A 24-year-old college student wants to become the youngest East Ridge mayor ever, but he must topple a city councilman and two former mayors first.
“People will know exactly what’s happening in our government when I take office,” said Robert Frye, a 2005 East Ridge High School graduate studying political science and psychology at UTC. “If they don’t understand, it will be explained to them. They will not be hushed, and they will not be kicked out.”
Reciting problems in a bullet-point fashion, Frye slammed the current council for its adventures in six-figure budget deficits, early land deal announcements and “unnecessary” public relations.
“You shouldn’t have to take out $500 to spin a story, much less a budget shortfall,” he said. “Typical East Ridge politics. I’m here to open things up.”
To do that, Frye – who said he has experience in property assessment, fiscal analysis and data management – plans on creating a citizens budget committee to work closely with the city’s politicians.
Frye also promised to donate $2,000 of the mayor’s $12,000 annual salary to local schools to create a college scholarship. If he wins, he said he would suspend his law school ambitions until he completes a four-year term.
ROBERT FRYE* Age: 24* Occupation: Student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Academy Sports and Outdoors team sports associate* Campaign expenses: $857.60DON HUSKEY* Age: 69* Occupation: Retired, former banking executive, owner of House of Mattresses* Campaign expenses: $3,363.61BOB JOHNSON* Age: 77* Occupation: Retired, worked at Bellsouth, former chairman of the board at Erlanger* Campaign expenses: $2,008.77BRENT LAMBERT* Age: 34* Occupation: Library director at the National Model Railroad Association* Campaign expenses: $2,000WHAT’S NEXTThe East Ridge Education Committee will sponsor a candidate forum Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Spring Creek Elementary School.
He will get a chance to discuss these issues with the other mayoral candidates during a forum at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Spring Creek Elementary School.
Councilman Brent Lambert, 34, brushed off Frye’s criticisms.
The library director at the National Model Railroad Association, Lambert said he is “very proud” of replacing the lights at Camp Jordan, luring grants, establishing a nonviolent inmate work program and voting against traffic cameras as a councilman.
“We looked at the nuclear option first instead of gradually working our way toward something,” Lambert said of the photo enforcement vote.
Lambert asserted that he and his colleagues “did just about all we could as a council” to avoid the deficit that resulted in several firings.
“It was an unfortunate communication issue from staff to council,” he said.
Outgoing Mayor Mike Steele also blamed former city Manager William Whitson for the budget deficit. Steele defeated Lambert for mayor in 2006 but now supports him.
Said Lambert, who holds a master’s degree in public administration, “It’s hard to say if I would do anything differently.”
Don Huskey said the opposite.
Mayor of East Ridge from 1990 to 1992, he placed a half-page election advertisement in a local periodical that referenced the state audit he ordered for a similar state of financial disarray during his tenure.
Huskey, 69, said cutting waste and ordering a state audit are the “first orders of business” if he’s elected.
“The only difference between a prison and City Hall is we don’t have a strong-armed guard,” Huskey said. “I’m going to mess up this playhouse once and for all.”
In 1991, two residents sued Huskey for $48,000 after they said he demanded a $20,000 bribe to persuade councilmen to go along with purchasing prints of an oil painting of government buildings.
About a year later, a judge dismissed the suit because the commission had never voted to buy the prints, which were based on oil paintings of the old and new town halls, according to newspaper archives.
“You can indict a cheese sandwich,” said Huskey, who denied taking a bribe. “I’m here to guide this city’s future.”
Another former mayor, Bob Johnson, resigned from the post in 1997 because “three councilmen worked against me.”
“If you’ve got three votes, you run the world,” he said of the five-person council.
In 1997, months before Johnson’s resignation, a state audit found that a construction company was not licensed by the state at the time of the bid for a construction project. The mayor denied wrongdoing, newspaper archives show.
“I was not here when these bids were opened,” Johnson said at the time. “I am a part-time mayor. I’m not here during the day-to-day operations of the city.”
He said he was back because “somebody has to keep their finger on the pulse and raising taxes is out of the question.”
Johnson said he was excited about the mayor’s announcement of a new land deal near Camp Jordan, but it “may be a little premature.”
He said it was time for a change in city government.
“Some people get in on personality and can’t do the job,” he said. “They’re unqualified. I’m not.”