Roy Exum: Cameras Or Subterfuge?

  • Monday, March 2, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) is an easy-to-like member of the Tennessee Legislature and the fact he is teaming with state senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) to rid the state of its loathsome traffic cameras is indeed a wonderful thing. The legislative action is long overdue, with the biggest winners being the out-of-state camera companies. That alone is just about all you need to know to declare the program has been a sham from the very first day.

I have long thought such cameras should be illegal and find their use almost as deplorable as the state’s emission centers that charge car owners in the state’s biggest four counties $10.00 on top of the annual license tag fee.

The unbelievable part of the emissions shell game is that those who live in Tennessee’s 91 other counties do not pay the fee because there are no stations to inspect the auto emissions. I believe that is Constitutionally wrong. As a matter of fact, one time in Boston they had a Tea Party over similar lunacy.

But here are Holt and Gardenhire pouncing on a juicy morsel like traffic cameras that will be hugely popular across the state when – in fact – the two lawmakers have found themselves pretty unpopular in recent weeks. What a clever public-relations ploy.

Holt is – or was up until two months ago -- a hog farmer in West Tennessee. He answers roll call in the legislature with “Sooo-ey!” and has plastic pigs that sometime appear on his desk. Last month, when women protested over abortion, he carried around a hastily-scribbled sign that read, “I love women … and their babies.”

But last week news emerged he has allegedly been non-compliant of state and federal laws on his 1,400-acre hog farm over the last five years. According to one report, the Environmental Protection Agency claims he pumped raw waste from his over-filled lagoons into a creek that goes into the Mississippi River. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is also stalking him because he hasn’t had a permit for his farm and rebuffed repeated calls for compliance.

Here’s the rub: Rep. Holt is the vice chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Ben Hall, a reporter for WTVF, obtained an email from an unidentified state inspector who claims that after he wrote a report that Holt was dumping hog carcasses and hog waste into a nearby creek, the inspector was “discouraged by upper management” from any further action.

Now the state representative says he is out of the hog business. He told the Nashville “Scene” that he quit at the end of 2014. “We did it for a multitude of reasons, but part of it is the regulatory environment … we are out of the hog business. That’s it. It is unfortunate because I love raising hogs … the farm has reached the end of its productive capability. It’s just old and you do it until you are done. We’re done.”

Some believe the better reason is because Holt has a colorful history of dodging permits and alleged violations. Both the EPA and the state say they are still investigating numerous allegations. That may be because Holt sponsored the infamous “AgGag Bill” of 2013 that would criminalize anyone who made an undercover video of criminal activity on a farm like the one that starred flagrant horse abuser Jackie McConnell.

Governor Haslam finally vetoed the controversial bill and last year he vetoed another bill by Holt. That bill would – get this -- reduce penalties on those who pollute streams and the environment. Wow, and he claims to be a deacon in a Baptist church. What is troubling is that Holt was able to get the state legislature to accept both bills and he has the moxie to make the traffic camera bill into law.

Gardenhire, in the eyes of many, has become something of a school-yard bully. After noted physician Phyllis Miller spoke to him about Erlanger’s problems, he called the highly-respected physician and asked her to resign from the board. He later explained he was simply “trying to hit a mule in the head with a two-by-four to get its attention” but the repugnant action made Gardenhire more closely resemble the cousin of a Mexican burro than the popular surgeon who is very much a lady and a physician.

Todd also tried to block Jennifer Stanley’s re-appointment to the Erlanger board when the truth is the former Rhodes Scholar is considered to be “the MVP” by the other members of Erlanger’s board of trustees. A hospital trustee is a totally volunteer job – Stanley is paid nothing – and the firestorm Gardenhire caused, and Commissioner Tim Boyd aided, was not just inexcusable but a horrible reflection on both politicians. Boyd has since apologized for his contentious remarks in the media.

Gardenhire’s crazy rant over Insure Tennessee made him out to be a bigger dolt after it was discovered he had state insurance coverage — along with five other lawmakers of the seven who stopped the plan – and his suggestion that public schools be forced to pay the cost of remedial classes for college students who aren’t prepared sounds nice until you realize where the money to fund our public schools “really” comes from.

So is the traffic camera bill something that Holt and Gardenhire dreamed up to get back into the hearts of the people? Is it a careful subterfuge to hide what may be termed an unfortunate abuse of power and grand-standing by Senator Gardenhire and Rep. Holt because these two are turning out to be almost as bad as traffic cameras.

royexum@aol.com

Senator Todd Gardenhire
Senator Todd Gardenhire
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