Three weeks from Election Day, Red Bank Mayor Joe Glasscock sighed and said he’s “never seen this sort of politics in 55 years of Red Bank history.”
He and six other hopefuls have had plenty to say about lawsuits, traffic cameras and City Manager Chris Dorsey before three commission seats are decided Nov. 2.
AT-LARGEJOE GLASSCOCK* Age: 78* Occupation: Retired CEO of Glasscock Developments Inc.* Campaign expenses: $800JOHN ROBERTS* Age: 34* Occupation: Owner of Southern Touch Properties, a real estate company in Chattanooga* Campaign expenses: $1,000DISTRICT 1ROBERT PERRY* Age: 37* Occupation: Insurance agent for Physicians Mutual* Campaign expenses: $500FLOY PIERCE* Age: 67* Occupation: Owner of Floy’s Boutique/Creations* Campaign expenses: $1,000DAVID SMITH* Age: 52* Occupation: Millwright* Campaign expenses: $900DISTRICT 3GREG JONES* Age: 45* Occupation: Children’s pastor at Bethel Temple Assembly of God, property manager* Campaign expenses: $400EDWARD LeCOMPTE* Age: 57* Occupation: Construction inspector for Chattanooga* Campaign expenses: $500WHAT’S NEXT* Red Bank candidate forum, hosted by Red bank Neighborhood Pride Association* When: Monday, 6:30 p.m.* Where: Red Bank Community Center
A four-year term on the Board of Commissioners pays $200 per month. The city’s 12,000 people are divided into three districts. No matter where they live, residents may vote in all races.
Commissioners will choose a mayor and vice mayor after the election.
At-large
Both mayor and at-large commissioner, Glasscock voted to extend the city’s traffic camera contract with American Traffic Solutions for 12 years.
Now he favors a resident referendum on the issue in November 2012 – two months before the Board of Commissioners first can vote to cancel the contract.
His challenger, John Roberts, said traffic cameras discourage visitors to Dayton Boulevard and “make me sick to my stomach.”
“If they just put a vacant car with a dummy in there, I guarantee people would stop and slow down at a red light,” Roberts said.
Roberts said tax breaks should be offered to attract industry, but Glasscock said the empty buildings along Dayton Boulevard – including a Krystal that closed earlier this year – are not unique to the town.
“You drive down Hixson Pike or Dodds Avenue or Market Street, there’s a … lot of empty buildings,” Glasscock said. “We’re in a recession. I work constantly with brokers to recruit new business.”
Glasscock described three of the four $1.5 million lawsuits against the city as “frivolous.” He excluded one filed by former police chief Larry Sneed for retaliatory discharge. The mayor said three commissioners violated state open meetings laws before Sneed’s firing.
He denied an allegation by a city police officer that the mayor assaulted him in the City Hall parking lot.
“I thought it rather comical that a 78-year-old man with a metal back and two artificial knees would send a healthy police officer into a frenzy,” Glasscock said.
Roberts said he’s knocked on a thousand doors, where most residents tell him they are “embarrassed to live in Red Bank” because of the lawsuits.
“Why has all this stuff happened?” Roberts said. “Nothing personal against Chris Dorsey, but maybe we should look in a different direction. He’s the CEO of this city, and the citizens are the stockholders.”
Glasscock said Dorsey is a “financial master” but lacks personal chemistry with residents and mishandled the Sneed situation.
Dorsey said he has a “clear conscience” about the situation.
District 1
Two candidates are working to defeat two-term Commissioner Floy Pierce, who said she needs to stay in office “more than ever.”
She said she notified Dorsey about “issues” in the police department, leading to Sneed’s sudden firing.
“Our police officers deserve respect and deserve to be treated fairly,” she said, declining to elaborate.
Her opponents, Robert Perry and David Smith, said Sneed deserved “due process” and a chance to explain his case.
Pierce joined Glasscock in voting to extend the traffic cameras before claiming the need to “revisit” the issue a month later.
One of Pierce’s opponents supports the cameras.
“You should not be running a red light and you should stop,” Smith said. “That’s driving school 101.”
The other does not.
“We have traffic cameras there in place of actual police officers,” Perry said. “If the people want to have their cameras, let them, but if we’re trying to stimulate revenue, jobs are the way to do that.”
District 3
Commissioner Greg Jones and challenger Edward LeCompte support traffic cameras for safety enhancement.
They differ on everything else.
Jones said he wishes he had a “crystal ball” to know how to attract enterprise to Red Bank, but said “getting five people who can work together” is a good start.
“Red Bank government right now is not a perfect world,” he said.
LeCompte doesn’t care who else joins him on a new board – only that they drop the bickering and become focused on luring larger businesses.
“Why aren’t we ready for something like that?” he said. “Backroom politics can’t happen anymore, and we need to get on the corporate level.”
Along with Pierce, Jones was named in the Sneed lawsuit, but he said he goes to sleep every night “knowing I did nothing wrong.”
LeCompte believes that even if Sneed needed to be fired, the situation wasn’t handled ethically and the mismanagement was enough to warrant a review of Dorsey’s contract.
Glasscock and Commissioner Ruth Jeno have accused Dorsey of going behind their backs when he fired the police chief.
“Nothing major like that should happen unless he tells all the commissioners,” LeCompte said.