Former East Ridge City Attorney John Anderson.Elections matter. The East Ridge City Council wasted no time in proving that fact on Thursday.
Barely 72 hours after new Councilman Marc Gravitt was sworn in to give the East Ridge City Council — along with returning council members Jim Bethune and Denny Manning — a new majority of officials committed to cleaning up the East Ridge government, the council voted to oust embattled City Attorney John Anderson.
While a full-time city attorney in a town the size of East Ridge often earns less than $100,000 a year in Tennessee, East Ridge paid Anderson $158,000 in 2011 for working only part-time. The year before, Anderson snagged $132,000 from East Ridge taxpayers.
After Anderson’s sweetheart part-time gig with city — which paid him $250 an hour on top of a $90,000 annual retainer — was brought to light in March 2011, Manning and Bethune attempted to fire the attorney. They, however, were outvoted by a majority led by Mayor Brent Lambert and Councilman Larry Sewell, who apparently thought it was appropriate to waste tax dollars so carelessly.
On Thursday, Lambert and Sewell — who are now the only good ‘ol boy, business-as-usual officials left on the council that were responsible for many of the bad decisions that helped turn East Ridge from a thriving bedroom community into a bastion of economic stagnation over the last few years — fought in vein to keep Anderson. Thankfully, their attempt was defeated.