April 2019 Regular Meeting of the Franklin Town Council

The Franklin Town Council will be having their regularly scheduled meeting for April 2019 at 6pm on Monday Night in the lower level of the town hall. The public agenda and the agenda packet are posted below. The agenda packet includes the new deed to the Nikwasi Mound. It is from page 32 to page 41 of the agenda packet.

VIDEO

Gavel to gavel video of the meeting.




The meeting was also streamed live on Facebook as an experiment.

Part One



Part Two




Roll Call
(Media outlets with representatives present at the meeting)

Macon Media
WNCC-FM/WFSC-AM
Smoky Mountain News
The Franklin Press

Macon County News and Shopping Guide
Cherokee One Feather (Macon Media notes this is the only outlet the Cherokee will allow to be in the tribal council chambers during their local government meetings all other news outlets banned from covering their meetings in person, as the tribe does not have Freedom of the Press)





Town of Franklin Council Meeting
Agenda
April 01, 2019 | 6:00 p.m.

1. Call to Order - Mayor Bob Scott
2. Pledge of Allegiance - Vice Mayor Barbara McRae
3. Adoption of the April 1, 2019 Town Council Agenda

4. Approval of Consent Agenda for April 1, 2019
A.) Approval of the March 4, 2019 Town Council Minutes
B.) Set Public Hearing for Re-Zoning Petition for Hedden Property
C.) Set Public Hearing for Driveway Standards Text Amendment
D.) Tax Releases
E.) Street Closing Request for Law Enforcement Memorial
F.) Street Closing Request for Brave Heart 5K
G.) Street Closing Request for 80’s Flashback Parade
H.) Resolution for Relocation of a portion of NC State Road 1434

5. Public Session

6. New Business
A.) Discussion on Nikwasi Initiative Proposal - Town Attorney John Henning Jr. and Town Council
B.) Town of Franklin Audit Contract - Town Manager Summer Woodard
C.) Water and Sanitary Sewer Allocation for Work Force Homestead - Town Manager Summer Woodard
D.) Update on Proposed Guardrail along South Patton Avenue - Town Manager Summer Woodard

7. Legal
A.) Closed session Pursuant to G.S. 143-318.11(a)(3), to consult with an attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body, which privilege is hereby acknowledged.
8. Announcements
A.) Town of Franklin Budget Work Session Monday April 15, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Boardroom
B.) Town Hall Offices will be closed on Friday April 19, 2019 in observance of Good Friday
C.) First Friday Night Town Hall movie night will be Friday, May 3, 2019 and the movie will be Wreck It Ralph

9. Adjourn





Agenda Packet

Franklin Town Council Agenda Packet April 2019 by Bobby Coggins on Scribd

Nikwasi Deed Proposal Section (added at 6:45am on 03-29-2019)

Several people have indicated the original deed proposal document is an unsearchable image file and hard to read. In the public interest, Macon Media has converted that section into a searchable PDF file that can also be copied and the font size changed to accommodate members of the public.

Deed Proposal April 2019 Meeting of the Franklin Town Council by Bobby Coggins on Scribd

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Published at 12:25pm on Wednesday, April 3, 2019

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Knoxville News Sentinel: Social media underused in Gatlinburg firestorm A Personal View

Excerpt from the article:

A spokeswoman for Gatlinburg said neither the city nor its public safety agencies had any social media accounts when the Nov. 28 inferno responsible for 14 deaths, more than 180 injuries and the damage or destruction of more than 2,400 structures struck the city. Officials said damage from the fire will exceed $500 million.
Since the disaster, spokeswoman Marci Claude said, the Gatlinburg Police Department "has created a Facebook page to share information with the community."
In contrast, officials with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park continuously updated information on its Facebook page and Twitter account throughout the day warning of the growing danger. National Park officials warned of the unpredictable fire, the increasing winds moving flames toward Gatlinburg and ongoing evacuations within the park.
The park started sharing information at 10:46 a.m. on Nov. 28 about the fires marching north toward Gatlinburg.
Read the entire article on Knoxville News Sentinel
This is so sad. Too many in local governments look down on social media as a tool, or view it as a tool to build personal fiefdoms.

