Now that Chancellor John Weaver has ruled to grant a 180 day stay on his previous ruling on the Knox County Charter new questions arise. Are term limits back in place? Were they ever gone?

For the first time in this entire process I now agree the election for Knox County Commission seats is so flawed it should be voided and moved to November in a special General election. The Primary election for County Commission could be held in September or October in another special election.

There are several other reasons. The most important is that there are too many levels of voter disenfranchisement. Since the Charter is valid and never reached the point of being invalid the Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that decreed term limits are in place for the offices of Knox County Mayor and Knox County Commissioners stands. The Supreme Court ruling must be obeyed.

What other choice is there than to void the election for the Knox County Commission seats?

There are nine ineligible candidates for Knox County Commission who are term limited and cannot serve. This is 50 percent of the Commission seats. The election cannot go forward under these conditions.

This persistent lack of leadership from all levels of local government has tarnished this election. People will stay home and this will affect the Primary Election for US House and Senate seats further disenfranchising voters. The apathy and disgust created in the Knox County Commission election cannot be allowed to spread to other elections.

Posted in uncategorized on June 29th, 2006 by #9 | RSS 2.0 |