TNDP Exec Member Resigns After Hate-Speech Video Goes Viral (Bonus: He’s Also a Mayor)
A member of the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee and elected official in East Tennessee has resigned after a hate speech-filled video of he and his wife aired on YouTube. (Warning: This video contains obscenities.)
Bill Fannon, mayor of Tazewell in East Tennessee, resigned from his District 8 seat following posting of the video which showed him evicting tenants from an apartment owned by the Fannons. The video is filled with obscene language and features Fannon and his wife, Kat, insulting and threatening teenage renters and their mother.
“Wait till the cops get here and I’m going to let him know about you and then I’m going to knock your teeth into the back of your g–damn head,” Fannon says to one of his tenants, a 17-year-old boy.
His wife, Kat Fannon, calls the boy a “queer” and says “I wouldn’t touch you: I might get something,” while calling a young woman shown in the video a “whore” and “poor trash.”
In the two minute video, the Fannons say the teens didn’t pay rent, while the renters in turn say the couple didn’t make necessary repairs to the property.
Usually, in the circumstance that a tenant hasn’t paid their rent, they are issued a Late Rent Notice (see a template at https://www.american-apartment-owners-association.org/property-management/landlord-forms/notice-to-pay-rent-or-quit/) which advises them that they are in violation of the rental agreement. This means the tenant has two choices; either pay the past due amount of rent by a specific date or vacate the premises and surrender possession of the rental.
Another TNDP Executive Committeenmember, Robin Smith, former mayor of Decherd and committee member from District 16, resigned after being indicted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on charges he allegedly stole money from misdemeanor probationers under his supervision and used it for his own use.
Members of the TNDP Executive Committee said they were notified about both Smith’s and Fannon’s resignations via e-mail Sept. 9.
The resignations bring the total number of vacancies on the TNDP Executive Committee to eight.
Robin Smith, former Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee Member and former mayor of Decherd was indicted by the TBI.
(Editor’s note: Tennessee Holler co-founder, Holly McCall, ran against Mary Mancini for chair in January 2019.)