Rep. Joe McCord attempts to humiliate the Executive Director of TCWN
May 1st, 2008 by Renée HoyosHere is what happens when you take a stand for clean water and fight to keep developers from being allowed to pave, culvert and bury streams at the state Legislature.
On April 9, the Stop Work Order bill was up in the House Environment Committee for a vote. During discussion, Rep. McCord asked me to come up and speak on it. Once he got me up there, he turned the subject to the limited resources bill that we worked so hard to kill. I tried to turn his attention back to the Stop Work Order, but he would have none of it.
A couple of notes. Rep. McCord suggests that I am only in this for money. I had a conversation with Rep. Nicely at the beginning of the session. Rep. Nicely told me that because I get paid to do the work I do, it’s not worthy. When I countered that the Farm Bureau lobbyist gets paid to represent farmers, a group he claims to support, he told me that I make more money than she does and therefore what I do is not worthy. I don’t think Rep. McCord thought up the money comment on his own.
I do believe that Rep. McCord got the message.
RvH
May 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
As one of the people who help pay your salary in a small way, let me say that we’re getting a bargain.
Whatever we’re paying you is not enough to put up with bullies, like Joe McCord, who try to attack on a personal level when their own position is without merit. What a cowardly thing for him to have done in blindsiding you that way.
It sounds like he met his match. Good work.
Hang in there…And thanks for all you do,
Steve
May 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
By the way…Since being paid for work means it is “not worthy”..perhaps Rep. Nicely is planning to return the salary he accepts for serving in the State legislature?
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
This would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad . . . like they never pay any attention to lobbyists?!
Rep. Niceley doesn’t pay any attention to plain old citizens either, since I personally know that dozens of his constituents wrote to him recently asking him to support the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Act to protect our mountains and streams from the disaster of mountaintop removal, and he voted against it. His bio says he considers himself an environmentalist! I am very disappointed in the majority of our representation in Nashville.