Justin Pinkerton wants to build bridges in his Red Bank community, he said, so he’s running for Hamilton County Commission.
Pinkerton originally filed to run against Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, in 2022, but he didn’t dedicate time to getting enough signatures on a petition to appear on the ballot, he said in an interview. This time around, he got his signatures and he’s running as an independent candidate against Sharpe.
They are both running for the District 6 seat, which represents areas of North Chattanooga and the city of Red Bank.
Pinkerton, 43, lives in Red Bank with his wife and three children and works in the city as operations director for a property management business. He was born and raised in Red Bank and has lived there his whole life, he said, with the exception of a couple of years in East Ridge.
He wants to run against Sharpe because, first and foremost, he believes no one should run unopposed, Pinkerton said.
He has also kept track of local politics over the years, and believes there is a disconnect between how the county government operates and what people want, he said.
(READ MORE: David Sharpe seeks third term on Hamilton County Commission)
“I wanted to be the type of person who would build that bridge and build that connection with government and people,” Pinkerton said. “I feel that with my operational and customer service type background, I’m the kind of person that could bring the two together.”
He’s running as an independent because he doesn’t want to be confined to an ideological set of beliefs in either the Republican or Democratic parties, he said. He’d rather work with the facts, he said.
OFFICE DETAILS
Duties: County commissioners set the county property tax rate, vote on the annual budget, approve county contracts and vote on local zoning requests.
District: District 6 includes areas of North Chattanooga and the city of Red Bank.
Key issues: Urban planning and development density, housing affordability, education funding as area’s elementary schools combine.
Timing: New commissioners take office Sept. 1, 2026.
Salary: As of fiscal year 2027, commissioners are paid about $28,600 a year.
THE ELECTION
The general election is Aug. 6, and early voting runs July 17-Aug. 1.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
Do you think the school budget is adequately funded?
“I would say that it can be improved. I know a lot of parents are wanting additional support staff for the schools. Clearly, in this day and age, those are needed. We’re living in a different time now with social media, children on the internet … We need to work on improvement with increasing it so schools can have that support staff there.”
– Justin Pinkerton, independent
“No, I don’t believe it’s adequately funded. We still have buildings that are crumbling. Unsafe conditions for not only students, but teachers. We just had to terminate 128 positions to facilitate a pay raise … That’s challenging. The state of Tennessee is 51st in per pupil spending for public education. I think that anyone that would argue that we are adequately funded isn’t paying close enough attention.”
– David Sharpe, Democrat
Do you think your district is growing too fast or too slow?
“From what I can tell you from being a lifelong resident of District 6, it has grown a lot … It’s changed a lot, with a lot of nice homes and good people who call this place home. I think growth has been steady. I know that it can seem things have grown fast here … My concern is with the way things have expanded, is infrastructure keeping up? Growth is good as long as we manage it.”
– Justin Pinkerton, independent
“We’re growing. I don’t know if it’s too fast or too slow. We really don’t have a whole lot of control over that. Change is something that challenges all of our districts, but I believe with some of the frustrations we have with traffic comes things that we really appreciate, like additional restaurants and retail establishments that people enjoy … I would say it just is what it is, and we need to learn to manage it with regard to how we invest in various aspects of infrastructure.”
– David Sharpe, Democrat
Sharpe, his opponent, has been Pinkerton’s commissioner for the past eight years. Though he thinks Sharpe has done well, Pinkerton said he thinks there are gaps in how people are made aware of what’s happening on a county level in his area.
If he were elected, he would try to put together community hubs — groups with a broader reach than neighborhood associations, based on his vision, but still locally grouped by location.
The community hubs would have websites and meetings where residents could see changes happening to roads and wastewater infrastructure, plus zoning shifts, beyond what’s legally required to be publicly noticed, Pinkerton said.
That way, residents could tap in and see what’s going on far ahead of a final vote on an issue, he said.
Community hubs would each have a board made up of about a dozen people from different walks of life, like business owners, students, clergy and others, he said. Then Pinkerton would use those boards’ advice on local issues to inform his own decisions, he said.
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“It would bring all these people together,” Pinkerton said. “We can come up with something a whole lot better than if an idea was coming from one person.”
He is pro-growth in his district, so long as roads, wastewater services and other infrastructure are able to keep up, Pinkerton said. That said, he understands the need for apartments and other high-density home developments because there is so little space in the area after decades of major growth, he said.
“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to make best use of the land that you have,” Pinkerton said.
Gary Carpenter is a professor at Chattanooga State Community College and a friend of Pinkerton’s, Carpenter said by phone. He would love to see Pinkerton win the election and serve as a commissioner, he said.
Carpenter does not live in the county district Pinkerton would represent, he said, but he does think more people like Pinkerton should be elected into office.
“He’s trying to have a way where people can reach out to government in a way that is easily accessible for everybody,” Carpenter said. “He’s the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. You don’t usually get that vibe from people running for office.”
Contact city and county reporter Siena Duncan at sduncan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.