PDF: Read the attorney general’s opinion
Put this one down in the “nice to know” category.
Commissioners last week received an opinion from the office of the state attorney general, providing answers to several legal questions over the selection of the person to replace outgoing County Mayor Claude Ramsey.
The answers, however, addressed a scenario that never happened.
Though Hamilton County commissioners last week unanimously appointed Jim Coppinger as mayor, there was a possibility that he could have become mayor on an interim basis without a vote.
Commissioners repeatedly deadlocked 4-4 between Coppinger and former special assistant to the mayor Mike Carter. Coppinger was serving as commission chairman and, if commissioners continued to deadlock, he would automatically have become mayor when Ramsey left to join Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration.
This potential scenario led the county to ask the attorney general if the chairman could still vote on commission matters, including picking a new mayor, while he was serving as interim mayor.
The attorney general said he could, including a vote to appoint a new mayor. But the opinion made clear that Coppinger could not have voted to appoint himself mayor, so the commission would likely still have faced a 4-4 stalemate.
County Attorney Rheubin Taylor also said the commission could not fill Coppinger’s District 3 seat under this scenario because it technically would not be vacant.
“It doesn’t affect anything that we did other than the fact that, if it ever happens again, we know if the [interim] mayor is not a candidate [for mayor], the [interim] mayor could vote,” Taylor said.
Chairman Larry Henry said the confusion surrounding the appointment of Ramsey’s successor is a good reason for the state Legislature to revisit the law.
He also pondered another question the law doesn’t anticipate: What if all the commissioners had declared their interest in the mayor’s seat? Under the law, commissioners cannot vote for themselves to fill a vacancy.
He also noted that the attorney general’s opinion has not been tested in court.
“We’re going to have to get on [the Legislature’s] case about this,” Henry said. “This has got to be changed.”