Posted on 06/12/2006 10:18:54 AM PDT by SmithL
Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale said today he would most likely ask Chancellor John Weaver to stay his ruling invalidating the county charter so officials can address any insufficiencies in the document.
If that doesn't work, the county could appeal Weaver's ruling, he said.
Either way, he's asked County Commission Chairman Scott Moore to call a special meeting of commissioners on Monday to chart a course of action.
"We want to work with commission to keep the charter form of government," Ragsdale said.
Any tack they take apparently won't have an effect on the August general election, however. The same day commissioners will meet with the Ragsdale, the Knox County Election Commission will be mailing out ballots to military personnel.
Weaver ruled on Friday that the county charter is invalid, in part because it doesn't outline the duties of some offices like trustee and in part because a copy of the charter was never filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State.
At his press conference this morning, Ragsdale called those objections "technicalities" and said he and commissioners would work together to find a solution.
The county has 30 days to appeal the ruling, and during that window the charter is still in effect, Ragsdale said. If Weaver stays his ruling and allows the county to make changes to the charter, the earliest the amendments would go to voters for approval would be November, he said.
Unless amended, the term limits provision of the county charter would stay in, but approval would be too late to affect the August county general election. Election Administrator Greg Mackay said the nine term-limited county commissioners who won their primary races would stay on the ballots that are to be printed this week.
Five of those nine commissioners filed the lawsuit that prompted Weaver's ruling.
Commissioner John Schmid, who joined the lawsuit in an effort to enforce term limits, said he would appeal the ruling if the commission blocks Ragsdale's efforts.
It was the commissioners who filed this lawsuit to begin with, because they did not want term limits. Now they are saying they want to solve the problem. It's just BS.
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