Image Credit: Adelia Kircher / The Tennessee Conservative
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
On Monday, a bill authorizing county legislative bodies to recall a person that they appointed to a position via a two-thirds vote upon recommendation by the “appointing authority” passed on the House floor by a 95-0 vote.
Democrat Rep. Justin J. Jones was the only lawmaker recorded as “present not voting.”
House Bill 56 (HB0056) was filed by Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44) and does not apply to someone appointed by a county body to fill a vacancy within the General Assembly.
“The bill was filed just to be able to remove somebody from a committee, that if a mayor recommends to the county commission that somebody needs to be on a committee and then they don’t show up, or they get arrested for something, or whatever reason,” explained Rep. Lamberth. “I mean, right now the county commission doesn’t really have an ability to remove that person from that committee. Once they’re on there, they’re just on there.”
Support for HB0056 amongst Tennesseans seems to depend on both the current structure of and contentions within various local governments across the state.
“That legislation supersedes charters,” said one Knox County resident, “and if you see the amended House version that has already made it through 2 committees it requires the appointing authority, the County Mayor, to first recommend removal.”
“So not only does this legislation take away the Knox County commissions power to remove an appointed board member on their own, without the Mayor, it also requires a 2/3 majority instead of a simple majority,” they continued. “So this bill actually takes legislatively power away in Knox County.”
Representatives Johnny Garrett, Paul Sherrell, G.A. Hardaway, William Slater, Scott Cepicky, Renea Jones, Greg Martin, Greg Vital, Dave Wright, and Rick Eldridge are listed as co-sponsors of this legislation in the House.
The corresponding Senate Bill 39 (SB0039), sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin-District 18), was referred to the Senate State and Local Government Committee back in January and will likely start making its way through the committee process soon.
