How Agenda 21 influences the BCC 2035 joint strategic plan

How Agenda 21 influences the BCC 2035 joint strategic plan

9/17/2014
0911 am

Shortly before Henry Lambs death, I asked Henry to evaluate the BCC 2035 growth plan and it’s proposed building codes. Henry was one of the foremost leaders on Agenda 21 and how it was affecting our local communities. He was great at analysis and his thorough understanding of Agenda 21 made it a joy to drain his brain at every occasion.

Shortly before his untimely death he took great interest and was drawn to what was being done in Bradley County. He graciously studied our growth plan and drew comparisons to Agenda 21 and offered his genius to show specifically where our very own growth plan was indeed a product of the UN and Agenda 21. His analysis showed the eerily close similarities the UNs plan to eventually herd us all into pods, loss of sovereignty, property rights and eventually world dominance under a new world order.  

His analysis when done showed many elected leaders that their involvement was indeed a devious plan by the UN to gain control of the last bastion of freedom, our property rights and our sovereignty.

This week the Bradley County Commission voted to enact new building codes in accordance with Agenda 21, particularly chapter 7.

These new regulations and codes are set to go into affect on January  1, 2015. They have allowed for a 90 day education period before the final vote is cast. This is part of that educational process.

You may ask what is wrong with building a building that is done right and has regulations that protect the citizenry? It is all incremental and it takes baby steps to make leaps ahead. This is by design. Our elected leaders once the pieces of the pie are formed and the plan in place will have very little say so about what goes on in the community of Bradley County mainly because they won’t have elected officials to represent them. The peoples voice and representation will be taken away.

Please read the link below by Henry Lamb. It is a PDF file so I could not cut and paste. I left it intact and please enjoy as it relates directly to our county and it’s growth plan.

Click to access BCC%202035-1.pdf

Bradley County leaders decision to tax and spend, not sitting well with taxpayers

The Bradley County News room just received an email that I thought would make a very appropriate “Letter to the Editor” type blog to be addressed in this news outlet and shared with our 50,000 plus readers in 106 countries.

The relevance of the letter comes on the heels of a huge regional tax and spend program startup with meetings to be kicked off in the month of March.

The Local Chamber of Commerce and other NGOs will be gambling billions upon billions of your tax dollars on “economic development” for our 3 state, 16 County megaregional “Thrive 2055” growth program.

The enormity of this project will be horrendously expensive and we the taxpayer will get very little benefit and we will see very little oversight by our elected leaders as non governmental organizations run amuck with your hard earned tax dollars.

The biggest message I received from this email was our locally elected representatives are not concerned with reducing our debt, only receiving more grants to spur new spending sprees. That is a fantastic summation of where our leaders are directing us with this regional growth plan.

They all “say or preach” the right thing when the press is around or hog the print to fuss about DC when they are doing the same thing only at the local level and on a smaller scale.

It’s time the citizens and ultimately taxpayers speak up and say enough is enough. We do not like the direction our County is going and we want to preserve our children’s future not gamble it away for the next federal grant that may come our way.

I think it’s high time we take responsibility for our city and county. Act responsible and live within our means for a change, cut our debt instead of mounding it on our children’s backs, robbing them of their own ability to be prosperous.

Letter to the Editor:

Gentlemen,
Let me please begin by recalling some of your quotes that are the basis of this e-mail to you all.
 
Gary Davis quote from TFP article by Paul Leach on Jan. 11 2013:

“These are all very good signs that we are slowly but surely growing our way out of this recession and, at least in Southeast Tennessee, doing our part to generate the revenue we need without raising taxes”
 
Jeff Morelock quote from TFP article by Paul Leach on Dec. 5, 2012:

“Are we going to invest in future industry here and have growth so we don’t have to increase taxes, or are we going to tell industry we’re not interested in you coming here?”
 
