Chattanooga City Councilmember Proposes Raising Mayor’s Term Limit

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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod is proposing an ordinance that would establish term limits for City Council members for the first time. The mayor would also be allowed to serve four four-year terms instead of the current, which is two four-year terms. 

City Council members would have a limit of four four-year terms they were able to serve. 

In order to coincide with other elections, Councilwoman Coonrod also proposed moving stand-alone city elections to August instead of March. She said the March 3, 2021 city election cost $224,487 and the April 13, 2021 runoff was $188,741. She said, if moved, the money could be used for a number of city needs instead.

If no one candidate receives more than 50 percent, there would still be a runoff election. 

Councilwoman Raquetta Dotley said earlier, “I will support policy to add staggered term limits to City Council positions for the purpose of combating the compliance and power pull of career politicians.”

Term limits have long been debated in the political arena. The city of Chattanooga mayor can serve a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms; however, those same guidelines don’t apply to City Council.

Dotley asked, “So why doesn’t the City Council have term limits? Why would someone want to serve on Chattanooga City Council for more than eight years?”

“When serving in any public position, it is critical that there are limitations placed on how long a person can be in office. When public officials are in office for too long, stagnation can be mistaken for sustainability and complacency for progress,” Dotley continued, “Being a career politician should not be the goal of a City Council member, but rather reflecting the voices of the community in policy.”

Councilwoman Jenny Hill expressed opposition to moving city elections away from the March time period. 

She said to fellow council members, “Non-partisan elections and elected bodies like ours are rare and important. While moving city elections to follow county/state cycles would save a small amount of money, I believe our city would lose more than we would gain.

“County, state and national elections are partisan. As such the rhetoric that surrounds those elections is largely party platform based – aimed at moving primary voters (who typically fall on the ideological ends of the spectrum) to the polls,” Hill continued, “You’ll notice that these elections struggle to focus on new ideas and solutions, favoring instead partisan lightning rods – most recently, gun violence and indoctrination.

“Our city elections create their own, separate conversation away from the noise of partisan blather. Candidates are motivated to work just as diligently to earn votes- and they have an opportunity to do so based on their ideas, record, relationships and work ethic – rather than a binary r/d proposition,” Hill said.

“Having served in the county system, I can attest to the reality that partisanship has a palpable effect on how work gets done or not done. It’s only natural that savvy, dedicated candidates will adapt to whatever system of election is established. By holding our elections separate, we reinforce our non-partisan commitment. If we choose to align with the partisan structure, we can expect results not unlike County Commission – a body that struggles to find consensus on important seemingly non-partisan issues such as wastewater treatment, zoning, facilities, etc.,” Hill concluded.

One thought on “Chattanooga City Councilmember Proposes Raising Mayor’s Term Limit

  • December 16, 2022 at 12:34 am
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    The theory is that elections set the term limits. Partisanship is not blather. It is suppose to help ensure the voters know where a candidate stands on most issues. It was difficult to determine where certain candidates stood on issues during the last city election.

    Oh, gee whiz. Why bother with elections at all? Just lull us all back to sleep, and let the machines spit out the winner’s name.

    Reply

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