Bills look at local gov't dynamics

State Sen. Stacey Campfield, left, and state Rep. Frank Niceley are sponsoring a couple of bills that, if approved, could potentially impact the dynamics between county mayors and county commissions.

Whether the proposed legislation goes anywhere, remains to be seen.

But right now, Campfield, the primary sponsor, said (in an email to me which I imagine will be posted on his blog) that he's not actively moving either one forward right now.

“You never know what may come up that our county mayor might need and with the (way the) system (works) in Nashville, if a caption of law is not opened in the first few weeks of session then nothing can be done for the issue later on,” he said.

In other words, if it's not proposed now, then it can't be later. Actually, not a bad move. Pro-active and all.

As introduced, the first bill “deletes the authority of the county legislative body (the commission in our case) to confirm appointments made by the county mayor (Tim Burchett in our case) to county boards and commission and department heads.”

This makes sense. It's not like Burchett gets to sign off on appointments made by commissioners to various boards.

The other bill “changes the required vote of the (commission) to override the veto of the county mayor from a majority vote to a two-thirds vote.”

Right now the Knox County charter says the 11-member commission needs a majority plus one to override the mayor.

And yes, these two bills could potentially impact Knox County even though it is under the charter form from what I understand.

(Although I'm thinking that our charter – a majority plus one – could be the same as two-thirds. But, I'm not sure. I suck at math.)

Campfield said lawmakers could adjust the bills later should the need arise.

I was curious about whether the Burchett administration asked for the changes (the mayor said he didn't).

Campfield said no one in local government directly contacted him about the proposals.