Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
From 1776, Thomas Paine’s words give a glimpse into the mindset of our founders: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now.” Around 1830, French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville visited our young nation investigating the functioning of America’s radical experiment. That American system of townships impressed him above all. In his own words; “in the United States the county and the township are always based upon the same principle: namely that everyone is the best judge of what concerns himself alone, and the most proper person to supply his own wants.” He saw this as the bulwark and key to the unprecedented success of the young nation.
In 1978, a small group of concerned West Knox County citizens banded together feeling that Knox County government had grown too large, cumbersome, unresponsive and distant from them to adequately serve their needs. And foreseeing their imminent annexation by the City of Knoxville, they chose to do a quintessentially American thing; organize themselves into an independent self-governing township. Within 30 years the Town of Farragut had become the envy of the state operating on the principles first observed by de Tocqueville; lean, efficient, responsive, small government manned almost entirely by citizens directly elected and volunteers for various committees chosen from among their peers, vigilant in their loyalty.
Have we now strayed from those very principles and the gift bequeathed to us? Over the years, we have handed off much of the administrative duties of the Town to an eager, competent and expert staff who are more than willing to accept them. But, as is the inevitable habit of paid administrators, they “begin to cover the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and energetic characters cannot penetrate…” Soon it is the entrenched bureaucracy setting the agenda for the Board elected by the people, and elections become little more than a tolerated annoyance necessary only to preserve the illusion of self-government.
Since 2016 the Town population has grown less than 13%, but the size of the paid staff has exploded by over 44%. It shouldn’t take an economist to see that this freight train is headed for a property tax. Is the tail wagging this dog? Choose carefully, Farragut.
Bob Markli,
Farragut, TN
