East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert said Saturday that a mailer from former County Commissioner Curtis Adams endorsing two council candidates may have violated election laws, and he said candidate Ann Pruett is "not a political pawn."
Mayor Lambert said, “I was disappointed to read a political mailer with a message from former County Commissioner Curtis Adams as well as a related story on Chattanoogan.com in which Mr. Adams endorses two candidates for East Ridge City Council and makes a number of accusations regarding the city government.
"First and foremost, I believe the mailer violates state election law in that it is political advertising yet does not clearly provide a disclaimer expressing who paid for it. While the mailer states the message is from Mr. Adams, the Chattanoogan.com article states that ‘Former Commissioner Adams was told that several individuals went together to pay for the mailer.’ As a citizen and taxpayer, it concerns me that we have a former county commissioner and a mysterious, unnamed group of individuals attempting to influence our city elections by ignoring very basic election laws and failing to divulge who actually paid for the political advertising.
"Secondly, Mr. Adams’ claims regarding ‘runaway spending’ in our city are uninformed at best. Our current property tax rate of $1.42 is actually lower than the $1.54 tax rate that Mr. Adams himself advocated in 2008 while serving as the East Ridge City Manager. In addition, the city’s independent auditing firm has provided confirmation of a significant General Fund budget surplus for the 2012 fiscal year, which is hardly evidence of out-of-control spending.
"Thirdly, Mr. Adams claims that ‘Surveys show East Ridge is paying four times for legal bills’what other cities their size pay’ and adds that ‘…Soddy Daisy has a fine city attorney who is not robbing that city.’ As I have stated on numerous occasions, East Ridge is one of three cities in the state of Tennessee with populations between 20,000 and 21,000, and the other two cities had budgets of $112,000 and $140,000 for legal expenses in 2012. Our city’s total legal expense was around $130,000 in 2012, which is less than one percent of our annual budget. Aside from the fact that Soddy Daisy has slightly more than half the population of East Ridge and is therefore not at all comparable to East Ridge, Mr. Adams’ statements could easily be deemed libelous against our city attorney. These statements certainly represent a change of tune for Mr. Adams considering he once boasted to me, and many others, that our attorney was the best in Chattanooga.
"Lastly, I know Ann Pruett well, having worked with her for two years on the East Ridge History Center Committee and for the last year on our city’s planning commission. She is a capable individual who loves East Ridge. For the former commissioner to state that Ms. Pruett is being used as some sort of pawn is disgraceful and remarkably demeaning to her. She deserves better than that from Mr. Adams.
"I encourage the people of East Ridge to vote on Tuesday for whomever they feel will best help this city. But rather than vote for someone based upon misinformation and personal vendettas, I ask each person to vote for those individuals who will build upon the good things taking place in our community.”