The failure of Sevier County to deliver information to residents has probably resulted in the deaths of some of the people they were responsible for protecting. Of course, they would not have been in that situation had the Chimney Top Fire been set. I know a lot of people hesitate to blame their local government when they make mistakes, or fail to properly do their duty. That kind of behavior needs to stop. The only way anyone, even governments, can improve is to acknowledge mistakes and work to make sure they don't happen again. Wildfire Today has an excellent article analyzing the events that led up to the firestorm. [WildFire Today]

The article points out that the National Park Service had been warning of the approaching wind event. The Incident Command Team in our area had been preparing for it for days by burning out the Camp Branch Fire and patrolling fire lines on the other fires.

In the daily weather briefing that was published at 5 am on Monday morning, Macon Media warned of the high wind event that was coming. [LINK] When it did get here, downed power lines did spark fires, but our volunteer firefighters were prepared and stopped them from spreading.

[Harold Ledford Road] [Gorge Fire] [Power Outages]

COMMENTARY

(I probably shouldn't post this commentary because it goes against the general policy I have established for Macon Media of not expressing an opinion on news items. --Bobby Coggins).

A lot of elected officials and bureaucrats in our area tend to either look down on social media, mock it as a source of "fake news," or use it in a fashion that limits who can see official updates. The ones here who tend to do use it, share official information on personal profiles with privacy settings that mean only their friends can see the information and it cannot be shared outside that circle of friends unless it is copied and pasted, which one of the news outlets here tends to do.

My personal experience during our wildfires was that getting information out of the local county government was a mixed affair and other news outlets were given access Macon Media was denied. Some department heads were generous with sharing information (I won't name those who helped because I don't want to potentially get them in trouble), while others would always point me to other department heads or the PIO of the Health Department.

Once I contacted Rabun and Jackson Counties and requested information, they were very professional and timely with sharing information for me to relay to the public.

The USFS was wonderful to work with and they were professional and timely in delivering information. Because of the workflow and open design of the USFS and the National Interagency FIre Cache websites in creating maps and compiling data, I often had information hours before the daily morning briefings at the Command Post were presented. The Daily Briefings at the Command Post in Franklin were, according to what I was told, "not for the press or public" while the Daily Briefings for the Rock Mountain Fire were streamed live online, so there were differences in the way the ICTs (Incident Command Teams) viewed their role in delivering information to the public.

McCRORY VISIT

Macon Media and The Macon County News and Shopping Guide almost missed the visit of the governor to the local Command Post even though we arrived early and checked in with both the CP and the governor's staff. I would not even have known of the visit had someone had not gone outside the chain of command and told me. We were in the lobby with a state senator waiting to be told the governor had arrived and were never notified when he arrived. If the reporter for the Macon County News had not got up and just went back to a briefing room in the back I had not been aware existed, but she did, neither of us would have been able to cover the story from a first person perspective. Of course, a reporter from The Franklin Press was already there in the briefing when we arrived, having been given access we were not.

SOLUTIONS AND A LOOK AHEAD

In 2017, I will be more aggressive in obtaining official information held by local, state and federal bodies to share with the public. In the past, I have been far too passive in this regard. I will clearly identify those who are difficult to work with and those who favor certain news outlets over others. When I do share observations or opinions, they will be clearly marked as such so you can decide if you agree or not.

As always, when I make mistakes (and I inevitably will) feel free to let me know. When you do that, you help Macon Media become better at delivering accurate information. It is my personal view that news collection, interpretation and delivery is a collaborative effort, and will become even more so in the future, and not something just for elite "journalists" to tell you what is important or what to believe or who act as cheer leaders for local government when they should be holding their feet to the fire. Cheer leading the local government is the job of county employees. The proper role of the media is to deliver accurate information and to dig for news, not to be the local pravda.

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If you have a business or event you are interested in sponsorship opportunities or underwriting coverage, send an email to editor@MaconMedia.com for more information. Serious inquiries only.
Thank You to the people who have been sending in donations and those businesses who are underwriting coverage of news and events. You have kept Macon Media online. Your generosity has blown my mind and I will be forever grateful.
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