Chattanooga City Council members said Tuesday night that City Attorney Randy Nelson has advised them it is unlikely the city could get back money paid to former Councilwoman Marti Rutherford, who resigned last fall amid a residency controversy.
“It would cost a lot of money to pursue it when the odds are against a success,” Councilman Jack Benson said.
Mr. Benson said no official decision has been made against trying to collect compensation paid to Ms. Rutherford, who had an ouster lawsuit filed against her charging that she did not live in District 6 “at any time relevant to her election.”
Mr. Benson and other council members said there is no guarantee that the city could win after going through legal proceedings against the former councilwoman.
“I just don’t want to focus the city time and money on that,” Councilwoman Sally Robinson said.
Mr. Benson said that next Tuesday afternoon at the council’s Legal and Legislative Committee meeting he will present a resolution asking the Tennessee General Assembly to put the responsibility for verifying a candidate’s residency on county election commissions and to investigate any assertions that people seeking office do not live where they says they do.
Mr. Benson said he will submit the resolution to state Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, who is chairman of the Hamilton County legislative delegation.
“I think this will serve the purpose of sending a message out there that in the future there’s going to be more efforts made to verify the compliance of residential requirements,” Mr. Benson said. “And it will pinpoint who’s responsible for it.”
Ms. Rutherford could not be reached Tuesday night for comment.
A Tennessee Attorney General’s opinion released in December stated the city can try to seek repayment of Ms. Rutherford’s council compensation if Mr. Nelson was correct in his assertion that she never legally held the seat. But she resigned before the issue went to court.
Councilman Manny Rico said the council has reached the consensus that it would not be in the city’s best interest to try and recoup the money paid to Ms. Rutherford, who was elected in spring 2005 and resigned on Oct. 1, 2007.
But Mr. Rico said the state can take steps to toughen election law in order to prevent future residency problems.
“Give something some teeth in it so this won’t happen again,” he said.
