Allegations of a Threat to a Government Appointed Commission Member and Chamber Leaderships Goal To Position Citizens Against Each Other

Mayor Durrett appointed a past and future President of the Chamber of Commerce to be on the official Government Consolidation Charter Commission.

These Chamber leaders presented an Implementation Plan to the Government Commission that said “The goal is to position county voters against city voters vice versa while pushing vote Yes as a solution to their problems with one another.”       

You'll see quotes from a well-known citizen who alleged a Charter Commission member made threats to another Charter Commission member. The person who allegedly made the threats is Mayor Durrett's Campaign Treasurer and the counties internal auditor. He is also the person who made a motion to give $25,000 of tax payers money to the Red Ivory advertising firm who wrote that plan to position citizens against each other. Later you'll see the motion passed. 

Last week the news director from a Nashville TV station called me and we talked for thirty minutes. He's very interested in the connection Red Ivory’s owner Michael Lotfi has with Montgomery County government. 

After Lotfi received Montgomery County taxpayers money he was also paid State tax payers money when he was hired by Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada. Speaker Casada recently resigned in the midst of a huge scandal. The news director and I also talked about the other evidence and issues seen below.
                                                       
The very same Chamber of Commerce that positions citizens against each other also partners with the Industrial Development Board (IDB). They had secret meetings and brought Atlas BX here and their lead acid plume will hover in the air extremely close to residences and schools. The deal was already final before residents were told. Here’s a quote from the Chamber’s website that they share with the IDB :

“The Partnership is a nonprofit marketing and support organization for the Clarksville-Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and Industrial Development Board.  The Partnership bridges efforts to bring new industries to Clarksville and maintain our high standards of living with arts, entertainment and hospitality. (end of website quote)

Montgomery County citizen Debra Moore goes to every IDB meeting and she wrote :

The Industrial Development Board (IDB) is responsible for negotiating PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) deals with companies like AtlasBX. They continually state that they want to bring jobs to our Clarksville residents. However, now they are seeking a grant from Aspire to create a plan to bring more people into our county because there is a shortage of employees for the jobs that are here. Yet they plan on asking for re-zoning of more farmland on 79 to bring in more industries and offering them PILOTS. Last year, our county had 22 PILOTS where industries paid just 17% of their normal tax burden over the past 10 years. That means you and I have to pay more taxes to build schools and pay for services because industry is getting all the tax breaks. At the same time, the IDB has been given the authority to negotiate these PILOT deals without even notifying the residents of what industries are coming to their neighborhoods. So one community gets AtlasBX. What will the residents on 79 be getting? Will it be toxic as well? If there are too many jobs for the people who live here, why not stop negotiating more PILOTS rather than continuing to bring in more industry and taxing our infrastructure even further? Let’s ask our commissioners to put infrastructure ahead of growth.” (end of quote)

Here’s a quote about public hearings that occur after the secret deal has been negotiated. This was written by the Facebook page titled Clarksville Safe and Strong :

“TDEC won't let anyone appeal the air permit decision to the TDEC board unless they commented before July 1st even though TDEC's Town Hall was Oct. 26th!  The families that live near the plant should not have to pay for a clear mistake the city/county may have made in those greed to build up housing so close to an industrial park, or vice versa. It sure is hard keeping these people honest! This whole process has been a sham.” (end of quote from Clarksville Safe and Strong)                

Sango Resident Diana Larkins wrote : “Some City leaders call it progress. Many Clarksvillians’ call it Destruction and Overdevelopment of neighborhoods and farming communities.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
As we continue please remember (1) The Chamber and IDB are partners  (2) Chamber leadership initiated the push for consolidation and (3) Chamber leadership members who were appointed to the Charter Commission by Mayor Durrett presented an Implementation Plan that said “The goal is to position county voters against city voters vice versa while pushing vote Yes.”
    

Alleged Threats Introduction Followed By Quotes From Everyone Involved  

                          
Mayor Durrett also appointed his campaign Treasurer Bob Yates to be on the official Charter Commission. In June of 2017 Mr. Yates was confirmed. His accounting firm is paid to do our counties internal audit.

