The Knox County Ethics Committee met for about 30 minutes Aug. 13, days after Knox County’s property assessor and a former high-ranking trustee’s office staffer were charged with felony official misconduct, but the scandals were hardly mentioned.
That’s in contrast to how the City-County Building has been buzzing with conversation – though no one is willing to put their name to a public statement – about how Ballard was charged by the same grand jury that allowed Trustee Justin Biggs to walk on essentially the same violations. Both drove county vehicles for personal use; both drove a county vehicle for work even though they were taking a travel allowance; and both made payments to cover costs they shouldn’t have incurred.
Knox County Commissioner Damon Rawls, a nonvoting representative on the ethics committee, asked what expectation exists for the panel to act in response to the charges from last week, but did not mention anyone by name…