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May 21, 2007
A Passel of Mayors
BusinessTN editor Drew Ruble chewed the fat with four of Tennessee's mayors recently, and collected the drippings into this month's special feature. (Registration may be required.) Our own Mayor Ron Littlefield was among them. How did he stack up against the others?
First of all, one might have assumed that the four chosen would head the largest cities. Not so. Alongside two of the expected — Mayor Ron and Knoxville's Bill Haslam — were Murfreesboro's Tommy Bragg and Mayor Keith McDonald of Bartlett. Bartlett? Well.
Among the usual fare of economic and demographic growth, crime, careers, and homelessness was the current cable franchise issue being wrangled by the Legislature. Littlefield seems strangely silent on the topic, but I don't know if editing had any part of that, or if he just didn't know what to say. I've emailed the author to ask for any clarification he can provide, and will update this post if I hear anything. (UPDATE 5/21 ~ Ruble explains: "Actually the roundtable ran about 40 minutes. Some participants joined late, some left early based on schedules....Ron (Littlefield) had already dropped off the line by the time I got to that question." Fair enough.)
Another recent mayoral juxtaposition was documented in the Times Free Press. Outgoing Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell was in Shanghai, China (as were a group of other visiting city officials), and was busily recruiting businesses to Middle Tennessee, when Chattanooga's own chief ambassador "'crashed'" the proceedings to show a little leg for the Scenic City. I guess one could say that our little-sister act has gone international.
Government | By joe lance | 12:18 PM