Questions Proposed and Approved By The Knox County Charter Review Committee
Question 6: Shall Section 3.08(C) of the Knox County Charter, regarding the election of the Knox County Law Director, be amended by adding the following sentence to the end of the current Paragraph:
The Knox County Law Director shall be subject to the term limits provisions of this Charter to the s ame extent as any Constitutional officer of Knox County Government, as that term is defined by Article V II, Section 1 of the Tennessee Constitution.
Voting Choices:
- YES
- NO
posted @ 11:59 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
From the Knox News (a potential biased paper):
The other proposal would eliminate term limits for the law director. This issue has a history. Ten years ago, voters in Knox County approved term limits for elected county officials by a 3-to-1 margin. However, in 1995, a state attorney general's opinion held that the term limits did not apply to constitutional officers such as county commissioners, sheriff, county mayor, trustee, register of deeds, county clerk and property assessor.
The law director, on the other hand, is an office designated by the county charter, and the proposed amendment would make his tenure the same as the other county officers. While we have questions about the issue of term limits, we think commissioners should have accepted instead of challenged the overwhelming response of the electorate in 1994.
Actually, we like the plan of County Mayor Mike Ragsdale to appoint the law director, but we understand there was no sentiment for that among members of the county's charter commission. We hope Ragsdale doesn't give up on the idea.
We recommend no votes on these two items.
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