J. Adam Lowe from a CDB article 2/22/2013 by David Davis:

He “absolutely despises the conversation about reducing the deficit. I want to eliminate the deficit. I want to reduce the debt”.
He said his parents would pay more in taxes if they knew it would go toward paying foreign debt.
“There is not trust it will go to that”. “Their concern is that it will continue to fund programs…”
 
Each of these articles were about different issues but I found a common thread running through each of them in your quotes. All of you rail against Washington. All of you talk about how federal debt is an issue and all you ascribe to the same basic political and economic philosophies as the solution.
 
We have our own ever increasing debt problem in Bradley County and none of you talk about it (at least publicly as I can tell). It’s always about how bad things are in Washington. As a proportion we are at least as bad as Washington in this county. Is it not hypocrisy on your part to attack Washington when our situation is approaching a mirror image? And unlike Washington, you can’t just print more money until it is as worthless as the the currency became during the days of  the Wiemar Republic just preceding Hitler.
 
Instead of remaining within the bounds of what is expected of your job you take on the task of “economic development” based on the principles of sustainable development, public/private partnerships and now regional growth. We have been at this kind of activity for over 20 years now? How has it worked for us? Have all these PILOT programs, incentives and business “attraction” produced a ballooning budget surplus yet that you have so hoped for? No it hasn’t and it never will. Do you know what else? I cannot find one study, one piece of documentation anywhere that tells us this unholy alliance between big business and bigger government works. I have multiple studies from the right wing (The John Birch Society) all the way to the left wing (The NEA) as well as many other legal and academic studies that show what you are engaging in always fails. I defy you to find me one study that shows the success of government directed economic development. Understand: I want to believe it works. I want to believe that I can turn all of life’s problems over to my government and they will create a “livable community” for me. The evidence does not bare that out.
 
“Whirlpool is still here.” “Look at Volkswagen and Amazon”: is not a study. Sorry. There are always silver shovel ceremonies and short term bubbles of economic growth (makes for great headlines and photo ops) but that bubble always bursts. Then it leads to more economic development which means more debt! You promote these deals, we provide infrastructure and services at no cost to these corporations. They take federal, state and local monies in these programs. The result: either they are long gone by the time it is time for them to begin paying their full tax burden or if they are still here, we are hit up for another PILOT agreement. You are all aware of cities that have gone bankrupt such as Stockton, Cal. The big lie in the media is that it was all about out of control public employee benefits, retirements and the SEIU. I know there is some truth in part. However the real issue in these California cities is their net bonded debt that they could not pay. This debt was created by redevelopment schemes and business attraction programs just like what is being unleashed in our area now. What makes you think you will do better this time? Regionalism? Thrive 2055 will take care of it?  
 
As stated earlier; none of you suggest addressing the spending side of the equation to solve our deficit issues and spending “needs”. All of you agree that your activity will generate growth, that will generate jobs, that will generate revenue. Once again, we have been doing this for a long time, where is the budget surplus? Where is the debt reduction? Why do you still despair over a lack of revenue?

Your quotes are essentially threats to the people: let us spend this money on economic development or we will raise your taxes. Those are the only options you give. Jeff Morelock, this is especially true of your quote. You clearly give no thought to spending reduction. You want to grow the tax base to match the size of this government that continually increases. How are any of you different than Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama? I can’t tell the difference. These are the ones you probably all criticize and complain about “strings attached” as you continually take money in federal grants and sit back and act appalled at their behavior.
 
Let me make it simple and if you disagree, then at least I said my peace to you.
PILOT programs, TIF and other Tax abatements are wrong for four reasons: 
1. People like free stuff. Whether it is an individual or a corporation. I don’t blame them: they would be stupid for not taking what you are offering because if they don’t, their competition will. Once people or corporations start taking free stuff, they will never stop and demand more free stuff. I asked another county commissioner this  question to his face one time: Where does it end? He shook his head and muttered “I don’t know”. How sad of a response; yet he still votes for all this.

2. Corporations that have tax abatements do not pay for the services they consume. If you want to perform an experiment: let all county residents only pay the school portion of their property taxes for 6 months and see how far you get. And you don’t even have to build us a new fire station or a new road! The NEA study takes my position because they know the safeguards written into the law to protect school taxes does not work.

