Voters in Hamilton County have an interesting political choice to make between Carl Levi, the incumbent, and Bill Hullander in the May 4 primary for county trustee. Both are long-time public servants with strong followings in the community. Widespread name recognition, though, is not enough to qualify a candidate for office. The ability to do a good job does. In this instance, the candidate whose experience and training make him best able to serve as trustee is Mr. Levi. We heartily endorse his election.
Those with an interest in who fills the vital trustee’s office have a single chance to elect a candidate this election year. Winning the Republican primary this year is tantamount to election. There is neither a Democrat nor an independent candidate for the office on the ballot in the August general election.
Mr. Hullander, who is concluding 12 years of service on the County Commission, is hard-pressed to make a strong case for his candidacy. He says that his business and political experience qualify him to serve as trustee, but Mr. Levi offers far superior professional credentials. Mr. Hullander avers that something is amiss in the trustee’s office and that he would provide residents with more efficient and more friendly customer service if he is elected. There is, however, no indication that anything is amiss in the office, or that the public shares Mr. Hullander’s view.
Indeed, Mr. Levi is rightly held in high regard by Hamilton County residents. He’s served as trustee for eight years and has operated the office in a prudent and cost-efficient manner. Mr. Hullander’s arguments to the contrary are unconvincing.
Mr. Levi’s experience in government far outstrips that of Mr. Hullander. The incumbent’s long tenure as treasurer of Chattanooga provided a fine foundation for service in the trustee’s office. He’s added to that base of knowledge while in office. He’s widely regarded as an expert in the field, a fact acknowledged by repeated honors from his peers across the state. He was named “trustee of the year” by the statewide trustees’ organization this year, and has been named “trustee of the year” for the past two years by the East Tennessee organization.
During his time in office, the trustee’s office has become more efficient, more streamlined and better able to serve the public and the county’s interests. Mr. Levi’s record, in fact, leaves little for Mr. Hullander to challenge.
The long-serving commissioner, in fact, is reduced to nibbling around the edges, so to speak. He can not pinpoint substantive reasons to unseat Mr. Levi so he’s trying to make mountains out of molehills. He wants to allow partial payments on taxes — as provided by state law– and says he would extend office hours and provide what he calls customer-friendly touches like providing receipts to taxpayers. Those issues make good talking points, perhaps, but mean little to county residents or the sound operation of the trustee’s office.
Given that, Mr. Hullander has been unable to mount a strong campaign on the facts and issues. Instead, he’s been reduced to making veiled references to Mr. Levi’s age — the current trustee reports that his physician gave him a positive report at a recent yearly exam — and to using his post as county commissioner to challenge Mr. Levi’s decision on a banking contract on behalf of the county: Never mind that the trustee, with the county’s finance and auditing officers, put out a formal request for bids for the county’s banking service for the tax receipts that are collected by the trustee’s office. Those receipts are then put in county general government’s interest-bearing account.
To slyly suggest that that process, blessed by the County Commission, is somehow amiss is politicking of the worst sort by Mr. Hullander.
Mr. Hullander’s tenure on the county commission has been marked by grandstanding on things he objected to paying for, such as new schools in Ooltewah. And he was criticized, and thwarted, by state officials for wrongly trying to make county commissioners’ expense budgets part of their salary — but without paying taxes on it. That’s hardly a recommendation for the trustee’s office.
Mr. Levi’s long experience, his exemplary service to local government and his commitment to the community argue convincingly for his return to the county trustee’s office. We recommend his election on May 4.