Only a few contend for key City Council seats
by Joe Sullivan
At this time two years ago, the nine members of City Council had combined experience of more than 100 years on the job. Following this fall's election, eight of the nine seats will be filled by members having combined experience of 10 years. (One of the candidates for the ninth seat, Jean Teague, is a 28-year Council veteran who's seeking to return after having been term-limited out of office in 2001. So the experience total would rise if she prevails in a lawsuit contesting her eligibility and wins her race.)
At the same time, the city will be electing a new mayor for the first time in 16 years, which could also spell considerable changing of the guard in the top ranks of the city administration. Also missing in the new equation is the experience and expertise that the recently departed director of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, Norman Whitaker, has brought to Council on planning and zoning issues.
How much of a disconnect occurs will depend in no small part on the qualifications of the four new Council members who will be elected in the fall. Council's three at-large seats and one of its six district seats are on the ballot in primary voting Sept. 30 and again in the general election Nov. 4. The other five district representatives were elected in 2001 for four-year terms.
From the moment they take office the newly-elected members will be facing what promises to be the city's most severe budgetary crunch in a generation. Also staring them in the face will be a decision on committing many millions of dollars to get a new convention center hotel—a commitment that Mayor Victor Ashe has been pushing but may not have enough time left to bring to a conclusion on his watch. Considering that the five holdover members of Council are anything but unified on how to deal with these issues, the role of the new members becomes all the more crucial.
"It's the biggest confluence of forces imaginable," reckons UT political science professor Bill Lyons, who has recently taken on the role of campaign manager for mayoral candidate Bill Haslam as well. "We're talking about some pretty major leadership changes and some pretty major changes on Council. And they've got to get up to speed very quickly on issues that go across the gamut from basic services to whether a tax change, all the way to major directions for development."
Getting up to speed starts with getting well-informed, and in the view of outgoing Councilman Jack Sharp, how well they've already done so should be an acid test of a candidate's qualifications. "If I were to get involved in the campaign, the first question I'd be asking is, 'What do you know about this? Who are the principals involved? And don't give me stuff about how you'll find out.'"
The level of commitment on the part of candidates up to this point appears to vary widely. But in the case of two of the three at-large seats it may be academic. That's because Joe Bailey, who is running for Seat A, and Marilyn Roddy, who is running for Seat C, appear to be prohibitive favorites with far more backing and funding than their little-known opponents. The race for Seat B shapes up as a three-way contest between Teague, Chris Woodhull, and Norris Dryer. The two contenders for North Knoxville's District 5 seat are Bob Becker and Tim Wheeler.
The candidates in contested races are sounding similar themes that start with fostering strong neighborhoods, economic development in general, and downtown development in particular. Beyond those all-things-to-all-people generalities, though, there are important differences in emphasis among them, as well as in their bases of support.
The top two finishers in the primary will face off again in the general election. In the case of the District 5 seat, primary voting is in the district while the general election is citywide. Why an at-large candidate who gets an outright majority of the votes cast in the primary has to run again in November is an anomaly in the City Charter.
Of all the candidates, only Teague has attended City Council meetings regularly, and she's also kept involved since leaving Council by serving on the Metropolitan Planning Commission. Only Becker and Roddy attended the city's budget hearings last month. But none of those three have day jobs, and the 69-year-old Teague is frank to say that she attends a lot of public meetings because, "I don't have anything else to do." Woodhull, by contrast, is the executive director of Tribe One, a mentoring organization for troubled inner-city youths. Wheeler is a systems analyst for the Knox County Circuit Court Clerk's office. Dryer is music director emeritus of WUOT Radio.
The dearth of candidates attests to the inability or unwillingness of well-qualified individuals to commit to the rigors of campaigning. A case in point is Mark Williamson, whom many considered the heir apparent to the 5th District seat from which Larry Cox is term limited after 20 years in office. The 44-year-old Williamson is a former president of Fountain City Town Hall, serves on several mayorally appointed boards and committees and has worked extensively with MPC and City Council on zoning issues. At the same time, though, he is chief financial officer of J.A. Fielden, a big construction company, and through his two sons is heavily involved in coaching youth baseball and football teams.
"I'm a good people person who can facilitate dealing with a lot of controversy and I understand budgets," Williamson says without sounding boastful. "But I also understand the time commitment involved in running for and serving on City Council, and if I can't do it right I'm not going to do it."
Similarly, several former candidates who impressed in unsuccessful 2001 bids for Council—Bedford Chapman, Archie Ellis, and Leslie Terry—have decided not to run this year.
