Tim Kelly
Mayor Tim Kelly, in a Rotary speech, urged Chattanoogans to vote yes in a referendum March 4 to change the Tennessee residency requirement for city employees, which is outlined in the city’s charter.
The city needs more police and fire applicants, he said. The change, which is backed by the police and fire chiefs, would permit hiring residents of North Georgia and eastern Alabama, what the mayor called Metro Chattanooga. The change would also help middle-class employees escape rising housing prices while keeping their jobs, he said.
“It’s really, really important,” Mayor Kelly said. “My prime directive is public safety.”
In late January he proposed $18 million to raise police and fire pensions.
“My main priority is to make sure police and fire are paid well,” he said. “We’re going to have to give them another raise, and they deserve it,” he said.
Mayor Kelly touched on other downtown objectives: navigable parking, reducing homelessness, and lifting UTC to an R1-classified doctoral research university to attract employers. He said Chattanooga is forecast already to have the highest job growth rate in the state, yet infrastructure lags.
The mayor praised President Donald Trump’s push to streamline the environmental review process and quicken development. Mayor Kelly said he also welcomes the Trump Administration’s renewed “opportunity zone” legislation, a tax incentive to develop blighted areas, which he said will aid the Southside Lookouts stadium project.
Mayor Kelly admitted there is a miniscule chance the project could fall through, but he assured the crowd that “if it all goes south,” he will take responsibility and the taxpayers won’t.
Regarding downtown parking, “It’s just a nightmare,” he said. “We are going to straighten that out. It’s not going to be simple, but we are going to do it.”
Mayor Kelly opened his talk with falling crime statistics, including a 23 percent drop in crime since 2022 and an 11 percent drop in 2024 alone. Downtown, crime dropped 30 percent in 2024, he said.
“I think we’re playing a pretty good game of Whac-A-Mole,” he said.
But members of the audience wanted assurance that the downtown murder of Chris Wright is not a trend.
“It was a loophole, essentially,” Mayor Kelly said. Years ago, he said, a classification manual for federal housing assignments was expanded to include mental illness. That change put Darryl Roberts, who had mental health issues and a criminal record more than 60 offenses long, living on a block of Market Street frequented by families and tourists.
But, Mayor Kelly said, “We got to figure out someplace that we can put people that have run afoul of the law.”
“We’ve also got a terrible problem with homelessness,” he said. Rent hikes have caused some to land on the street, he said.
“We’ve got 75-year-old single women living on the street right now,” he said.
Though Mayor Kelly endorsed Kamala Harris in the presidential election, he told the crowd he’s still independent.
“I take the nonpartisan thing seriously,” he said. “I believe in moderation.”
Mayor Kelly said the Biden Administration had eight former mayors on staff, provided funding for Wilcox Tunnel repairs and just had a bigger focus on cities.
“At the end of the day it was about what’s best for cities,” he said.
If re-elected in March, he will continue to reform the mechanics of city government, he said. He is consolidating the city’s resident services division, anything a resident might need from the city: road requests, 311 topics and some requests related to homelessness. The overhaul is paid for with part of an $11 million supplemental budget he proposed in January. Data funneled through the new pipeline will help spot trends, he said.
QR codes on rezoning signs will ease access to the whole scope of a proposed project.
Mayor Kelly reiterated that Chattanooga’s mayor is a city manager position that requires management experience, pointing out that his opponent “hasn’t run a lemonade stand.”
“Frankly that’s how everything went to hell in a handbasket the last 16 years,” he said, and named Bob Corker as the last managing mayor of Chattanooga.
Sanctuary Cities and Illegal Immigration
Mayor Kelly said he does support deportation of criminals who are illegal immigrants. A member of the audience asked if Chattanooga could become a Sanctuary City, a designation banned by Tennessee law in 2019.
“We’re going to follow the law. Period,” Mayor Kelly said, to much applause from the audience.
Mayor Kelly ventured further to state that he does support long overdue immigration reform, and that U.S. Senator John McCain’s bipartisan efforts were the last great effort on the subject.
“We were that close,” Mayor Kelly said.
Veterans Memorial
Mayor Kelly said a long-awaited veterans memorial has been approved by the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council to be erected at Renaissance Park, next door to Coolidge Park, named after a local Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.
Planning Commission
A member of the audience pressed the mayor on transparency and accountability at the Planning Commission, which he said is made up largely of biased real estate professionals and politicians. Half of the board is appointed by Mayor Kelly and half by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp. They jointly name the chairman.
“It’s tough to find people who get it and understand it,” Mayor Kelly said. He said the board is not pursuing an agenda but acknowledged the concern. Mayor Kelly said he supports more density in the city center so the county may stay rural as it wishes.
Parkway Towers
A member of the audience asked for an update on Parkway Tower, a vacant eyesore by Finley Stadium. The mayor referenced a failed attempt to claim it by eminent domain decades ago but said he may revisit the option.
“That’s about the only card we’ve got left to play,” he said.