Cookeville City Attorney T. Michael 'God bless the person who sues my client' O'Mara plays "Peek-a-boo" with the Cookeville Regional Medical Center audit, which says doctors try to get out of repaying loans.
 
 
 

Cookeville, hospital play 'hide-the-pea' with audit report.
Sonny Boy finds out what it's like to request public records from Cookeville, and it ain't pretty!
 

Sonny Boy
 

Election '98: Coomer gets away with it again -- so far

[Aug. 12, 1998]

Good-bye, Ma. Thanks.
 

Here's a man who has learned the pitfalls of being Putnam County assessor of property.
 

In the history of the United States, the civil rights movement stands out as a defining political moment. Yet today we find petty bureaucrats and small-time politicians abusing what little authority they have to further personal ends, with little or no regard for the rights of those they supposedly serve.
 

Cookeville City Councilman Don Wagnon told The Putnam Pit that he withdrew his request for city reimbursement of his $10,000 legal bill incurred successfully fighting a felony official misconduct charge because "[t]he votes were not there. I'm just beating a dead horse."

Cookeville's city manager knew more about the police locker room than
he let on when he sent Holt to the showers and brought Bandy in from the outfield.

Cookeville's 1994-95 revenue windfall from city court may indicate the judiciary is "masquerading as a court."

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN, Putnam Pit editor
Living in the rural woods doesn't make 'sovereign citizens' take kindly to officials sticking their noses where they don't belong.

"Liberty of the press" -- a safeguard against corrupt government.
 

Although Cookeville Councilman Don Wagnon asked the city to reimburse him $10,000 for legal fees he says he spent successfully fighting a felony official misconduct charge, we have yet to see proof he ever paid it. City Manager Jim Shipley said that had the council approved the payment Wagnon would have had to provide proof  he actually paid the bill. But because Wagnon withdrew his request, it is no longer the city's concern. See Shipley's e-mail.
 

Mourners ticketed for not wearing headgear last July during Horton Swift's funeral take on the state's crash helmet law.
 

No sooner had Cookeville Mayor Jean Davis finished her instructions to Putnam Pit Editor Geoff Davidian that he was not to say anything bad about the city council, officials or staff during the March 6 city council meeting than Davidian announced that while she was telling him what he could not speak about, Pit Systems Editor Michael Hodges served the city, the city manager and city attorney with federal civil rights complaints claiming first amendment violations.

By CHRISTINE GRANT
Putnam Pit managing editor
Judge's Vernon Neal's order  that Cookeville General Hospital Administrator Mike Mayes' records be available to The Pit's state bureau chief was all but ignored.
 

As more former inmates cry foul, state comptroller's office takes default responsibility for integrity of audit. Coomer once said he can "do anything I  want." Can he?
 

Doyle will appeal in malpractice case against O'Mara
 

[April 16, 1997] Doyle Shirt Manufacturing Co., of Sparta, has given notice it will appeal a chancery court decision barring the firm from collecting $600,000 from City Attorney T. Michael O'Mara for alleged negligence.