Commitment, to be sure, isn't the only thing it takes to be successful. Connections are also vital, whether it be to neighborhood or economic development interests. From a voter perspective, so are candidates' positions on the issues—of which budgetary constraints and downtown redevelopment loom largest at this time.
Nearly every sitting Council member will tell you privately that the city is facing a property tax increase next year. This view was reinforced during recent budget hearings, when Finance Director Randy Vineyard projected a $9 million shortfall next year on the heels of the $10 million shortfall this year that Mayor Victor Ashe opted to cover with spending cuts.
The city's new mayor will, of course, have a leading role in shaping budgetary policy as well as the city's posture toward building a new convention center hotel which mayoral candidates Bill Haslam and Madeline Rogero both support. But just how far they can lead, and for how long, remains a question.
"I think there's going to be some honeymoon period, but there's going to be so much pressure that marital difficulties could set in pretty quickly," ventures Lyons.
At-Large Seat A
When Joe Bailey first ran for Council two years ago, he was little known in Knoxville. That's because he had spent most of his adult life in Washington working in the Reagan and Bush-the-elder administrations, and then as a TVA operative for most of the Clinton years. While Bailey is a Knoxville native and the son of former Councilman Ed Bailey, he started his 2001 campaign as a decided underdog.
By common acknowledgment, though, nobody worked harder or met-and-greeted people better than Joe Bailey. When the ballots were tallied, he came up only 37 votes short against Barbara Pelot, who had built a base over many years as a champion of neighborhood interests.
Now, at age 45, it's Bailey who has the base in his bid for At-Large Seat A, and he's working hard to extend it. "I've gone back to those people and places where I was weak before and shored up my support," he says. The rap against Bailey has been that he's a tool of developers, but he insists it's an unfair one.
"I'm not the developer candidate. I'm very interested in maintaining the integrity of neighborhoods," he says. But the foremost theme of his campaign is that "City Hall needs to take the lead in attracting and keeping businesses, to go out and sell our city." And he's focused on downtown revitalization, which he sees as integral to the sales effort. "We've got a great opportunity to have a boom downtown that will serve as a magnet, and we need to foster that in every way we can."
Since returning to Knoxville, Bailey has been in what he characterizes as the marketing and government relations business—targeting the federal government in particular. Recently, he formed a firm, Business Development Services, whose primary mission is to help garner federal contracts for minority-owned and woman-owned businesses.
For all his efforts to broaden his base, Bailey is still viewed askance by many neighborhood groups and, privately, by certain outgoing elected officials. Their efforts to induce a high-profile candidate to challenge him have been to no avail, however. Two who are known to have considered it, Mark Williamson and architect Duane Grieve, both concluded they were unprepared to make the time commitment it would take.
Another candidate for Seat A is Hubert Smith, a former radio personality. In his one previous bid for public office, the 49-year-old Smith ran last in a field of five for an "inner" seat on County Commission in 1998. "I was a novice then," he says, "but opportunity and preparedness have knocked on my door in '03." Smith's basic campaign themes are "honesty, dedication, passion, and an ability to work with people to take the city to another level." At the same time, he says, "I'm a fiscal conservative and our budgets will have to be leaner and meaner if the economy doesn't take off."
A third entrant in the race is David Pope, a 31-year-old Navy veteran who is now a full-time student at UT. The Fountain Citian says he's running primarily because of concerns about deterioration of city services. "...I'm sick and tired of having sewage come up in the streets every time it rains," he says.
At-Large Seat B
Seated in the living room of her red brick home in West Hills, Jean Teague reminisces about her first run for Council in 1973. "I was probably the first one who came out as a homeowner advocate, and I think people suddenly realized that they could have some say-so about what's going on," she says.
After 28 years of championing homeowner interests on Council, to the consternation of many developers, Teague was term-limited out of office in 2001. About the same time she retired from her long-time job as an orthopedic nurse at Fort Sanders. So what makes the silver-haired Teague, at age 69, want to run again this year?
"I remain vitally interested in what's going on. There's going to be a new mayor, new Council people and five with two years experience, which is barely enough time to know what's really going on. So I said to myself 'You've got nothing else to do. You've got some experience, and the next two years is going to be a very difficult time,'" she responds.
While protecting homeowner interests remain her shtick, the latter-day Teague is by no means narrowly focused. Budgetary and downtown redevelopment issues also loom large on her radar screen. "Because of financial constraints we've got to evaluate where we are, and some things may need to be sunset," she says. But in the next breath she adds, "Sometimes through the years, whenever it's necessary, I've supported raising taxes."
