Among the county mayor’s top staff, many are eligible for gold watches and a fond farewell, but Mayor Claude Ramsey’s impending departure leaves some of them uneasy.
Ramsey will leave behind more than a dozen department heads with decades of experience in Hamilton County government when he departs Jan. 11 to join the staff of Gov.-elect Bill Haslam. Many are holdovers from his predecessor, Dalton Roberts, and Ramsey hopes most will be kept on to serve his successor.
“I run things on a ‘run-over-by-a-truck theory,'” Ramsey said, suggesting that government still would function even if something happened to him. “I think anybody who succeeds me and evaluates that staff will recognize there is a lot of experience here, and I hope whoever succeeds me will take that into consideration.”
The two leading contenders for mayor, Commissioner Jim Coppinger and Mike Carter, Ramsey’s special assistant, differ on the subject. Hamilton County commissioners plan to select Ramsey’s replacement today.
Carter said he would make no changes and wants Human Services Administrator Scott Schoolfield to delay his retirement. Schoolfield is scheduled to leave the same day as Ramsey.