Chattanooga City Council won’t hire recall attorney

Ron Littlefield, City of Chattanooga Mayor

The Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday decided against hiring an outside attorney to advise them on whether to remove Mayor Ron Littlefield from office.

Councilwoman Deborah Scott indicated she would support hiring outside counsel during the council’s Legal and Legislative Committee meeting, when she said City Attorney Mike McMahan wasn’t “independent of what’s happened in the past.”

“It would give me more confidence that we have done this objectively,” she said.

Chattanooga Tea Party member Larry Grohn backed up Scott’s concerns during a public comment period.

“The city attorney represented Ron Littlefield in front of the Court of Appeals,” he said. “Not the City Council, and not the citizens of Chattanooga.”