Commission chooses Oster as chair
By Mike Steely
Senior Writer
steelym@knoxfocus.com
District 3 Commissioner Gina Oster, who has served as vice chair of the Knox County Commission, was selected to be the new commission chair on Tuesday during the special called reorganization meeting. Oster then nominated At-Large Commissioner Kim Frazier for vice chair. Both were elected by acclamation by the six sitting and five new county commission members.
Oster replaces Commissioner Terry Hill in the post after Hill had expressed in a previous meeting that she was not interested in serving again.
The process of choosing members of the various committees received some criticism from newly seated 9th District Commissioner Andrew Fox. He said the procedure “does not make sense.” Deputy Law Director Mike Moyers replied that the way the committees are chosen is “strictly according to our rules” but added the commission could change the rules.
While the various committees have a finite number of members, more commissioners were nominated than open committee seats and issues arose when all the commissioners voted for all the nominees. It took some time to fill the committees and then choose chairs and vice chairs for each group.
“We got started a little bumpy,” Oster commented later in the meeting.
Frazier was chosen as chair of the Beer Board with At-Large Commissioner Larsen Jay chosen as vice chair. Hill was selected to chair the Insolvency Board with new commissioner Angela Russell of District 5 seated as vice chair.
Courtney Durrett of District 2 was elected in a split vote over Fox to chair the Legislative Affairs committee with Jay picked as vice chair.
Frazier will head the Rules Committee with Fox chosen as vice chair over District 1’s Damon Rawls.
Jay was selected as chair of the Finance Committee over Russell who was then chosen as vice chair.
Newly seated 8th District Commissioner Adam Thompson was chosen as chair of the Telecom Committee with Fox selected as vice chair.
Russell and Jackson joined the Audit Committee. Jay was chosen to represent the commission on the Fire and Technical Rescue Committee and Thompson was selected to serve on the Employee Insurance Committee.
Fox, Russell and Shane Jackson were added to the Joint Education Committee. Rawls and Lee went to the Metro Drug Board and Lee, Durrett, Russell and Hill became Personnel Committee members. Fox became a member of the Public Records Committee and Jackson and Rawls joined Hill on the Retirement and Pension Board.
Thompson was named to the Agricultural Committee as well as the Codes Committee.
