Brentwood's Mayoral Election Process

The following email was sent to BrentwoodWatchdog@gmail.com earlier this month:

to : BrentwoodWatchdog@gmail.com date : Thu, May 14, 2009 at 9:36 PM subject : Great job! mailed-by : gmail.com

We enjoyed the series on the School Board.  Appreciate your time and dedication.  About time we get some straight talk!

 

We have no facts on this, and want to be kept anonymous, but we've heard some disturbing rumors recently about the election for Brentwood's Mayor.  Not that Mrs. Crossley wouldn't be a great mayor, she will, but we heard that there was some kind of last minute effort to keep Commissioner Webb out from being Mayor.  That would be a shame if true.

In seeking clarification of what those "rumors" were, the sender replied with the following email:

to : Brentwood Watchdog date : Fri, May 15, 2009 at 7:37 AM subject : Re: Great job! mailed-by : gmail.com

Something about only Mr. Webb's name being on the ballot and there being write in votes.  Guess he would know. 

 

We don't really follow this stuff all that much, just talk around coffee.  May be all rumor anyway.  And we really like Betsy Crossley, so it was a good choice.

Other readers also inquired about how the City Commission chose the Mayor and Vice Mayor. For those unfamiliar, while Brentwood residents elect City Commissioners, the Commissioners themselves choose the Mayor and Vice Mayor every two years at the first meeting after the election. This year's May 5 city election was followed by a City Commission meeting on Monday, May 11, 2009. During that meeting Commissioner Betsy Crossley was elected Mayor and Commissioner Rhea Little was elected Vice Mayor. This was done by a paper ballot being handed out to each commissioner, collected by a city official, and votes being read out loud by the city attorney.

This is how the votes were cast that night. First, for Mayor:

• Commissioner Betsy Crossley voted for Paul Webb
  
• Commissioner Anne Dunn voted for Betsy Crossley
  
• Commissioner Rhea Little voted for Betsy Crossley
  
• Commissioner Joe Reagan voted for Paul Webb
  
• Commissioner Regina Smithson voted for Betsy Crossley
  
• Commissioner Joe Sweeney voted for Betsy Crossley
  
• Commissioner Paul Webb voted for Paul Webb
  

By a 4-3 vote, Betsy Crossley was elected Mayor.

And for Vice Mayor:

• Commissioner Betsy Crossley voted for Rhea Little
  
• Commissioner Anne Dunn voted for Rhea Little
  
• Commissioner Rhea Little voted for Rhea Little
  
• Commissioner Joe Reagan voted for Joe Reagan
  
• Commissioner Regina Smithson voted for Rhea Little
  
• Commissioner Joe Sweeney voted for Rhea Little
  
• Commissioner Paul Webb voted for Joe Reagan
  

By a 5-2 vote, Rhea Little was elected Vice Mayor.

This week the following email was forwarded to BrentwoodWatchdog@gmail.com by another reader with information that confirms that both Crossley and Little in fact WERE elected by write-in votes.

to : brentwoodwatchdog@gmail.com date : Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:57 AM subject : Fwd: Brentwood Mayor and Vice Mayor Election Question mailed-by : gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hedgepath, Debbie <hedged@brentwood-tn.org>
Date: Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Subject: RE: Brentwood Mayor and Vice Mayor Election Question

Both ballots included only the names of persons who had indicated to the City Manager that they would be interested in the position, but also allowed Commissioners to write in the names of other persons.  For Mayor, the ballot listed Paul Webb and “Other.”  For Vice-Mayor, the ballot originally listed “Betsy Crossley” and “Other,” but Betsy’s name was removed after she was elected Mayor by the majority of the Commission.

None of that information was shared publicly the night of the election. There was no explanation of what names comprised the ballots. There is evidently no policy on how the city commission elects the Mayor and Vice Mayor beyond that it be done by a majority vote of the commission. However, would providing a ballot with names of all commissioners or no commissioners be a better way to handle the election? The idea that only the names of persons "interested" in the position were included is valid given the amount of time required to serve. Clearly others were interested in the positions though since "others" were elected and accepted the position.

In the first email we received, the writer mentioned the rumor of "some kind of last minute effort to keep Commissioner Webb out from being Mayor." You'll have to decide for yourselves if there was such an effort given the fact that Commissioner Webb's name was the ONLY name listed on the Mayoral ballot and Commissioners Dunn, Little, Smithson, and Sweeney opted instead to write-in another name. (Of course, this COULD NOT have been coordinated in advance by any of those four given Tennessee's strict Sunshine Laws.) It is interesting though that the newest member of the Commission, Rhea Little, chose to write-in a name not listed on the Mayoral ballot and then subsequently received votes for Vice Mayor from the three commissioners whom he joined in not voting for Commissioner Webb for Mayor. Incidentally, the only two Commissioners to NOT vote for Little (who received an overwhelming majority of votes from the Brentwood public) were Webb and Reagan.

Perhaps in the future an option would be for the commissioners to open the floor among themselves for nominations for Mayor and, subsequently, Vice Mayor. This would allow only those "interested" in serving to accept any possible nomination. It would also make the election process more transparent to the public. What do you think?