Where do they live?
The where-does-she-live sagas of Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy and Chattanooga City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod offer some interesting parallels. Both principals are Black women who have fought their way up from hard-scrabble beginnings to achieve professional status and the American Dream of owning a home.
But both own a home in one place and say they live in another, the latter of which is required for the positions they have attained.
In Murphy’s case, home owners in Georgia — the location of the house she owns — may be granted an exemption from paying certain taxes if the home is used as the primary residence by the owner. But Murphy, as police chief, must live in Chattanooga, so the homestead exemptions she has applied for in Georgia are in dispute.
In Coonrod’s case, the Harrison home she owns and, according to public documents, is required to live in for a year is not in her council district. And she says she lives in Eastdale, which is in her district, at the home of her foster mother.