Voters in Chattanooga will see a proposed charter amendment on November ballot

Election, vote, voting tile
Election, vote, voting tile

Voters in Chattanooga will see a proposed charter amendment on the Nov. 6 election ballot.

The proposed City Charter change aims to clarify the function of Chattanooga City Court and remove some archaic references to departments and positions that no longer exist, City Attorney Phil Noblett said.

It takes a vote by city residents to change the charter under the state's Home Rule provisions, Noblett said.

"That's one reason some of this stuff has been there since 1867," he said.

City court at one time handled both civil and criminal matters. That changed after the City Council gave then-City Judge Walter Williams a mid-term pay increase in 1992, which violated the state constitutional ban on mid-term pay adjustments.

The district attorney's office feared that questions about the court's legitimacy might cause the state to lose cases on appeal, so it moved the criminal caseload to Hamilton County General Sessions Court.

City court's caseload dropped dramatically and there have been multiple attempts in the intervening years to eliminate one of the court's two divisions.

In August, current City Council members failed to pass a charter amendment to shrink the size of the court.

But they did agree to ask voters to clarify its function.

The charter change, if voters approve, will make clear that City Court will handle only violations of city code, and that appeals of decisions there will go to a civil appeals court rather than a criminal one.

Court fines for minor violations such as littering or animal problems still will be limited to $50 in City Court. Code violations related to blight are handled through a separate administrative hearing process and can carry fines up to $500.

The remainder of the charter change removes references to workhouses, justices of the peace, and constables, which no longer exist in Chattanooga.

Below is the text of the proposed amendment that will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Read the entire ordinance, with more details of the changes, at timesfreepress.com.

Charter Amendment

"Shall Ordinance No. 13344 to amend the Home Rule Charter of the City of Chattanooga be approved so as to add the following new Sections 4.1 through 4.3, which state as follows:

"The City Charter currently states that the city court can hear criminal cases as well as municipal code violations, which are civil matters.

"The city court has not handled criminal cases in more than (20) years. This charter amendment removes the city court's criminal jurisdiction to conform to that court's current focus on municipal code violations, which are punishable by a maximum fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

"The amendment deletes all references to criminal proceedings and punishments, as they are not applicable to the city court. Because municipal code violations are civil in nature, the amendment provides for appeals from the city court to be heard in circuit court rather than criminal court. The amendment further provides for court costs to be established by ordinance.

"Finally, the amendment removes archaic language such as references to workhouses, justices of the peace, and constables, which no longer exist in Chattanooga.

"This amendment reduces Sections 4.1 through 4.9 to three sections which are numbered 4.1 through 4.3."

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