Chattanooga mayoral candidate Tim Kelly invited voters during his campaign to judge him if he were elected by whether he accomplished the items on his first 100-days plan.
The now-mayor also vowed he’d report to the public at the end of those 100 days, and he has done just that.
According to his administration’s tracking of the progress, he has accomplished 81.16% of what he said he’d do.
That deserves high marks for honesty in revealing the score, for transparency in the administration listing what it sought to do and how it did or will accomplish it, and for timeliness in delivering the results at the end of the designated period.
A news release about the 100 days says Kelly completed the “majority” of the plan, and in the release he said he was “proud of the considerable headway we’ve made.”
Skeptics may wonder how much support he would have received if he told voters he planned to accomplish 81.16% of his 100-days plan in the first 100 days. Or they may not have been surprised that the news release acknowledges some “action items will take additional months or years to complete.”
In truth, many of the items on the 100-days plan were layups involving holding meetings with groups, establishing other working groups, completing surveys, appointing people to various posts, reallocating funds and developing additional plans of action in certain areas.
Indeed, of 69 action items listed on the administration’s action tracker, 50 were not dependent on the city’s budget.
In an explanation of the 100-days accomplishment to a Times Free Press reporter Wednesday, Kelly again cited the six-day transition period between the runoff election and his inauguration as mayor as a reason not as many things were accomplished as he hoped.
“[W]e had to work simultaneously on the 100-day plan, the reorganization of government and the budget, all while also running the day-to-day operations of government and working through the issues posed by the pandemic,” he said.
Of course, Kelly knew March 2, the day of the primary election, how long he’d have to get things together and accomplish his 100-days plan if he won the runoff election. And although there had been only one previous runoff election for mayor since the form of city government changed in 1989, we don’t recall Ron Littlefield, who won that election in 2005, publicly complaining about the transition time he had to get his team up and running.
Nevertheless, politics is politics. The then-candidate issued a 100-day plan in February in hopes that he would look like a man of action and give him a leg up on the other candidates. It was a sound strategy that worked.
“[I]ntention is nothing without action,” Kelly said in a news release when the plan – no longer available on the candidate’s website – was released.
But the mayor deserves specific credit for some of his accomplishments surrounding education and the workforce. After all, if future generations of Chattanoogans aren’t properly educated or have the skills to take 21st-century jobs, many of the other accomplishments the mayor has in mind won’t matter terribly much.
Among those are the planned building trades academy in partnership with Hamilton County, Associated General Contractors, Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga State Community College and other organizations; the planned funding of coordinators in seven schools in the city who will help bring students and their families resources and support through various wraparound services; and the planned conversion of youth-family-development centers into community centers that are more neighborhood-centric.
Kelly, according to the administration’s news release, is particularly pleased with his appointment of Dr. Mary Lambert as the director for community health and the establishment of an agreement to work closely with the Hamilton County Health Department.
One of his action items marked “completed” says Lambert will work with the health department to expand testing, build trust across communities and design a plan for vaccine incentives for city employees and county residents. Since the nation has seen testing lessen, trust fall and vaccines stagnate, if Chattanooga can say at the end of 200 days of the mayor being in office that COVID-19 testing has expanded, that trust in the vaccine has risen and that more residents here have embraced the vaccine than nationwide, then his appointment of Lambert truly will look like a stroke of genius.
We’re also gratified it appears Kelly, through some of his action plans, wants to forge the closest working relationship the city has had with the county since the 45-year-old sales tax agreement between the two governments expired in 2011. A close working relationship between the two – and with the legislative delegation, which he has said he also hopes to have – can only help all concerned.
While a 100-days exam was the mayor’s own doing because of his campaign promise, we believe the real proof of the effectiveness of his administration will be in how those 100-day decisions look in one year, two, three or four. If he can say he accomplished 80% of his big-picture plans at those junctures, the city will be doing well.