Red Bank soon will have a new mayor, and it’s possible commissioners will select the city’s thrice-arrested lightning rod, Vice Mayor Monty Millard.
Unlike Chattanooga and most other cities in Hamilton County, Red Bank residents do not elect the mayor. The five commissioners choose the mayor from among their ranks. They chose Joe Glasscock in 2008, and they are expected to announce a new choice at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
“If we’re going by how long you’ve been in the saddle, Monty would have it,” Commissioner Greg Jones said. “That’s the way we’ve handled it in the past.”
None of the commissioners identified themselves as front-runners, but Millard was mentioned often during interviews with the other four commissioners.
“It’s the million-dollar question,” Commissioner-elect John Roberts said. “Right now it’s undetermined.”
Roberts defeated Glasscock in the Nov. 2 at-large commissioner’s race by 10 votes in a contest that also included 25 write-in votes.
Though judges have dismissed all the charges against Millard stemming from a nasty divorce — aggravated criminal trespassing, burglary of an auto and violating a restraining order filed by his estranged wife — the stigma remains.
At various public meetings during the past two years, residents have asked the vice mayor to resign, citing embarrassment and unreliability in the highest ranks of Red Bank’s leadership.
“That is old news,” Millard said last week. “I am looking to a new day in Red Bank, and people who know me know how much I care about this city.”
Millard also found himself implicated in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed over the summer by former Red Bank police chief Larry Sneed, who accused the vice mayor of engineering a political conspiracy to force his ouster. Sneed supervised two of Millard’s arrests, according to the lawsuit.
Millard consistently declines to comment when asked about Sneed’s lawsuit, but Red Bank City Manager Chris Dorsey has denied that the vice mayor influenced the decision regarding Sneed’s firing.
The negative publicity continued when an online media outlet published divorce court testimony that said the vice mayor cheated on his wife and knocked out two of his son’s front teeth, among other allegations.
“Monty has lost not only the respect of Red Bank but other county officials with how he’s conducted his personal life,” Commissioner Ruth Jeno said.
Commissioner Floy Pierce took another approach.
“We’ve all made mistakes,” she said. “We need to move forward.”
WHAT’S NEXT
The Board of Commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Red Bank City Hall. They are expected to select a new mayor and vice mayor.