Crossville City Council Expansion to 7 members Appears Unlikely Anytime Soon

After a majority vote in favor of sending a city council expansion to the Tennessee Legislature and the matter only receiving one council vote last month, Councilmember Pamala Harris gave the idea one more shot at council's July work session but an expansion of the number of council members seems dead in the water.

Crossvile City Councilmember

Pamala Harris

Even though some members of the Crossville City Council indicated just a month ago they could only support expanding the number of council members to seven if the decision was made by city voters in referendum, Councilmember Pamala Harris could not get enough support in the July work session to even get a discussion on the July agenda to officially consider it.

Harris first brought the matter up last January and proposed the council expansion to give more people, including more women, the opportunity to serve. The matter received favorable votes from 3 council members who voted in favor of sending the matter to the State Legislature for consideration and approval. The legislature who has to approve the City of Crossville's private act charter changes approved it sending it back to the council who were then required to pass it with a supermajority vote according to the Crossville City Charter.

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When the matter came back to the council in June, the proposal fell flat with little support though several members said they could support it if the matter went to referendum. The only favorable vote on expanding the council at the June regular meeting was council member Harris.

At the July work session, Harris said she was bringing the matter back up to give the council a chance to follow through but again, little support from other members of the council ended Harris' proposal. Council member's Danny Wyatt and Mayor James Mayberry both indicated in June they could support a referendum on the change and council member Scot Shanks said he'd received no calls in favor of the expansion and agreed with some of the other council members concerns.