In June of 2017 Mr. Yates also became the Treasurer for the PAC that tried to get everyone to vote for consolidation. His name is on the return address on the controversial flyers the PAC sent to registered voters. The flyers include :

(1) One flyer asked voters identified as Democrats “Why are right wing Republicans doing everything they can to kill government consolidation.” In the flyer President Trump was holding a Vote no sign!

(2) Mr. Yates sent flyers to voters identified as Republicans saying “Why are liberal Democrats doing everything they can to kill government consolidation.” The flyer had a picture of former President Obama and Hillary Clinton holding a vote no sign.

            Before the flyers were sent Mr. Yates made a motion to give $25,000 of county money to the ad firm named Red Ivory. They created the Implementation Plan that Chamber leadership presented to the Charter Commission that said “The goal is to position county voters against city voters vice versa while pushing vote Yes.”

            Before they voted to hire Red Ivory the minutes of the November 2017 meeting show that Charter Commission member Mark Smith did an excellent job advocating for all citizens. According to the minutes Mr. Smith said “It was his opinion this would be improper use of county money, including the money contributed by citizens who do not want consolidation, to try and sell consolidation.” The minutes also said Chairman Katie Gambill “informed Mr. Smith that she knew exactly what educating was and she was tired of being disrespected by him and did not need a point by point on how to educate. Mr. Smith said he was not disrespecting her.” (end of quote)  (Chairman Gambill was appointed by Mayor Durrett and Mr. Smith was appointed by Mayor McMillan)

            Considering the fact that Mr. Smith was advocating for the rights of all citizens it seems rude for Chairman Gambill to say that to Mr. Smith.            

               
Allegations of a threat made to Mr. Smith were posted in the comments of my Facebook post where I listed much of the information you’ve just seen. The allegations you’re about to see were made on my October 23rd post on the Facebook page that was titled Residents Who Oppose Consolidation Montgomery County and is now titled Residents for Effective Government. I’ve provided all names to law enforcement and they are seen in the comments on my post made on the page mentioned above, but for this summary I’m not including the name of the person making the allegations because they are a private citizen.    

                           
Text of Allegations - In the comments on my post the person making the allegations tagged a Charter Commission member and wrote " You are aware of how things went down. You know they threatened Mark" (end of quote) The Charter Commission member who was tagged gave a thumbs up to the comment!

The well known and respected person making the allegations posted screen shots of a group discussion. The first screen shot shows that she wrote :
                                
“I’m so disappointed here in the discourse between elected officials and an appointed Charter member. Not the type of individuals I want to trust to influence decisions or make recommendation for the future of this county. I have only one question and it is for you Bob Yates. Did you ever threaten any other Charter member via email to quote “get on board or face the consequences”?

The second screen shot shows Bob Yates replied : “No I only encouraged him to “get on board with consolidation” or resign as I thought he was impeding the progress of writing the charter. My opinion only.”

In a comment under that screen shot the person making the allegations wrote : “Bob Yates is not telling the truth in his reply.” (end of quotes)

            I’ve reported the allegations to the TBI and local law enforcement. I hope a large number of people will request an investigation and also contact (1) the State Attorney General and (2) Governor Bill Lee at bill.lee@tn.gov and (3) The news media                        

The county was in charge of regulating the Charter Commission and I made a Freedom of Information Act request to the County regarding the emails and various info. Here is part of their response: 

MC Government does not keep correspondence between the IDB and EDC. MC Government does not keep or have records of communications between Bob Yates and Mark Smith. MC Government does not keep correspondence between the IDB and the EDC. MC Government does not have documentation on bids related to Red Ivory or any other bids done by the Charter Commission. (end of quotes)

 Please remember $25,000 of tax payers money was given to Red Ivory. Also remember the County gives much authority to the IDB and recently discussed giving them $500,000 but there is no transparency !!!!       

