Below is the current suggested wording offered for vote.
Effective September 1, 2025, Rule V, Section S, is amended to read as follows:
A Commissioner shall not serve on any committee or board that has a family member as defined by spouse, parent, grandparent, siblings, in-laws, or children. No Commissioner shall serve on any Committee or subcommittee, including but not limited to the Audit Committee and the Personnel Committee, if that Commissioner has a family member working in any Knox County government department or agency which might be regulated, investigated or overseen by such committee.
I plan to make an amendment to the suggested wording to be as follows.
Effective September 1, 2025, Rule V, Section S, is amended to read as follows:
A Commissioner shall not serve on any committee, subcommittee, or board that has a family member as defined by spouse, parent, grandparent, siblings, children, grandchildren, or equivalent in-laws. No Commissioner shall serve on any committee, subcommittee or board, including but not limited to the Audit Committee and the Personnel Committee, if that Commissioner or a family member works in any Knox County government department or agency which might be regulated, investigated, or overseen by such committee. An agency is defined as including but not limited to a non-profit organization receiving funding from Knox County and therefore by contract having the same level of potential regulation, investigation, or overseen by the Audit Committee.
My understanding is the purpose of the change is to remove possible conflicts of interest. However, the current suggested wording change only addresses one finite possible conflict and not all possible conflicts of interest. For instance, a Commissioner would also have a conflict of interest (probably greater conflict) if they worked for Knox County government themselves. The Knox County Internal Audit Department has the contractual right to audit non-profit agencies receiving funds from Knox County. The above current suggested wording appears to address having a family member of such an agency but not the Commissioner themselves. As such, any Commissioner working for or serving on the board of one of these non-profit agencies could have a potential conflict of interest.
Since the forum does not allow me to highlight the changes in a different color, I will email this to Drucilla for email distribution also.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this issue. Thank you, Angela Russell, District 5 Commissioner
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