Claude Ramsey has been county mayor for four terms, but he may just now be hitting his best long stride. Having worked for years to get the community to the threshold of our biggest economic opportunity in decades — and certainly the brightest position in contemporary history — he now seems primed to help the county make the most of it. Voters would do well to give him another term.
Mayor Ramsey’s single challenge in the May primary comes from Richard Rankin, a pleasant and well-intentioned candidate, but clearly a political neophyte. He is unequipped at this stage to take on the challenges of managing the county mayor’s job, and is unprepared to make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead for the county over the next four years. He also candidly admits that he has no campaign organization or budget, and does not expect to win.
Mr. Ramsey is light years ahead in his store of knowledge, his expertise in managing county government, and his background and relationships in local and state government. All are needed now more than ever to lead county government.
Mayor Ramsey has played a central role for years in building the Enterprise South’s megasite industrial park and the county’s public infrastructure. He worked hand-in-glove with Gov. Bredesen’s economic development team to woo Volkswagen (and Toyota before it). And he remains busy negotiating with the pending wave of supplier plants that will accompany Volkswagen’s widely sought plant.
His broad experience, both in economic development and in the general administration of county government, comes from his 30-plus years as county commissioner, assessor of property and county executive. All that has thoroughly prepared Mr. Ramsey to shepherd the county through the complexities of the pending wave of development.
His focus also encompasses related core issues: regional transportation and utility infrastructure to accommodate growth, a county and regional emphasis on improving education, and a commitment to improving public health through the health department’s STEP One program.
If there’s a chink in his governing philosophy, it is in the area of land-use planning and related incentives to lay the ground work for smart growth in the residential and commercial sectors.
Mayor Ramsey is busy working with state and federal officials on highway infrastructure. And he recognizes the need to corral the county’s multiple, undercapitalized water utility districts under a cogent, unified management that can coordinate both water services and the countywide sewer authority to efficiently serve the growth boom ahead.
But he admits that he has not pushed (and neither has the city) for the sort of coordinated land-use plan that the county should adopt to guide pending growth and to avoid the careless, uncoordinated sprawl that otherwise will occur north of city’s boundaries in the next 4-to-10 years, and beyond.
A good land-use plan would map a zoning plan for potential residential and commercial development, roads, sewers, schools, utilities and public urban services, including fire and police buildings, parks and greenways, sidewalks and playgrounds. It also would impose an impact fee on developers to help defray the upfront costs of explosive growth.
Mayor Ramsey has not pushed for the former and doesn’t seem inclined to do so, and he frankly objects to impact fees.
The entire county will pay for this lack of planning in catch-up costs to widen roads and to build classrooms, firehalls and develop other public services. That work ultimately will be done in inefficient, more expensive, patchwork fashion — and without designated room for parks and greenspace.
Without a comprehensive land-use plan, we also will carelessly lose greenspace and wetlands that should be preserved. And unless county government secures home-rule, the resulting mishmash sprawl will be marred by outsized signage and incompatible land-uses that should have been controlled.
City, county and Chamber of Commerce officials have been warned by other new car-company towns about the rapid pace of resulting development, and the urgent need for serious land-use planning. Yet such planning is not being done. So reckless, ugly sprawl will be the future for the unincorporated area of the county if Mayor Ramsey does not reconsider the need and push hard for comprehensive planning and home-rule authority.
Mr. Ramsey is a better advocate for education. He rightly urges a compelling new focus by schools, parents and the broader community on education generally and reading specifically. He warns that the good jobs that lie ahead will require significantly better education if the county is to develop an educable, trainable workforce. He specifically bemoans the fact that so many high school graduates must take remedial math and science classes to learn what they should have learned in high school.
Mayor Ramsey rightly seems destined to lead the county into a new era. We recommend his election on the basis of his valuable experience, and we urge him to adopt a robust program for smart growth.