increase for the government peeps who park below the Deathstar.

I mean, it was after all a committee that proposed the increase and Broyles was part of the commission that approved the bump.

Here's her response:

“The difference is that whenever I've said that before it was about an issue that we had just sent to a committee and then when we get it back we immediately tossed the work out the window and said 'we don't want it.' We did this (parking fee increase) two years ago and we implemented it but it didn't go as expected. So, we're not tossing the work out the window. We're just asking them to study the issue in light of the economy.”

OK, fair enough, I guess.

The commission briefly addressed the issue during today's work session, and members in the coming week(s) are expected to reconvene the parking committee.

I figure the county (and city) for that matter will hold off on the fee increase. However, I just don't see them letting the public park in the building. (Another issue. Another time.)