Knoxville voters, pay close attention! Your right to be heard is at stake.
Knoxville City Council has nine members. Historically, six of them run first in a local district primary, with the top two finishers in each district then running citywide in the general election. (Council also elects three at-large candidates, who run citywide in both primary and general elections). Once sworn in, each council member votes on every city ordinance and budget.
They are, and have been, your complete legislative voice.
A recent state law seeks to limit voting for the six district-wide council races to only district residents. But there are not six separate fiefdoms. As noted, every council member votes for every issue before Knoxville City Council. Your taxes pay for everything. All nine council members need to be attuned to all Knoxville concerns, as they must weigh and balance the issues before them.
The current ballot referenda, approved by Knoxville City Council, puts the restoration of your historic voting rights out for citizen vote.
Charter Amendment No. 2 would restore the right of every Knoxville voter to vote for all nine members of Knoxville City Council. This basic approach has been used by Knoxville voters successfully for over 50 years. Geographically selected representatives will still bring special localized matters to Council’s attention and participate as part of a better-informed whole body. The system works.
Charter Amendment No. 1 is more of a logical reshuffle … a housekeeping amendment. It brings District 5 into the same election cycle as the other five geographically diverse council seats. (For election group size balance, it had previously been grouped with the three at-large seat elections, a kind of balancing the turnover approach: i.e., 5 one election cycle, 4 the next one). Logically, this referendum regroups all the geographically diverse seats in the same election cycle.
This is not a special interest or party matter. This does not give special advantage to any neighborhood or sector, nor do away with any Knoxville City Council term limits. You should know that all six district council representatives voted to place these two amendments on the ballot. This correction will guarantee every Knoxvillian freedom to vote for all nine members of their city council, while still guaranteeing that a majority of council representatives come from different regions of our city. From the many, one voice will be heard.
Knoxvillians would do well to vote “yes” on both referenda.
Here is a link to the election office sample ballot which has the text of the two referendum questions: Sample Ballot
Nick Della Volpe is a lawyer, a gardener and a former member of Knoxville City Council
