Nearly 50 years of experience on the county's mayor/commission government will walk out the door upon the swearing-in of new county officials Thursday.
Only time will tell how much difference that will make.
Leaving are Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, who has been in office as commissioner or mayor for 16 years; District 8 Commissioner Tim Boyd, who has served 12 years; District 1 and District 7 Commissioners Randy Fairbanks and Sabrena Smedley, who have served eight years each; and Commissioner Katherlyn Geter, who has served four years.
In their place are Mayor-elect Weston Wamp and Commissioners-elect Lee Helton (District 7), who have never held elected office, and Gene-o Shipley (District 1), who is currently on the Soddy-Daisy Board of Commissioners, Commissioner-elect Greg Beck (District 5), who served three previous terms on the Hamilton County Commission, and Commissioner-elect Mike Chauncey, who serves on the East Ridge City Council.
Joining the commission in the two new districts added last November following redistricting after the 2020 census are Jeff Eversole (District 10), who has never held elected office, and Joe Graham, who served two previous terms on the county commission.
Returning to the commission for the first time since March is Greg Martin, who was elected earlier this month to be the Republican nominee for the District 26 state House seat in November and to his former District 3 commission post. He confirmed to this page Tuesday that if he is elected to the state House he would resign his county commission seat before the 113th General Assembly convenes in January.
Remaining on the commission after being re-elected to his fifth full term is Warren Mackey (District 4). Joining him are Chip Baker (District 2) and David Sharpe (District 6), who will be serving their second terms, and Steve Highlander (District 9), who was elected to his first full term.
Regardless of the experience of the mayor and commission, as Coppinger told this page just before the primary election in May, the work of the county will go on.
Fortunately, he said at the time, county departments have at their heads a number of very able administrators, who carry out the day-to-day services for Hamilton County's 372,000 residents.
The new commission will be without a woman for the first time in eight years and one of the few times since the mayor/commission form of government was instituted in 1978. With two out of 11 commission seats held by Blacks, the 18.2% of Blacks on the commission equals almost exactly the county's 18.5% of Black residents.
Coppinger will be leaving public service after a 45-year career that began in 1977 when he joined the Chattanooga Fire Department as a cadet. The department's public information officer for a number of years, he was named fire chief during the administration of Chattanooga Mayor Jon Kinsey in 1997, then ran for and won the District 3 seat on the Hamilton County Commission in 2006. He was appointed county mayor in 2011 after former Mayor Claude Ramsey left to join the administration of new Gov. Bill Haslam as deputy governor.
He is only the county's third mayor since the 1978 government change, following Dalton Roberts (16 years) and Ramsey (17 years).
Wamp, who has pledged to serve only two terms, will be the first county mayor without previous experience in county government. Roberts had been the county manager, and Ramsey had been a county commissioner and county assessor.
The new mayor and county commissioners undoubtedly will bring their particular strengths to their new posts, but the county will miss the ones exiting the stage.
Coppinger has been conservative with county money but willing to spend on big-ticket items that would move the county forward. He, for example, advocated for property tax increases that would put more money in schools, a wastewater treatment facility that would serve the eastern part of the county and the relocated county jail at Silverdale. He also oversaw the county's purchase of McDonald Farm for a variety of future uses.
Boyd was willing to be confrontational -- not everybody's cup of tea -- when it came to county tax dollars and how and where they're spent. While we occasionally disagreed with him, we think every board needs someone like him willing to ask the difficult questions, do the homework and even take the heat for disagreeing with others when they have a different opinion.
Fairbanks, a CPA by trade, was never an outspoken voice on the commission but was quick to ask important and incisive questions that would benefit both his district and the county as a whole.
Smedley, twice chosen as commission chair, was organized, outgoing, candid and willing to roll up her sleeves and personally help her constituents in a variety of ways. Her guidance of the commission through the redistricting process last fall was a textbook example of patience, fairness and leadership.
Geter was a fierce advocate for her district and for county minorities during her one term.
We hope some of the strengths leaving the stage will be found in those entering it on Thursday.