3. As you start using our tax money as an incentive do you not think other municipalities, regional entities, etc… are doing the same against us? I know in business when someone cuts a price, there is always retaliation against the price cutter. Soon a price war ensues. Gary Davis: I know you understand this: That is why you were caught on a YouTube video at the Walden Club asking our local municipalities to “stop competing with each other, that’s the point”. You said: “We don’t need to compete”. In business, that is a clear violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust act; In government, I guess you can create any sort of Cartel you want. You must be really excited about Thrive 2055. This is a whole new layer of unelected, unaccountable government who make decisions on what businesses will go where and what areas grow. However, this didn’t work in ancient Rome where it was pursued by Emporer Constantine in Constantinople. It did not work in the Soviet Union, and it will not work here. Central planning ALWAYS fails and leaves a trail of debt and poverty. Again, I will share multiple studies if you are interested.

4. NGOs like the Chamber of Commerce and quasi-government organizations like the Industrial Development board shop our tax money to people and corporations. I know these things are not your creation but your quotes and actions show you are more than willing participants. Again, these are unelected organizations and individuals that have no accountability to the people of Bradley County but declare themselves as our “representatives”. There were some very smart people who wrote our various state constitutions who outlawed the very activity the IDB engages in. I know full well these industrial development boards were created to get around state constitutional restraints that forbid municipalites from lending their credit to private comapnies or individuals. Again, many of these things came into being as a result of the New Deal and are not your doing, but they are still wrong. You can choose to not go along with this if you want. 
 
In closing,
We are poor. Let’s start acting like it. Stop complaing about Washington when in truth Washington is your life blood. We rely on federal grant money and you know it as well as I do. Its’ not just funding our local government directly from Washington – you can even look at our local “growth”. For example look at Spring Creek which is being built with HUD 221 backed financing. This is not real, organic economic growth and you know it. These developments are built with non-recourse loans with a lower down payment than any mortgage today. This is a formula for disaster. That’s exactly what caused the housing bubble in the first place! However there is always a recourse – The American taxpayer!!

Show Washington how it’s done. You have your own debt problem to deal with.
J. Adam Lowe: If you are serious about debt, I suggest you offer up a proposal to raise property tax rates in the county with all the proceeds to go to a “lock box” for debt reduction. Think about it – you can be the Ross Perot of Bradley County!! Remember he ran on a platform to tax a gallon of gasoline $.50 that went right to debt reduction? I don’t think you will get that far in your political career by pointing attention to our local debt load but it’s worth a try.

The truth of the matter is that all of you don’t want more revenue for debt reduction: you want more revenue for more spending. My proof is the wheel tax proposal that failed. More money for more borrowing.

Gentlemen, please consider going in a new direction. Consider these words and I am happy to reconsider where I am wrong in my conclusions. Can you say the same about yourselves? I have nothing against any of you personally as I have not met many of you. It’s not any of you as a person that drives me to write this: It is the political and economic philosophies you are following that I find objectionable.
 
P.S.
Let’s start by pulling out of that exit 20 land deal that the city and county paid about $4 millon dollars too much for. I would like a copy of the property assessment for that land by the way. can one of you please scan and send your copy to me?
 
Thank you for your attention,
 
Rob Bower 

“Thrive 2055” gets director for the Chattanooga region

Thrive 2055 gets director for the Chattanooga region

Ron Harr talks about his vision for job growth in the region. Harr is to be the new CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.

PLANNING PANEL

• Brian Anderson, Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce

• Steve Anglea, Georgia Power

• Becky Barnes, Hamilton County Health Department

• Dan Bowers, Allied Arts

• Diana Bullock, EPB

• Daniel Carter, University of the South

• Bruz Clark, Lyndhurst Foundation

• Eliza DeLaughter, Alliance Physical Therapy

• Steve Dillard, Dillard Construction

• Bob Doak, Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau

• Chuck Dobbins, Shaw Industries

• Gary Farlow, Cleveland Bradley Chamber of Commerce

• Vicky Gregg, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee

• Stacy Johnson, La Paz Chattanooga

• Jill Levine, Normal Park Museum Magnet School and Normal Park Museum Magnet Upper School

• Betsy McCright, Chattanooga Housing Authority

• James McKissic, Chattanooga Urban League

• Denny Mobbs, attorney

• Mike Moon, Don Moon Building and Developing

• Jeff Myers, Hamilton Health Care System Inc.

