Retention Votes aren't Equal to Open Elections

Brentwood City Manager Mike Walker recently made the assertion that if Brentwood's City Commissioner elections were held in conjunction with state elections in the fall rather than as stand-alone elections in May they would be "relegated to the same status on the ballot as, for example, voting for a state Supreme Court judge or court of appeals judge."

Actually, under Tennessee's current system Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals justices maintain their roles through a "yes/no" retention vote. The Tennessee Court System website explains it as follows:

Judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Court of Criminal Appeals are elected on a “yes-no” ballot every eight years. When a vacancy occurs, the seventeen-member Judicial Selection Commission interviews applicants and recommends three candidates to the governor, who appoints a new judge to serve until the next August general election. By state law, judges on the three courts must be evaluated every eight years. Results of the evaluations are published in newspapers across the state, to help voters decide whether the judges should be retained.

Brentwood's City Commission election, however, would NOT be a retention vote (theoretically, at least), so equating the two very different elections isn't the most sound argument in this case.

When do you think Brentwood should hold the municipal election for city commissioners? May? August? November?