wow, someone noticed!

My latest issues blog was prominently featured in a recent article on Chattanoogan.com:  http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_185315.asp . Judy Frank, the author of this piece then followed up by contacting the members of the council to comment:

From: Judy Frank

To: Susan Robertson
Cc: Bill Lusk ; Missy Cantrell ; allenonmtn@comcast.net ; Paul M. Hendricks
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 9:49 AM
Subject: question from Judy Frank

As you may know, an article about former mayor Paul Hendricks' criticism of other council members and town officials was featured on today's Chattanoogan.com. Susan Robertson, a candidate for reelection, was singled out repeatedly and in particular.
I am hoping to write a followup article giving Vice Mayor Robertson and other individuals mentioned by name in Councilman Hendricks' blog a chance to respond to any and all of the charges he leveled.
I will not be home today but will be checking my email regularly. Please let me know if you have a response you would like to make.
Thanks! Judy Frank

Bill Lusk replied with obvious enthusiasm:
From: Bill

To: 'Judy Frank' ; 'Susan Robertson'
Cc: 'Missy Cantrell' ; allenonmtn@comcast.net ; 'Paul M. Hendricks'
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 4:09 PM
Subject: RE: question from Judy Frank

I can’t wait.

Best regards,
Bill Lusk
blusk3660@comcast.net
423.667.2240-Cell

So, I thought I would share my own response with my readers. I honestly don't know if Chattanoogan.com will print my response, so here it is:

I should thank the Chattanoogan.com for highlighting my blog (www.paulmhendricks.blogspot.com) in its recent article. Since you essentially printed it twice, I should ask what you pay per word and if I get any part of that! Considering reporter Judy Frank’s friendship with Vice-Mayor Susan Robertson it is not surprising that she immediately emailed the rest of the council to encourage them to respond. However, before that happens there are several errors that need correcting. If Ms. Frank had contacted me or indeed any of the council before publishing she might not have made these mistakes. Ms. Frank seems very intent on implying that my decision to not run for re-election was because I was not re-elected mayor. This is not true. The fact that she refers to me as “former mayor” rather than as a current councilmember emphasizes her attempt to “spin” my personal decisions. The facts are that I had decided not to run for re-election before the last mayoral election and told this to the council. My decision was based on several reasons, most importantly the fact that my family had asked that I not run again. I have loved being on the Signal Mountain Town Council and I truly loved being mayor, but it was very time consuming and I decided two more years would have to be enough time to spend on what is after all a non-paid, voluntary public service position. I am a husband, father of a son going to college and a daughter entering middle-school and a full-time physician with a busy and erratic schedule. I also had to give up performing music, a vocation I truly enjoy and missed terribly. For these reasons I had already decided that I would not run for re-election and, when I announced to the Council my interest in remaining mayor I also indicated that I did not plan to run again. I was originally elected before Bill Lusk and Susan Robertson were appointed to the council, so I went to the council and told them I would be interested in remaining mayor for the rest of my term. I received no negative responses and, as a matter of fact both Mrs. Robertson and Mr. Lusk told me they saw no reason to make a change. Mr. Lusk had frequently complimented my performance as mayor and told me he didn’t know how I did it and that he didn’t think he could. Therefore I was surprised and disappointed when he announced after his own election that he was going to run for mayor and the rest of the council lined up behind him. I told him that, a main reason I wanted to remain mayor was due to my passion to revise our town’s zoning regulations and promote conservation development. I have known about and been an advocate of conservation development for over 20 years and was excited that I was finally in a position to do something about it. I told him that, since as mayor I sat on the Planning Commission, I wanted to finish the job. Mr. Lusk told me that he didn’t realize he would have to serve on the Planning Commission as mayor. He stated that he was too busy and didn’t have time to be on the Planning Commission and that if he were elected I could remain on the Planning Commission. While I have often wondered if I should have taken him up on his offer, I didn’t think that was an appropriate deal to accept.


One other issue I should correct is Ms. Frank’s continual referral to Signal Mountain’s development consultant Randall Arendt as “my” consultant. This is clearly absurd. There was a strong desire from the town to bring in a professional planning consultant. Both Annette Allen and I had independently sought advice from Karen Rennich, a planner with the Regional Planning Agency and Mr. Arendt’s name was clearly at the top of the list she recommended. We never discussed bringing in anyone else, the entire council enthusiastically supported him and our entire Land Use Plan is based on his advice and counsel. While I am still a huge fan of Mr. Arendt and deeply regret that his advice has now been rejected, to call him “my” consultant is to change history and is wrong. He was the town’s consultant. Finally, Ms Frank states that I “talked to potential voters about the need to counsel members who will do what he, and his consultant, wants” (emphasis mine). Actually, if Ms. Frank had checked out the link in my blog, she would know that I asked town council candidates to read the town’s Land Use Plan which was adopted by the town after extensive public input and was, at least initially, enthusiastically supported by this council. So, yes, being the radical subversive that I am I think it might be a good idea for town council candidates to read our Land Use Plan and, since I support that plan, yes, that is what I want.

During my time on this council, Ms. Frank has very rarely contacted me on issues she has reported on and usually I have had to contact her. If the Chattanoogan.com is interested in being an accurate source of news, I think it would behoove its correspondents to actually contact and interview the subjects of its news stories. Thank you for the service you provide.

Sincerely,

Paul M. Hendricks, MD

Current member of Signal Mountain Town Council