• Jeff Pruitt, Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments

• Honna Rogers, Signal Mountain

• Matt Ryerson, United Way of Bradley County

• Janet Spraker, UTC

• Jack Studer, Lamp Post Group

• Edna Varner, Public Education Foundation

• Connie Vaughan, McKee Foods

• Tom Edd Wilson, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce

Ex-officio staff representatives:

• John Bridger, Regional Planning Agency

• Beth Jones, Southeast Tennessee Development District

Source: Chattanooga Chamber

A first-ever 16-county planning effort for the Chattanooga region, dubbed Thrive 2055, is picking up speed with the hiring of a director and naming of a key oversight panel.

Aimed at creating a 40-year growth plan for the area over the next three years, Thrive 2055 has raised more than $2.5 million of a proposed $3 million budget, officials said.

“We’re definitely moving ahead,” said Ron Harr, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s incoming chief executive.

Newly hired project director Bridgett Massengill said it’s important to engage people in the wide area that includes counties in Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama.

A 28-member coordinating committee will gather regularly, she said. The group’s meetings will be open to the public, Massengill said, and it will aid in communicating with officials in the region.

Possibly starting later this year, working groups of people will convene, she said. They’ll discuss topics the plan is to examine such as transportation, workforce, education, economic development and environmental sustainability.

Massengill, 37, formerly was executive director of the Development Authority in Johnson City, Tenn., and headed her own consulting firm.

To aid Massengill and the new initiative, a Cincinnati-based consultant, McBride Dale Clarion, will help gather regional data and facilitate the working groups.

McBride also will handle social media outreach, which is seen as another way of spurring dialogue.

J.Ed. Marston, the Chamber’s vice president of marketing, said the final product will include an “action plan” for the 16-county area.

“It’s very much like a business plan for the region,” he said.

Chattanooga and Hamilton County each have committed $500,000 to the planning effort while local foundations are investing $1 million, officials said. The Chamber also has raised $540,000 from the private sector. Work continues to reach the initiative’s $3 million budget.

published Saturday, September 8th, 2012
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/sep/08/thrive-2055-gets-director-chattanooga-region/?local

Council, tea party leader argue over apology need

Council, tea party leader argue over apology need
by DAVID DAVIS, Managing Editor
http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/19800265/article-Council–tea-party-leader-argue-over-apology-need?instance=latest_articles

The Cleveland City Council became embroiled in a 40-minute argument Monday with Bradley County Tea Party President Donny Harwood over who should apologize for deceiving the public. In the end, neither side admitted wrongdoing.

Harwood approached the Council during the regular voting session regarding what he viewed as an action taken by the Council that impinged on party members’ freedom of speech.

The resulting exchange centered around a flier distributed in June by the local tea party and subsequent action taken by the Council on June 18.

“On June 18, I witnessed first-hand the Cleveland City Council and its Mayor Tom Rowland display behavior uncharacteristic of a free republic bound to the U.S., the state constitution and the city charter. With this most recent breach it is safe to say our first amendment rights are imperiled in Bradley County,” he said. “There is still egregious legislation on the books today that has yet to be reversed that limits our freedom of speech.

“Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland, with a unanimous resolution vote of 7-0 by this Council ordered an investigation using police force to essentially hunt down, arrest and expose members of my Tea Party group as we made efforts to inform the community of horrendous plans for their community, thus criminalizing our free speech.”

Rowland said Monday there was no resolution. It was simply a vote taken after he expressed his opinion at the June 18 Council meeting that whoever anonymously distributed the flier should be publicly identified.

The anonymous flier was in neighborhoods south of the old Whirlpool Plant in downtown Cleveland. It warned homeowners of the impending loss of their property rights, if they did not immediately act. The flier stated 300 homes were targeted for demolition and redevelopment.