                                       
What you’ve just seen is part of a 14 page summary I wrote that has more important quotes from documents and concerned citizens. The docs include the Chambers nonprofit called The Aspire Foundation which gave $17,380 to the vote Yes Pac that sent the deceptive ads. .                                                                                                  
Many of us are concerned about the Chamber being a partner with the IDB and having secret meetings that bring in dangerous factories near schools and residences. It’s stunning that they have this much control of the IDB while they are willfully trying to position us against each other. Plus the IDB is falsely telling us they’re bringing jobs here for our residents.  

Later we’ll have more about the extreme over development occurring here with little or no plans to improve infrastructure and resolve our overcrowded schools and roads.
This is the short version of the evidence. Anyone who is interested in the full evidence please go to the Residents for Effective Government Facebook page. On their homepage look to the far left and you'll see a column of topics. Please click on the word files. 

You’ll see a word document file title 1 A Updated Allegations Of A Threat Against A Government-Appointed Charter Commission Member. Please click on that file. 

(After I click on that file on my computer I have to look down at the very bottom middle or bottom left of the screen and click on the file to open it.)  

I have several people interested in developing this into a comprehensive source of print and video news that tell the whole truth regarding problems in Montgomery County Government. I've talked with the TBI about the evidence but a group of us will be continuing to pursue an investigation by law enforcement. If you're interested please send an email to barryschmittou@yahoo.com . 

The email will be so we will have your contact info available for future reference. I'm visually handicapped and will not be able to respond to questions etc now. I will forward your info to my friends who will be helping and they also have copies of all the evidence. Additional info will be seen later on this post and/or webpage. 

You can also join the Facebook page for Residents For Effective Government which is mentioned above. Much of the evidence I've compiled came from their page and they have continuing discussions about Government issues in Montgomery County. They also have some people attack the page (which proves the page is effective) and sometimes page members get into arguments with each other about certain issues. That's pretty much the way things are on Facebook and in the world, but the good ole boys who are using government for their own personal gain are in lock step and never seem to disagree about their mission to increase their wealth at the expense of tax payers.   

I’m adding an Exhibit below with more information regarding the IDB.

Thank you very much for your interest and God bless.
Sincerely,

Barry Schmittou  

Additional Info Regarding (1) The IDB’s Connections to Government and (2) The State Competing With Other States and Giving Businesses Incentives To Move Here

(1) The Leaf Chronicle described the Industrial Development board as quasi-public which is defined by dictionaries as "being partly or almost, seemingly; apparently but not really."

We believe there’s no such thing as a legal quasi public private entity that receives tax payer dollars like the Industrial Development Board receives.

All meetings of the IDB should be regulated under open meeting laws because they receive tax dollars. Another reason open meeting laws should apply is the City of Clarksville website shows elected officials are members of the Economic Development Council which oversees the Industrial Development Board. The elected officials include the city and county mayor, one councilman and one Commissioner, and local State Reps. The Council also includes Chamber of Commerce leaders and other businessmen. When you click the cities link to see more about the Economic Development Council it takes you to a page that has Clarksville Montgomery County Industrial Development board listed in the title.

Please also remember the fiscal year budget for 2019 and 2020 has 1.2 million of tax payers money that will be used for Industrial Development. Everything the IDB does should occur in open meetings.

(2) The State also spends lots of money and gives business tax breaks etc. so they’ll locate here instead of other states. Tennessee’s economic and community development commissioner Bob Rolfe said since Governor Lee took office the recruiting environment remains competitive.

Mr. Rolfe said “I believe for just about every product we are competing head to head with one of the adjoining states.  That requires us to be on our ‘A’ game, it also requires us to have corporate incentives.  I’m not going to spend time talking about what people deem corporate welfare. I would just say I’m grateful to a General Assembly who understands this and the great leadership of Gov. Lee because without those economic incentives I can promise you, those companies will look to our competing neighbors.” (end of quote)

It is corporate welfare and it needs to stop nationwide so all states and communities will be on a level playing field when they recruit businesses. As Debra Moore said the business tax breaks “means you and I have to pay more taxes to build schools and pay for services because industry is getting all the tax breaks.”