Change is beginning. With a countdown of under three weeks until incoming Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp is sworn in on Sept. 1, the 35-year-old on Thursday announced the names of his 16-member transition team.
It's an A+ list, and it fits Wamp's description of a cross-section of disciplines from health care to public safety, from education to philanthropy, from environmental balance to baseball and from entrepreneurial business to community life.
"Everybody on the team brings a specific set of skills and expertise that we thought would be helpful as we assess county government today and make plans for the future," Wamp told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
It's more than just a show of good faith and eagerness to get to work. It's absolute necessity. This will be county government's first full transition in about 28 years, Wamp pointed out.
Outgoing Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger was a county commissioner when the rest of the commission deadlocked on several votes over whether to appoint him or to appoint the now-late Mike Carter to replace then-mayor Claude Ramsey. Ramsey left the position to join the administration of former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
The stalemate actually ended without a deciding vote, when then-Commission Chair Fred Skillern resigned as chairman, saying that because of illness in his family, he would not serve as chairman if it meant becoming mayor because of a failure to resolve the deadlock. Coppinger was the commission's vice chair, and with Skillern stepping aside, Coppinger became the next in line to fill the vacancy of Ramsey. A week later, after Carter resigned his post as special assistant to Ramsey, Coppinger received an 8-0 vote of support. Coppinger was later elected to full terms and served as mayor for 11 years. Ramsey had held the office more than 16 years.
Despite that drama, the Ramsey/Coppinger transitions flowed easily through overlapping courthouse positions and connections.
In Wamp's case, he is - with this team - acknowledging his youth, newness and lack of insidership.
"We want to be clear that we're grateful to the people who make county government run every day, and we can't wait to work with them," Wamp said. "But I come from outside county government, and I thought it was really important for me to have a transition team of folks who could go before me, meet with a lot of the key leaders within county government, make policy recommendations long-term but also get a feel for the leaders across county government currently."
It is a wise move. And one made gracefully with - as we noted earlier - a top-notch team.
There is Erlanger Health System Board Chairwoman Sheila Boyington, retired Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy, Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts Principal Krystal Scarbrough, as well as former Hamilton County school board Chairman Kenny Smith who also has been the vocational training director of the Chattanooga Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.
Wayne Cropp is an environmental attorney and the former executive director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau (as well as a former chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party).
Dr. Kelly Arnold, founder of Clinica Medicos, the county's only comprehensive bilingual primary care clinic that specializes in treating the region's underserved Latino population, is on the team, as is Cory Gearrin, a native Chattanoogan who went to Rhea County High School, then Young Harris College and Mercer University. He played professional baseball in the major leagues. He also is a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association executive committee.
Wamp says the baseball part is not why he asked Gearrin to help him, but he does expect the former pro pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Marriners, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins to offer interesting input on plans to construct a new multi-use stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
"It's not a secret that I believe our current mayors rushed us into a stadium that I believe most of the public was opposed to," Wamp said. "I suppose that the community, whether they wanted it or not, is going to get a stadium, and to the best of our ability we're going to try to improve that process and bring some transparency to it ..."
The other transition team members are Kyle Bryant of Market Street Partners, Nick Macco of Legacybox, Alexis Bogo with Hamico, John Healy of Wolftever Development, Sudave Mendiratta with Erlanger, Aaron Webb of Hall Booth Smith, retired Chattanooga Fire Department Capt. Kelly Simmons, Y-CAP founder and school member Joe Smith and community leader Dank Hawkins.
Wamp said the team will meet weekly and will open an online portal where current employees can provide their input and prospective employees can send resumes.
"Our hope is to come in and bolster the good work that's already being done," Wamp said. "It's really important to us that county employees from the top to the bottom are at ease, and hopefully in the months to come, if they're not already, will become confident in the work that our administration will do."
It is an impressive beginning.