Thursday, April 24, 2008

Jackson Will Amend Private Act To Move Forward With Charter Changes

   State Senator Doug Jackson has indicated he will draft an amendment to the City of Lawrenceburg’s Private Act proposing several changes to the city’s charter, so that it may move forward in the ratification process.

   Members of the Lawrenceburg Board of Mayor and Commissioners voted unanimously during their February 14, 2008, meeting to approve a number of proposed changes in order to “tweak” the city’s charter. Most of the changes proposed were done so, they said, as a means of saving money for the city.

   In addition to a number of lesser changes, the commission proposed most notably eliminating costly run-off elections and aligning the city elections with the state election schedule in order to eliminate, or hold to a minimum, election costs for the city.

   The charter currently requires that candidates gain “50% plus one vote” in order to be elected to office. This leads to numerous runoff elections being held. The board proposes changing the document to require only a majority vote.

   Commissioners hope to change city elections, currently held in April, to coincide with state elections, which are held “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.”

In order to achieve this, commissioners had proposed that terms of commission members elected in 2005 (as well as the newly-appointed Ronald Fox) be extended until 2010, while terms of those elected in 2007 would be extended until 2012. That move would effectively add an additional sixteen months to the term of each commissioner.

   Jackson indicated that he had a problem with the language in this particular portion of the proposed act, and said he did not feel it would pass both legislative bodies as written. He indicated his disbelief that the document would gain a passing vote with sitting members of the commission requesting that time be added to their current terms.

   Jackson indicated he would have an amendment drafted, designating that the additional sixteen months be added to the term of the next commission. It is Jackson’s intent to specify that sixteen months be added to the terms of commission members elected in May of 2009 and May of 2011, and that thereafter terms revert to the current four years. Those elected in 2009 would serve until November 2014 while those elected in 2011 would serve until 2016.

   “Basically, we will have two more elections in May before it plays out,” Mayor Keith Durham explained Thursday, “and we are aligned with the November state election schedule.”

   Durham emphasized, “It was not the intention of anyone on this commission to add time to his own term…The way it was drafted was totally legal…The only time it is legal in the State of Tennessee to add time to your term is when you are working to align your election dates with the state.”

   Durham explained that the only reason the commission drafted the private act as submitted to the legislature was, “Because at that time that is the only way it was presented to us by MTAS (University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service.)” MTAS assisted the commission with proposed charter changes, as well as the drafting of the act itself.

   Should the document, as amended, gain approval on the state level, it would be returned to the City of Lawrenceburg. Leaders would then be required to advertise the proposal in local newspapers for two weeks. The commission would hold a public hearing regarding the proposed changes. Afterward, state law requires that the document be approved a second time by the city commission by a 2/3 majority vote.

   Commissioner Robin Williams pointed out that each time the city holds an election it costs taxpayers approximately $2,000, with an average voter turnout of between 20 and 30%. “Basically it is the same result,” Williams pointed out Thursday, “This just means that the taxpayers will be paying an additional $4,000 before this matter is settled.”

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