Much was made—rightly or wrongly, depending on your opinion—of the raises Knox County Commissioners approved for themselves and School Board members in June 2026.
I believe that decision deserves scrutiny and correction. But the questions about compensation and accountability shouldn’t stop at the doors of the City County Building.
How about an organization receiving a YUGE annual contribution from Knox County taxpayers?
Meet the Knoxville Chamber, also known as the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership, and its President and CEO, Mike Odom, who came here from Round Rock, Texas.
The Chamber’s Form 990 filings report $382,675 in compensation and another $14,772 in other compensation—a total of $397,447 in its filing for the fiscal year ending June 2025. The compensation section covers calendar year 2024.
The earlier filing, covering calendar year 2019, reported $132,061 with no other compensation. Odom began work here in June 2019, so that first figure represents a partial year. Readers deserve that context.
Even setting that partial year aside, the subsequent filings show reportable compensation moving from $248,691 to $269,560, then $354,814, $371,281 and $382,675. The last three also report other compensation of $13,060, $14,172 and $14,772, respectively.
Those numbers deserve public discussion.
Knox County approved $1,270,500 for the Chamber for FY 2025–26, running July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. County Commission approved the allocation through Resolution R-25-6-506 on June 23, 2025.
That is a substantial taxpayer investment. What compensation review does the Chamber conduct? Who approves the CEO’s pay? What comparisons and performance measures support those decisions? And what information does County Commission examine before approving another annual allocation?
The Chamber is a nonprofit business organization with a public economic development role. That relationship deserves a clear explanation of where private organizational decisions meet public accountability.
There is another connection worth examining: the Industrial Development Board of the County of Knox. The Chamber provides its management and administrative services, and the IDB’s audited financial statements show it received $207,788 from the Chamber for operating activities during FY 2024–25.
The IDB also holds title to properties through economic development incentive arrangements. Its financial statements explain that, under PILOT agreements, property title can pass to the board during the incentive period and return to the business afterward. Those arrangements deserve attention alongside direct appropriations.
One wonders why it is the Mega Bullhorn of Truth that discovers this and NOT the daily paper. Marble Alley Lofts on State Street, I would contend would be a great first stop.
Taxpayers should be able to follow the money, understand the property arrangements and see what results their investment produces.
The compensation figures cited here come from the Chamber’s publicly available IRS Form 990 filings, which I reviewed through GuideStar.
If elected officials’ raises deserve headlines, compensation at an organization receiving $1.27 million annually from Knox County deserves questions, too.
The Mega Bullhorn of Truth is asking. While other news entities will not, the #CitizenInformer will and does!
