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.