EDITOR’S NOTE: The appointment of a new county mayor has emerged as this community’s leading news topic. For that reason, we decided Thursday that the perspective from a man who spent 16 years in the job was critical to advance the public discourse on this issue. It’s so critical that we have decided to publish Dalton Roberts’ column on the front page. Roberts was Hamilton County’s chief administrator from 1978 to 1994.
What’s happening right now at the courthouse is the worst kind of political connivance. We are supposed to sit quietly and take it like good little boys and girls.
“Connive” is a word from the Latin “conivere,” meaning “to wink.” Those involved in this plot to cheat the people out of a voice in the selection of their county mayor are winking and grinning as they make monkeys out of all of us.
Here’s the scenario: After several 4-4 votes to choose a new mayor between Claude Ramsey’s assistant, Mike Carter, and current County Commissioner Jim Coppinger, Fred Skillern has resigned as commission chairman and turned the chairmanship over to Vice Chairman Coppinger. When Ramsey’s resignation is official, Coppinger automatically will become county mayor.
Commissioners could have selected a new mayor after public interviews of the candidates. But they do not like the Tennessee Open Records Act, which is designed to ensure that public business is not conducted in secret, and let that be known in their regular meetings. The only chance for public participation was a meeting at Red Bank High School prompted by daily criticisms from talk show host Jammer Scott.