Crossville Mayor pro tem Pam Harris has been named in a petition for recall by local resident Howard Burnette. In the petition, Burnette claims Harris attempted, without just cause, to suspend and replace the City Manager of Crossville.  Furthermore Ms. Harris has failed to support and voted to defund the HORIZON INITIATIVE, a very popular community wide program, thus not acting in the best interest of the citizens, which she swore an oath to represent.

Crossville News First contacted Mayor pro tem Harris for comment on the allegations and she replied with the following as it relates to Horizon Initiative:

In order to dispel any misconceptions and rumors about my stance on the Horizon Initiative, I am sending this email. 

I am not opposed to the Initiative in concept.  It has accomplished some positive things and has potential to make an impact on our community.  What I am opposed to is how presentation of the Agreement was made to the Council, and how some of the expenses were handled.

The City Attorney was not given the opportunity to review the Agreement prior to presentation to the Council.  Additionally, some of the expenses paid for by the City were broken up in a manner as not to exceed the City Manager’s limit.  Furthermore, these expenses were not included in our budget.  And, the full Council was not advised of the expenditures.  I found out about the expense after the fact.

Again, let me reiterate that I am not opposed to the initiative.  However, I require more clarity as follows:

1.  I would like to know who drafted the Agreement that was presented to the Council for approval and acceptance.

2.  I request review of the Horizon Initiative Agreement by our City Attorney with any revisions recommended accordingly, to be brought back before the Council for reconsideration.

3.  I request more clarity as to how we propose to fund the Initiative.

I will feel more comfortable that I am performing my fiduciary duty after these items have been accomplished.

Respectfully,
Pamala Harris

Ms. Harris also posted the following on her Facebook Page:

Hey facebook friends and family……just want to thank you so much for your show of support while we deal with a few folks that want to continue disrupting our City Council’s efforts to do good in our community. Some misinformation is out there. The last I heard, we live in America, and since when is voting your conscience or asking for more clarification grounds for a recall. If anyone has a question, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll tell you the truth and that‘s all there is to it. If you don’t want to hear the truth, then don’t ask me. I don’t want to waste your time or mine running down other people. I’ll share a couple of thoughts with you: 1) Be sure you have all the facts before you make a judgement, and 2) Be careful whose jug your drinking your Kool-Aid from. LOL! Sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from crying. One last thing…..I went into my service on the City Council loving Crossville, and I’m gonna keep on loving Crossville no matter what the “haters” say or try to do. I love Crossville and I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be!!!