“I think this is a very cruel hoax on the citizens of our community. This is sneaky. It’s deceitful. I don’t like it and I don’t like my citizens to be in fear,” the mayor said in June.

He said then it was a gray area as to whether or not an actual crime was committed by distributing fliers containing false information about the future of the area and “whoever wrote this should be exposed to the public and to those people who called Greg (Planning Director Greg Thomas) with fear in their hearts. They ought to know who wrote this.”

The Council voted 7-0 to request the city attorney, police and district attorney’s office to fully investigate the matter to determine if any laws were broken and try to uncover the source of the flier. The matter was investigated. It was determined no laws were broken and no further action was taken.

“I think this flier is very inciting and I don’t find anything, other than some terminology here and there, that’s even true,” Rowland said during the June meeting. “We formed the Southside Development Committee, but that would do nothing but increase values in that area by getting rid of the blight in our city and enhance the value of the property around it.”

Harwood said Monday the flier contained truthful and accurate information based on the last known public meeting where the information was provided.

“The white paper draft plan is the last known information available to the public in a public setting,” he said. Since that time, he said the plan was changed in a private setting.

Thomas said in a June 17 interview the white paper was written by a Knoxville-based planning consultant and it was handed out to the public in April during a three-day planning workshop at Bradley Square Mall. Thomas said that was the first time he saw the white paper and subsequently, he requested that section be deleted. There have been no public meetings since April.

“The bottom-line answer is the city is not going to run in and take anybody’s property,” he said in June.

Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce Vice President for Economic Development Doug Berry said in July references to 300 houses came when talks first began with Whirlpool about replacing its century-old manufacturing facilities. The company wanted to remain in the downtown area where there is historical linkage because it is a big issue for a company to break that attachment.

“When we first sat down with Whirlpool, they told us they needed to develop modern manufacturing facilities, that the inefficiencies of these historic plants were so great it was having a bottom-line effect on the company,” Berry said. “They told us they would prefer to do a rebuild in the area of their existing plant. Their first request of me, as a representative of this community, was to provide them a redevelopment option for them to put two half-million square foot buildings in this corridor.”

Berry said during the July MainStreet Cleveland luncheon that such a redevelopment project has never happened in Cleveland. Ultimately, keeping the plant in its historical location would require the use of eminent domain. Berry said he expressed his concern to the company, but agreed to analyze what it would take to put a million square feet in the neighborhood. In order to do that, he said it would require buying all of the property between Plant No. 3 and Ocoee Street, all the way to Plant No. 2.

“That’s 300 lots. That’s where the 300 number came from,” Berry said. “I then sat down with the company and explained that I did not think this was a viable option because this community has not been through the process and has no history of ever having used eminent domain as part of its economic development program. When you hear about the 300 homes that are going to be taken and bulldozed, that number actually has basis, but it’s not fact in the conclusion of those statements,” he told MainStreet members.

Rowland asked Harwood on Monday if he had apologized to the 300 homeowners.

“They were alarmed that their houses might be taken when that’s not a fact,” the mayor said.

Harwood said, “There is nothing for us to apologize for.”

Rowland said, “You should go back and apologize to those people whose lives you have upset. Would you do that or not? We have not stopped your free speech. You have passed leaflets out since then and during that time you haven’t been stopped. We wanted to know who was doing it so you would know what you are passing out is not true. There is nothing true about it. This Council has not voted on it and you know good and well where it started — when Whirlpool said what if we build down there, it was said you might have to buy 300 houses. Period. Where did Whirlpool move to? That was irresponsible —”

“Well, the information —,” Harwood said.

“Listen to me!” the mayor demanded. “The only people I’ve talked to were in tears because somebody put some kind of information out that has no facts to it at all and if you’re man enough, you’ll go down there and tell them that you were wrong.”

The remainder of the argument centered mainly around Harwood and Tea Party member Dan Rawls asking Council members why they did not appear at a Tea Party town hall meeting to discuss the issue. Councilman Bill Estes, who represents the 2nd District, was the only councilman who accepted the invitation.

