Mayor Ron Williams and Alderman Povlin are No Longer Listed as Farragut Business Alliance Board Members
There has been a big change with the Farragut Business Alliance Board of Directors. Farragut Mayor Ron Williams and Alderman Louise Povlin are no longer board members.
Below is a recent screenshot of the Board of Directors
Below is a screenshot from March 2023.
Why are Ron Williams and Louise Povlin no longer board members?
Well, there have been numerous stories showing issues with the FBA.
The FBA board was not properly noticing their meetings. Notice the language on the bottom of the page for the Board of Directors. See the screenshot below From June 2021. Notice no information on meetings and minutes being available.
Local residents uncovered that the FBA was not properly noticing their meetings and making minutes available to the public. The FBA did correct this after this was brought public.
However, 2 members of Farragut’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen: Ron Williams and Louise Povlin were attending these board meetings without proper legal notice. The FBA discusses matters relating to matters that come before BoMA, and as a result when Ron and Louise were present, this required legal notice under TN Sunshine Laws.
Secondly, Alderman Louise Povlin, who has ownership in the Farragut Anytime Fitness location, voted to give money to the Farragut Business Alliance in October 2019. The FBA after this vote used its resources to promote the same Anytime Fitness.
A Farragut elected official, Louise Povlin, sits on a board, the Farragut Business Alliance, that receives the majority of its money from Farragut. She then votes to give the FBA taxpayer funds and the FBA then promotes her business. This is a financial benefit directly from a vote taken as an elected official. Louise Povlin should have recused herself from all FBA related matters as she financially benefits from the money Farragut gives it.
Thirdly, the Farragut Press, whose publisher Tony Cox is on the FBA Board of Directors, changed the story on how the Biddle Farms Project came about.
The Farragut Press published in a January 21, 2021 article :
The late David Purvis, long-time Farragut businessman and one of the founders of Shop Farragut/Farragut Business Alliance, was key in bringing together developer Budd Cullom and the property on which he plans to build Farragut Town Center at Biddle Farms.
The problem is it was two members of the Farragut Business Alliance: Jim Nixon and David Purvis. See email below from Ron Williams.
How did the story get changed from Jim Nixon and David Purvis approaching Budd Cullom (developer of Biddle Farms) to just David Purvis? Michelle Hollenhead was the reporter on this story. The Citizen Monitor has confirmed that Michelle Hollenhead was removed from covering certain Farragut stories by the Farragut Press. She has not been objective and has violated journalistic ethics more than once. The Citizen Monitor has reviewed emails from Michelle acting in a completely unprofessional manner discussing local asset Michael Wilson. The Farragut Files has published emails that were from an open records request.
The Farragut Press published in an article titled Town 5-0 on MOU with FBA, Chamber for biz promotion.
Vice Mayor Louise Povlin’s bone of contention was the out-of-Farragut businesses being involved in FBA’s community events. She stressed the FBA needs to focus more on generating revenue for Farragut businesses.
“We’re after the people, not the businesses,” she said. “The outside businesses compete with our businesses. We’re the loser here.”
As of March 2023, Louise Povlin was an owner of Anytime Fitness in Farragut. Her comments are self-serving. She wants the FBA to only focus on businesses like hers to use Farragut taxpayer funds to assist her financial interests. This cannot be allowed. She should have recused herself from all FBA matters since her vote to fund them in 2019.
The Citizen Monitor has confirmed that the Povlins did try to sell their ownership in Anytime. Louise Povlin is not mentioned on the Anytime Fitness Farragut’s website as being an owner as of this publication.
It is interesting that Louise would not put her name on a business she had ownership in. We can safely assume that her name is quite toxic in town and for good reason. There are reasons why she is called the Mad Queen of Hearts. She brought her liberal New Jersey politics to Farragut.
On a different note, Louise’s comments represent another problem in Farragut. Why are the taxpayers of Farragut funding advertising for businesses via the Farragut Business Alliance? This is not a proper function of government. Businesses need to fund their own advertising, without taxpayer funded handouts.
Mayor Ron Williams and Alderman Louise Povlin should never have been allowed to serve on the Farragut Business Alliance board. The FBA held meetings that Ron and Louise were in attendance at that violated TN Sunshine Laws.
There are still unanswered questions about how the Biddle Farms project came about. Where is the paper trail of how it came about? Why did the Farragut Press knowingly publish a story that excluded Jim Nixon’s involvement and then put the project solely on the shoulders of David Purvis, who died a month earlier?
These types of actions undermine trust in government. It is par for the course in the tenure of Ron Williams and Louise Povlin. Expect to have this publication called sexist and spreading misinformation as Louise always does when caught doing improper and unethical things.
It is quite clear the walls are crumbling in on Louise Povlin and Ron Williams. Their conflicts of interest and violations of TN Sunshine Laws are just some of the examples of their problem relationship with the FBA. It would not come as a surprise if Ron and Louise’s departure is so the FBA can distance themselves from Mayor Ron Williams and Alderman Louise Povlin.
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