The town of Signal Mountain is looking for Councilman Dan Landrum’s replacement. He turned in his resignation on Saturday. The town’s charter allows 30 days to select a new council member from that effective date of resignation. After that, a special election would need to be held which the council wants to avoid because it is a costly process.
At a special called council meeting Monday evening, the procedure that will be used was discussed and decided on. It was formally announced that the council is looking for residents who would be interested in serving in that capacity.
Citizens will be notified of the search by email, on social medial outlets, the town’s website and on Chattanoogan.com.
Individuals who are interested are asked to notify Town Attorney Harry Cash by Sept. 15. Among other requested information, questions in the application will include why the individual would like to be on the town council, their opinion about what top three issues they see facing the town in the coming years, what if any prior civic work has been performed, if they have attended prior council meetings, and to attach a resume. Mr. Cash will send all applications he receives to each council member.
The council will also be accepting questions that residents of the town would like to ask the applicants. Those questions can be sent to a special email address that will be set up for that purpose, starting today and will be accepted until Sept. 15. The questions that are submitted will be forwarded to each council member who will pick out the top five questions as they perceive them, or the ones most repeated, and send those to Attorney Cash who will compile them and send the list to each candidate.
The council wishes to have citizen participation in the selection of the new council member.
Candidates will have until Sept. 21 to reply to the questions and return their responses to Attorney Cash. It was felt that hearing answers from the candidates to those questions, before the meeting on Sept. 27, where a final vote will be taken, will give the candidates time to think about their response and consider their answers and council members time to digest the responses before taking a vote. According to the town charter, Sept. 27 is the final day a new member can be selected without holding a special election.
The format of the voting meeting is still to be determined, however there most likely will be an opening statement from each candidate and a time for the council members to ask each of them more questions in the public setting. The same thing will be asked to each applicant so that they will all have an equal opportunity to answer.
Other issues discussed Monday night are that the town will ask for MTAS, the organization that assists municipalities in Tennessee, to work with each department in the town individually to help prepare for the coming year by identifying issues of concern. The consultations can be done at no charge to Signal Mountain.
With the rapid rise in the Delta variant of COVID 19 infections, it was decided to implement a mask mandate in the public spaces of town buildings. Some employees will be allowed to opt out of wearing masks in non-public spaces. Children in the gym will not be required to wear a mask when they are actively participating in a sport, but will have to put one on while on the sidelines. This policy will be revisited on a regular basis in hopes that conditions will improve.