With Commissioner Warren Mackey’s decision Friday to shift his vote, the County Commission’s monthlong 4-4 stalemate over the selection of an interim county mayor may end today with the elevation of newly installed Commission Chairman Jim Coppinger to the position.
As commission chairman, Coppinger is already poised to assume the county mayor’s post on a short-term interim basis tomorrow when Claude Ramsey officially steps down from the job to join Gov.-elect Bill Haslam’s administration. But until Mackey agreed to change his vote, it was unclear how the commission’s impasse over selecting a longer-term interim mayor would be resolved.
The commission has until April 9 – 120 days from the day Ramsey announced his pending resignation – to appoint an interim mayor to serve until the next countywide election in 2012. The stalemate materialized when the other eight members of the nine-member County Commission split their vote four times in two meetings between Coppinger and Mike Carter, a special assistant to Ramsey.
Commissioners Chester Bankston, Greg Beck, Tim Boyd and Mackey had voted for Carter. Commissioners Larry Henry, Fred Skillern, Jim Fields and Joe Graham had voted for Coppinger,
Had that stalemate continued in the called meeting today, Coppinger would have been what could be best described as an interim, interim county mayor. The county deserves better, and if no other commissioners change their vote today away from Coppinger, he will become the interim mayor.
That would settle the division and the uncertainty that has caused prominent civic and elected leaders to bemoan the stalemate and its effect with businesses that local leaders have been trying to recruit to Hamilton County. It would also quell – though not fix – public concern over a selection process that has been conducted without public participation or transparency.
Commissioners wrongly decided to conduct private, individual interviews of the initial nine candidates. Indeed, there was only one independent public forum in which the two finalists – Carter and Coppinger – addressed an audience of citizens and took questions.
The flawed process also proved to be Carter’s undoing. It spawned his complaint that Skillern’s sudden decision last week to step down as commission chairman wrongly opened the door to then-vice-chairman Coppinger to become chairman. That put him in line to become the initial interim mayor on Tuesday, a position that would strengthen his appeal to Carter supporters, which prompted Carter’s claim that an apparent “back-room” deal by Skillern was under way to put Coppinger in the county mayor’s seat.
It was Carter’s complaint that Mackey said prompted him to throw his support to Coppinger. He said Friday that he was “disappointed” when Carter “charged the commission with back-room dealing.” He said that had “created a wedge that will greatly hamper a working relationship between the two branches of county.”
“I don’t think that is in the best interest of Hamilton County,” he said. “Prospective businessmen are reluctant to locate in communities where there is strife and uncertainty.”
Whether or not there was a back-room deal as Carter alleged, Carter’s aspersions against the integrity of the commission clearly diminished his stature with its members.
In fact, if Mackey’s switch holds, it would seem likely now that other Carter supporters – and possibly all – would throw their vote to Coppinger to underscore the appearance of stable, forward-looking government and to solidify their position with Coppinger.
Notwithstanding the flaws of the selection process, Coppinger, may well be the better candidate. As the former Chattanooga Fire Department chief, he oversaw the modernization of the department and is well schooled in the county’s key infrastructure and planning needs. He’s also familiar with the administrative and budget aspects of government. And over the last several years, he’s become intimately familiar with the county’s successful approach to economic development.
Coppinger, moreover, cannot fairly be blamed for the private interview process chosen by the remaining commission members for the selection of an interim mayor. As a candidate, he has been subject to it, but not in control of it.
In any case, the county needs to move forward, and to be seen as doing so. Appointment of Coppinger as interim county mayor would best serve the county.