As for downtown redevelopment, Teague says, "I'm wholeheartedly for it. A convention center hotel is a must to support the $160 million-plus we've got in the convention center. And I think we should go ahead and finish Market Square, including a garage. You've got to have parking for businesses and residents."
At times in the past, Teague has seemed heavy-handed, to the point of being mean-spirited, in her treatment of opponents on zoning issues before Council. She acknowledges that "I'm not one just to sit and take everything. Through the years I've felt strongly about neighborhoods and development and things like that, and sometimes it's come across with my voice."
Unlike her opponents in prior races who've tended to be identified with developer interests, none of her three opponents this year fit that profile.
The one who appears to be garnering the most support at this stage is Chris Woodhull, a resident of Mechanicsville who has made his mark in the community mentoring troubled inner city youth. In 1993 he and the late Danny Mayfield co-founded Tribe One, of which Woodhull remains the executive director. "Danny and I had a mutual love of these young guys, and we've given a lot of tough love to the 400-odd who've come to Tribe One over time."
To some extent, Woodhull is following in Mayfield's footsteps in running for City Council. But the 43-year-old Woodhull has an agenda of his own. The heart of it: "Renewing public trust, partnering for economic progress, and building strong neighborhoods."
Woodhull waves aside the notion that his lack of experience in governmental matters is a handicap. "I think a lot of people are going to resonate to new leadership," he says.
He points with pride to the backing he's receiving from development-oriented officials such as County Commissioner Mike Arms on the one hand and neighborhood-oriented activists such as former City Councilwoman Carlene Malone on the other. But for all his rhetoric about a marriage between their interests, skeptics doubt his ability to tie the knot.
"He can't maintain that coalition. If he's elected, someone is about to get badly disappointed," asserts Mayor Victor Ashe. Then again, mayoral candidate Bill Haslam, to whom Woodhull has close ties, has been trying to bridge that same gap in much the same manner.
Woodhull is as much for downtown redevelopment as anyone and favors a new convention center hotel, a cinema to support Market Square, and more parking. But he has yet to hone his position on many issues. When asked, for example, how the city can afford to pay for all the above when facing a budget crunch exacerbated by a pension funding shortfall, he responds by asking, "How much does the police chief make in his pension?"
Norris Dryer is the most liberal of the candidates in the field but quips that, "In Knoxville we can't call ourselves liberal so we call ourselves progressive." A downtown dweller himself, he's also supportive of downtown redevelopment but stresses the need for better urban design, more public transportation, and sprawl prevention.
"We need attractions to get people downtown, such as the renovated Tennessee Theatre and a new cinema, and we also need a better transit system to get people from one end of downtown to the other," Dryer says. But he's skeptical of the justification for city funding of the proposed 400-room convention center hotel. "Based on low occupancy rates at existing hotels, I'm not convinced a hotel of that size is needed," he says.
At age 60, Dryer is retiring this month after 34 years at WUOT, including stints as music director and program director. While he intends to continue in his other long-time community role as a violinist in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, he envisions himself becoming "virtually a full-time city councilman."
As for the city's budget bind, Dryer says, "We're all hypocritical to some extent. We want more services, but we don't want to pay for them. In order to have an attractive and vibrant city, taxes will probably have to be increased at some point."
Dryer is widely viewed as a long shot, based in no small part on the perception that he won't be able to raise enough money to run a viable campaign. But he insists he will. "I feel we can run a very creditable campaign on between $15,000 and $25,000, and we are about halfway to that goal," he says.
At-Large Seat C
Until recently, Marilyn Roddy was best known in the community as the wife of Patrick Roddy. Her husband is the scion of an illustrious Knoxville family whose name has been synonymous with Coca Cola, and he had established a high profile as director of the Knoxville Zoo. While Marilyn had built credentials as a community volunteer, Patrick was identified as the Roddy with the aspirations for public office—his name much mentioned as a prospective candidate for mayor.
Today, Patrick Roddy is a stock broker, and Marilyn is the candidate. As a newcomer to politics, she's established herself as a prohibitive favorite for At-Large Seat C on Council—so prohibitive that no political veteran has been prepared to challenge her. How so?
The Roddy name obviously helps, with all its connotations of wealth and connections. But Marilyn has proven to be a formidable candidate in her own right, both in terms of preparation for the office and preparedness to make the commitment needed to run hard for it.
"When you commit to running for public office it very quickly consumes your every waking moment," Roddy says. "A friend said it will be the last thing you think about before you fall asleep and the first thing on your mind when you wake up in the morning, and that has proven to be absolutely true."