In return, Councilman George Poe asked Harwood why he didn’t attend a Council meeting months ago if he had questions.

Eminent Domain once again topic of Cleveland City Council

Eminent Domain is once again the huge elephant in the room at Mondays Cleveland Tennessee City Council Meeting.

After several minutes debating a study on the Ocoee/25th Street corridor construction project with City Mananger Janice Casteel the conversation went to the subject of eminent domain and the specifics of that process.

During the dialogue, as reported in the Chattanoogan, Councilman Banks said “We have to be conscious of the fact that when we vote on this project, that there is going to be imminent (eminent) domain proceedings. There will be lawsuits filed in court……”I think we need to be talking about other funding issues rather than this intersection project.”

The 25th street/Ocoee street Project, I have been told, will result in around 35 homes and businesses losing all or portions of their property. I have been informed by planners that this project will be 7 lanes wide, much like the road through the North Lee area and will be expensive. I asked would it be in the hundreds of millions and he said no that high but high.

First of all the eminent domain issue just last month was a crazy idea. The crack pot tea party types were spreading “false rumors and propaganda” about plans for Cleveland City. The Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Rowland, Editors at the local paper, Mayor Rowland, City and County Planners, 7 City Council members, McBride Dale and Clarion and countless other bureaucrats thought the subject was the worst thing they have ever been accused of. We have had our first amendment rights threatened because we passed out flyers saying the government was going to take your property by eminent domain, demolition and redevelopment and here they are casually doing the exact thing they reacted so strongly against just a month ago.

“False Propaganda” is what our mayor called this action a month ago and this week enacts eminent domain from his throne speaking volumes of a hidden agenda or hypocrisy on a high level. Just a month ago when his plan was uncovered it was outrageous, preposterous and scaring old people and the idea highly frowned upon.

Eminent Domain, rezoning, demolition and redevelopment, takings, outright purchases. Those are dirty words from the pits of hell and would never be uttered from our City government? Right?
Any man that would dare utter those words in my presence will burn in a hot and steamy lake of fire? Right?

Well, that was the sentiment from voices past, now the purveyors of all things unpopular, false, full of propaganda and hateful despicable lies is now the topic of City Council meetings as something that is inevitable.

I understand needing to hide these things. If the public grasps a great understanding of what is really going on in our local government they would not have a seat on our local city council seat for long and their long term legacy would be tarnished, forever linking the elite 8 to eminent domain and taking of the citizens property in such an egregious manner.

I think councilman banks said it best when he rebutted City Manager Janice Casteel with “We have to always be concious about how we appear to the public!”

Notice not one word was uttered that we must be careful or conscious to protect the citizens property rights! Their legacy, social standing in public, reputation will be tarnished are their true concerns, not your property rights! We can’t appear to want to take peoples property against their will, that would not be good, this is my humble opinion.

Councilman Poe in his defense did mention that he must go with the people he represents him on this one! Bravo! But what is going to be the end result of a 90 day study versus a 60 day study? How to take more of your property or at least take it in a more politically correct manner? I don’t know! One thing is for sure though and mark my words just as we have warned you for months now,

EMINENT DOMAIN WILL BE USED AS A VERY EFFECTIVE TOOL TO TAKE YOUR PROPERTY RIGHTS AWAY AND THE CITY AND COUNTY DEVELOPED!

Onward to the Central City Area!

The end!!!!!!

Yep, many are going to be affected by eminent domain, demolition and redevelopment. I guess it just matters as to which side of government you are on as to whether you can say it or not.

Compare these two articles. Both reporting on the same subject, only one mentions eminent domain, the other doesn’t! Why the bias? Why does it seem that the agenda is being hidden by the press? What is the benefit if the people are locked out of the process. I don’t get it!

Remember, my opinion is only mine and it doesn’t have to be yours!

http://www.clevelandbanner.com/view/full_story/19560052/article-TDOT-updates-city-on-Highway-60-Corridor?instance=homesecondleft

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/7/24/230864/Cleveland-Council-To-Vote-On-Cutting.aspx