Trip could affect a commish meeting

It's possible that the Knox County Commission could end up moving its April 22 meeting to a later week, so some board members can head out to a conference in California.

Each year around April, a number of pension board members head out to the Wilshire Conference, which is typically held in sunny San Diego, Calif. (Ok, OK, I won't make any cracks about how they also have the opportunity to spend time on the golf course or at the zoo, since they do – at least this incarnation of the pension board – attend the real conference meetings and the other stuff is during downtime.)

Wilshire gets paid a good amount of coin to handle the county's pension and retirement investments. (And yes, taxpayers do pay for this trip.)

This year's conference is set for April 21-23. The county commission meting is set for Monday, April 22.

During today's pension board meeting, members talked briefly about possibly moving the commission meeting, maybe to the following Monday if enough commissioners go on the trip.

“We'll talk about it and see,” said commission Chairman Tony Norman, who sits on the pension board along with three other commissioners.

Pension Board Executive Director Kim Bennett went around the room asking folks whether they would attend. (By the way, she's not sure, although she will send one member of her staff.)

Commissioner Richard Briggs said he wouldn't; Norman and commissioner Ed Shouse said they weren't sure; Nick McBride said he didn't think so, Casual Chris Caldwell said he wouldn't; Joe Snyder said he wasn't sure.

Steve Glenn wasn't at the meeting, and Commissioner Mike Hammond – heck – I don't think anyone asked him.

The deadline to register is around March 25. My guess is that the meeting won't be rescheduled, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pension board  move its meeting up a week earlier.