CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden was elected chair of the legislative body on Tuesday, but not without some objections from one county commissioner.
In what’s normally a formality, the county mayor was nominated Monday night to be chairman of the commission, essentially presiding over the government body’s meetings.
Commissioner Nathan Burkholder said that with new people on the commission, it’s time to consider changes and “out-of-the-box” thinking.
Advantages of non-chair mayor
“What I’m about to say, I don’t want to take as an insult to our new mayor or anyone that’s sitting here. I just feel that maybe going forward in the future, it would be a good idea to discuss the differences between a mayor that’s a chair and a mayor that’s not a chair,” Burkholder said.
Burkholder outlined some possible advantages to freeing the mayor from chairman duties.
“Basically, if we have a mayor who doesn’t serve as our chair, it gives this mayor veto power, which would essentially give this body a second reading that we don’t have right now,” Burkholder said. “Another thing that it does, it allows for the mayor to focus on providing information to this body during the meeting instead of focusing on parliamentary procedures.”
Burkholder said this would bring a level of separation between the mayor’s office and the commission, and it could make deliberating contentious issues less difficult. He said a non-mayor chair, selected from among the commissioners, would still get a vote, but not a second vote to break a tie.
Commission vote
“I appreciate our mayor. I do like him. I think he is going to do a great job for this county. I just wanted to bring that up that this is our chair we’re going to elect. He works for this body, and if we feel that the mayor is the best person for that position, then so be it,” Burkholder said.
No other discussion followed The motion to elect Golden as chair passed 20-1, with Burkholder the only one voting no.
In other action, Commissioner John Gannon was elected mayor pro tem by a 20-0 vote, with Gannon abstaining.