Roddy's intensity is an extension of her drive in volunteer roles as president of the Sequoyah School PTA and a director of Ijams Nature Center, among others. And she believes they contributed to the support she's getting now.
"I think leadership is all about relationships, and I think relationships are built over time and built on trust.... I think people who know me think of me as someone who works very hard and someone who follows through and gets things done."
Roddy says the year she spent as a member of the Leadership Knoxville Class of 2002 pointed her toward seeking public office. "It convinced me that public service is the best way to make a difference in the community," she says. Her 5-foot 10-inch frame contributes to the stature and presence with which she presents her conventional campaign themes of downtown redevelopment, economic development, and strong and safe neighborhoods.
Roddy also impresses by the diligence with which she's doing her homework on city government. "I've been following the development of the city budget very closely and trying to make myself as informed as possible," she says. "Research is my m.o. having grown up as the daughter of an Ohio State electrical engineering professor."
Roddy met her husband when the two were students at the University of North Carolina. She's lived here since 1988 and, at age 41, is the mother of three daughters.
Roddy's two opponents are both age 23. One is Dewey Roberts III, who works in the Knox County Circuit Court Clerk's Office and is the son of the long-time president of the NAACP. The other is Nick Ciparro, who is a cook at Ruby Tuesday's in Fountain City and an aspiring guitarist.
The bespectacled Roberts says he is running because, "I have a vision for making Knoxville the type of city [where] young people would want to stay and raise a family. I think I could be an asset for recruiting industry and for providing more social and recreational activities for both our younger and older citizens."
Ciparro acknowledges that "I don't have any money, and nobody's ever heard of me." He's running as a protest candidate, he says, "because my neighborhood between Broadway and Central is terribly neglected, and I hope to get the word out."
District 5
One thing Bob Becker and Tim Wheeler agree upon is that the two are friends. The two candidates for the Fifth District Council seat being vacated by Larry Cox also have a lot in common. Both are bachelors in their early 40s who live in the Oakwood/ Lincoln Park neighborhood and have been active in its neighborhood association.
"I don't think we'll be far apart on neighborhood and zoning issues," ventures the personable Becker. Yet there are important philosophical differences between the two.
Becker is a liberal Democrat who's spent the last 11 years working for the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network and has become widely identified in recent years as "Mr. Living Wage." The Living Wage in Knoxville, as defined by TIRN, is $19,000, and Becker insists this minimum wouldn't put much of a strain on the city's budget. Indeed, he insists it would only cost $82,000 to bring all city employees up to the minimum, but city officials contend the cost would run higher in order to maintain pay-scale differentials.
As befits someone who's for spending more, at least on certain things, Becker is supportive of a property tax increase. "Why aren't these people [City Council] prepared to bite the bullet and do a tax increase?" he asks rhetorically. But then, in his diplomatic way, he adds, "I think Victor is a bigger man and wouldn't avoid a tax increase if he thought it was needed."
Becker is concerned about reductions in city jobs and services—particularly fire and police—and he'd make cuts in other areas to preserve them. "I would delay park construction, even greenways, because I think public safety is so important," he says. While "making downtown vibrant is key" in Becker's view, he's also dubious about some proposed redevelopment commitments, including a convention center hotel." If the math doesn't work for private investment, something's wrong, and I also want to know if we build this hotel what doesn't get done."
Wheeler is more straight-laced and circumspect. He worked for 15 years as manager of Stevens Mortuary before becoming a systems analyst for the Knox County Circuit Court Clerk's office. In his one previous run for public office, as a Republican candidate for County Commission in 1994, he was narrowly defeated by Democrat Madeline Rogero.
"I see a lot of wonderful things going on in Knoxville—downtown redevelopment, the influx of younger people coming back into the city, but we've got to deal with flooding and continued urban sprawl," he says.
Unlike Becker, Wheeler is clear that, "For the money we've invested in the convention center, a new hotel is a must." He adds that, "We've got to deal with downtown parking as a high priority, and a new transit center is a big plus."
In an interview in early May, he initially sidesteps a question about taxes by responding that "I haven't had a chance to study the city's budget yet." But then he goes on to say, "People who move here from up north talk about how low our taxes are. We have to educate the voters."
As for the Living Wage, Wheeler says, "It would be very hard to justify right now. When we're looking at a deficit and have to look at layoffs, I'm concerned that the unfortunate people who'd be laid off could be victims of the Living Wage."
June 19, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 25
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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