The face of Hamilton County government will change considerably in the wake of Thursday’s general election. What that means for county residents in terms of policies and programs remains to be seen.
What’s certain, though, is that transformation is likely. Indeed, with four new members on the Hamilton County Commission and three new members on the Hamilton County Board of Education assuming office, it is almost inevitable. The winners in the commission and school board races, in fact, made the need for change the foundation of their campaigns.
Now comes the hard part. New commissioners James Fields, Joe Graham and Tim Boyd, who defeated opponents in Thursday’s balloting, and Chester Bankston, who won in the primary and had no general election opponent, will have to honor their pledges to voters. They might discover, like many a neophyte officeholder before them, that doing so can be difficult.
Indeed, they likely will learn that criticizing and making promises from the outside is child’s play compared to making wise decisions from the inside. The same is true for Joe Galloway, David Testerman and Mike Evatt, the school board newcomers.
Though each race for commission and school board seat differed slightly, there was a unifying theme. Every winning candidate promised to be a good steward of taxpayers’ money. Each strongly implied that he could eliminate what he confidently assured voters was unnecessary spending by schools or general county government. Identifying additional savings after current and past commissioners and board members have pared budgets to the bone might cause the newcomers some sleepless nights.
The new commissioners will join a legislative body with a complicated agenda. The commission must provide the infrastructure and broad blueprint for orderly growth at a time when the influx of companies – Volkswagen and Alstom, for example – promise to permanently change the fabric of community life. That won’t be cheap, but doing so is a necessary investment. How Mr. Fields, Mr. Graham, Mr. Boyd and Mr. Bankston address those issues – not the promises they made while seeking office – will determine the value of their service.
Ditto for Mr. Galloway, Mr. Testerman and Mr. Evatt. They join a board struggling to meet a variety of mandates, to replace aging infrastructure, to provide teachers with adequate resources, to create a learning environment that serves all students and to publicly resolve issues – real and perceived – that linger from the merger of Chattanooga and Hamilton County schools. Achieving all that would be difficult in the best of times. Doing so on a shoestring budget with little hope of a major financial infusion will test the mettle of the new – and old – members.
There are two other changes in county offices. Gary Behler defeated incumbent Ron Swafford for the Juvenile Court clerkship. Jeff Atherton will fill a vacant Chancery Court seat. Mayor Claude Ramsey, Sheriff Jim Hammond, Circuit Court Clerk Paula Thompson, Criminal Court Clerk Gwen Tidwell, County Clerk Bill Knowles and Register of Deeds Pam Hurst, all incumbents, retained their posts.
Change in government is neither good nor bad in and of itself. It is what the agents of that change make of it. Hamilton County’s newly elected officials, along with veteran officeholders, have significant challenges before them. All have asked and won the privilege of serving the people. Now, it’s time to prove they are worthy of that trust.