Legitimate Concerns

Earlier this morning, I read with interest the concerns expressed by Brad over at WTL. As I told him in my email to him, I have many of the same concerns.

But before we go forward, we should read the resolution.

The resolution operates under the Metro Government section of the TCA 7-2-101 through 108. That link takes you to the first relevant section of the law. Navigation is provided at the top and bottom of each page. As you read through the resolution, you’ll note that almost everything is handled in this section of state law.

Brad is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about IRV, Ethics, Term Limits and all sorts of things. WE WILL BE STARTING OVER. Truth be told, I won’t vote for anything that doesn’t include IRV and a strong independent Ethics Commission. That’s just reality.

On the issues of partisan races, I think I have the answer and it’s located at TCA 2-13-208 Sec b

(b) In any county having a metropolitan form of government, the election of the county mayor and the members of the legislative body of such metropolitan government shall be considered to be municipal elections within the meaning of this section; however, the provisions of this section shall not be construed to require a partisan election for any other officers of the metropolitan government if the charter of such metropolitan government provides that elections for such officers shall be nonpartisan.

I read this to mean that unless the charter SPECIFICALLY sets up partisan elections that they are non-partisan.

There are still more issues to be addressed with any Charter Commission, particularly one tasked with such a huge undertaking as unifying two of the largest municipal governments in Tennessee. The first issue is will it pass the County Commission? Right now that’s not clear, but they’ll be discussing it in committee on the 26th in the General Government Committee.

As this progresses through the County Commission, I’ll have more.