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Kingsport leaders approve hiring of economic researcher

KINGSPORT — The city of Kingsport will not be filling the leisure services director position any time soon, and in exchange will be using a portion of the salary to hire an economic researcher after the first of the year.

During its regular meeting Tuesday night, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted 6-1 to create an economic researcher position within the city. Alderman Ken Marsh voted against the measure.

Earlier this month, City Manager John Campbell told the BMA his desire to not replace recently retired Leisure Services Director Tom Bowman, and instead use part of the money to hire an economic researcher with one focus being recruiting medical businesses to the city.

Campbell said other tasks to be performed by the new economic researcher would be to update the list of available buildings in town, create a comprehensive list of properties available, perform more visits to existing businesses, and do research in connection to the King College medical school proposal.

Bowman retired as leisure services director at the end of October after serving 38 years with the city. Bowman took November off and is now working part time at Bays Mountain Park on special projects.

Campbell has said he would like to see the position filled in January or February, and at this time he does not have anyone in mind for the position. Once filled, the person would report to Deputy City Manager Jeff Fleming.

During a BMA work session Monday afternoon, Campbell said he feels comfortable carrying out leisure service programs for the next two years without filling the director’s position. As it stands now, the directors of Parks and Recreation, the Kingsport Public Library and the Senior Center report to Chris McCartt, assistant to the city manager.

Marsh has asked Campbell several times to produce measures for the new position and reiterated the request during the BMA meeting Tuesday night.

“We have layer after layer after layer of economic development — the city, DKA, KOSBE, KEDB, NETWORKS, the chamber of commerce. Where does this end?” Marsh asked. “I keep looking for some measures, and for whatever reason, they are not coming forth.”

Campbell said he did work on the measures Tuesday and will continue working to produce them for Marsh.

Marsh said he could not support the new position if it was not measurable and suggested postponing a vote on the position until the BMA’s next meeting in January.

Other members of the BMA agreed with Marsh that the city needed measures, but added they would be difficult to produce for just one position.

“Economic development is not a single activity the city does. It’s everything we do,” said Vice Mayor Ben Mallicote. “Economic development is not doing one thing well. It’s doing a lot of things well to make this place attractive to live and do business. I don’t know how you can measure it for this one position.”

Marsh said without measures, this new position would be “a pig in a poke.”

“We approve a budget and depend on management to operate within budget. There are no additional funds (spent for this position), and it’s having confidence in management that they’re doing the right thing,” said Mayor Dennis Phillips. “Such things as having confidence in management that we approve a budget and within reason and in budget, we allow them to do the kind of personnel shifts they think is necessary to advance the city.”

In other business Tuesday night the BMA approved two contracts with VisionAir and Data Driven totaling $758,112 for the purchase of software and hardware that will allow the Kingsport Police Department to transition to a paperless reporting system. The plan is for the KPD to purchase 115 PDA-style phones, 40 data terminals and new public safety reporting software. The Kingsport Fire Department already has data terminals, and a contract for its new software is slated for after the first of the year.

The new system will allow officers and firefighters to report from the field, send the information to a supervisor for review, and then enter the report into the system without having a clerk do so manually. The estimated saving in paper and staff reduction is nearly $37,000.

The software currently at the KPD is 20 years old and is not compatible with Fusion (the state crime database) or Inform (a local crimes database).

By switching to the new software, the KPD would be able to tie into these systems. In addition, reports would be more accurate, data and statistical analysis would be in real time, and photos and other files could be stored with the report.

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Leasure services money was wasted,now,economic researcher?gimme a break.Is the city concerned about the economy?Then,why the freewheeling,spending,annexation?

Otis Vicars | 12/21/2008 - 8:16 PM - (Suggest Removal )

Never in my lifetime, have I seen such poor economic times. This country is at the edge of disaster and City Manager John Campbell is spending the city's money like it grows on trees. How many millions is Kingsport going to be in debt when Campbell is done? $150 million. Wake up Kingsport, he's ruining us and the BMA is helping and we're sitting back and doing nothing.

Denise Williams | 12/21/2008 - 10:19 AM - (Suggest Removal )

Just what we need is a economic researcher position. When more jobs are lost and money gets tighter who's going to give up their big salary to pay this person. Not me and don't expect to raise my taxes.

john davis | 12/17/2008 - 9:28 AM - (Suggest Removal )

The city wants to spend money on an economic researcher when I'll give a report for free - The Economic Stinks! TaDa! ;)

Ann Smith | 12/17/2008 - 5:52 AM - (Suggest Removal )

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