City Rewrites 1977 Charter

Eagleville city councilmen are in the midst of totally rewriting the city’s 1977 charter.

Councilmen could possibly have had their part of the rewrite done within a 48-hour period except citizens successfully argued at a called council meeting on Feb. 21 that more time was needed.

The public only learned about the rewriting of the city charter, which has been described as a city’s "constitution," when the agenda came out for a workshop held two days before the council meeting.

The council has given citizens up to March 12 to submit written comments on the charter proposal and has set up another workshop session on March 17 at 6:30 p.m. at city hall.

Residents can review a copy of the proposed new charter at the Eagleville library and can submit their comments to city hall. The proposed new charter is also on the Eagleville Times website at www.eaglevilletimes.com.

A copy of the current charter can be found on the city’s website at www.eaglevilletn.com.

Councilmen could call a special meeting to adopt the charter proposal sometime before the regularly scheduled March 27 council meeting if needed because they are trying to get the document to legislators before this session ends.

The current charter discussions began at the workshop session on Feb. 19 when Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) consultant Don Darden reviewed with councilmen the proposed charter draft.

Mayor Nolan Barham said his discussions on rewriting the city charter began about five or six years ago with MTAS consultant Margaret Norris.

"She sat down with me for two hours and we went through it and she showed me all the things that are wrong with our charter," Barham said.

Darden became the MTAS consultant for Eagleville after Norris went to Knoxville. He said he started working on the charter revisions last summer and has done most of the work on the new charter proposal.

Darden said Eagleville’s charter needs revising because the city is in violation of state law now and has been since the present charter was adopted in 1977.

Among the violations that Darden pointed out is that the current charter calls for the city to have a city manager, and the city has never had one. The charter also talks about the city recorder being the city judge, but the general laws of the state now say the city recorder cannot be the city judge.

"You can read the charter and there is nothing that says the mayor can do anything administratively," Darden said. Currently, the mayor handles the administrative duties for the city.

Also, the charter talks about having a tax equalization board, and the city has had none because the county equalization board can take care of those duties, he said.

Citizens had a chance to give input before the Feb. 21 council meeting and several addressed the new city charter issue.

Resident Donna Jensen pleaded for councilmen to review the proposed revisions more and for citizens to have a chance to learn what the charter changes are about.

"The citizens are asking why this is happening so fast," she said.

Jensen pointed out that the council and planning commission had spent much time reviewing ordinances a couple of years ago.

"They did a wonderful job and spent time on it in a round table type discussion," she said. "I think the charter as the constitution is way more important and we need to spend more than just a week at most before it gets passed."

Businessman Doyle Wood, who owns two restaurants in town that are under construction, also asked for more time.

"I am spending a lot of money and investment in Eagleville and I would like to make sure that as a shareholder of Eagleville that we proceed effectively for all citizens and all businesses," he said. "I’m not sure at this point how this resolution would impact my business and me personally and the community one way or the other without having a little more time to discuss this."

Longtime resident John Edward Turner spoke against the proposed new charter’s requirement that a person has to live in the Eagleville city limits to serve as a councilman or mayor. The current charter requires that city candidates must either live or own property in Eagleville.

"I think it is ridiculous and terrible that these men who are building these businesses in Eagleville cannot serve on the council," he said. "How do you expect a city to grow if it doesn’t bring in new people to help by being on the council because there are not that many people in Eagleville who would serve on the council?"

Darden said that state law requires mayors and council members to be residents of the city. However, questions have since arisen about whether or not the residency requirement applies to cities like Eagleville that were created by a private act.

A current state attorney general’s opinion is unclear on the matter, and on Thursday Darden was still awaiting a written opinion on the issue from MTAS attorneys. He said last week that Eagleville is the only city that MTAS personnel have found that allows non-residents to hold a city office.

Resident David Turner requested that the council includes in the new city charter an "appropriate" recall process whereby any member of the city council, including the mayor, could be removed from office.

The new city charter eliminates the initiative and referendum provision that is in the current charter which allows citizens to vote on any ordinance that the council passes. Darden said the provision is contrary to the general laws of the state which identify specifically which items can go to referendum.

Among the items are liquor retail sales, annexation, local sales tax, general obligation bonds, recall when it is in the charter and amending the city charter.

Another change in the proposed city charter is reducing the number of readings of ordinances from three to two and having the ordinances go into effect immediately after the final reading instead of 15 days after the final reading.

A provision councilmen added to the city charter proposal is that no one can sign his or her own check.

The current charter has 83 pages and the proposed one has 19, and the current charter has 18 articles in it while the proposed one has six. Darden noted that U.S. Constitution has only about six pages.

Once all the corrections are made to the proposed charter, it is expected to be sent to the state legislature as a private act. When 60 days have passed after the city gets the document back from the legislature, the city council can vote on it. The resolution accepting the private act must be approved by a 2/3 vote of the council. ■

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