Tomorrow, voters in Knox County will nominate candidates for county government in the most controversial election in modern Knox County history. Because no one has been able to get definitive court rulings on term limits as they apply to Knox County, voters are at a disadvantage not knowing if their vote for names on the official ballot will, for all practical purposes, even count.

After finally getting a look at the Knox County Charter, the issue of term limits could not be more clear:

Read more after the jump...

Sec. 8.17. Term limits.

A. Effective January 1, 1995, no person shall be eligible to serve in any elected office of Knox County if during the previous two terms of that office the person in question has served more than a single term. Service prior to the passage of this measure shall not count in determining length of service. Judges are exempt from this provision.

"No person." Not, "persons ruled ineligible by a court after after lengthy lawsuits and hearings." Not, "persons who say it doesn't apply to them." Not, "persons who don't like this provision and want the whole charter thrown out."

The only exception is judges. The fact that judges were specifically excluded indicates that the framers of the charter, and the voters who enacted it, contemplated which offices term-limits should apply to, and decided that it applies to all elected officials except judges.

Arguments that it doesn't apply to the Sheriff because the constitutional office of sheriff and its duties are not codified in the charter are bogus:

Sec. 3.09. Sheriff.

The Sheriff shall be the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the County and is charged with the enforcement of such ordinances as provided in this Charter. The Sheriff shall be elected by the qualified voters of Knox County according to law, and shall have all powers and duties, either expressly or impliedly, now or hereafter conferred by law and this Charter.

What part of "The sheriff shall be elected by the qualified voters of Knox County according to law" is unclear to the courts?

The argument that the charter is flawed because it doesn't codify all the constitutional officers enumerated for local county government by the Tennessee Constitution is in and of itself flawed:

• Articles II, III, and IV create the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of Knox County Government.

• The office of county mayor and its duties are clearly enumerated (Article III, Sections 3.01, 3.02, 3.03, and 3.04).
• The office of law director and its duties has it's own section (Article III, Sec. 3.08).
• Judges and their duties are enumerated in Article IV, Sec. 4.01.
• The Board of Education and its election rules are established in Article V, section 5.01, and its duties enumerated in section 5.02.
• The property assessor's election is referenced in the above Article III, Sec. 3.08, and its duties are enumerated in County Ordinances Sec. 2-306 as being pursuant to T.C.A. § 67-5-1601(b) for purposes of compensation.
• While not enumerated in its own section, the county clerk's office and its duties are referred to frequently throughout the charter.

Furthermore, the charter says in Article I:

Sec. 1.01. Powers and functions.

The Knox County Government shall exercise any power or perform any function which is not denied by the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. It is the intent of this Charter that limitations on the powers of County Government shall be strictly construed, and that grants of power to County Government shall be liberally construed.

...

Sec. 1.05. Rights reserved to the people.

No provisions of this Charter, and no action by any officer or employee of the County acting under its authority, shall infringe upon rights, privileges and powers now or hereafter reserved or guaranteed to individual persons or to the people by the Constitution of the United States of America or the Constitution of the State of Tennessee.

So, to an average guy like me this says anything not covered by the Knox County Charter is subject to provisions of the Tennessee Constitution. And to me, that includes constitutional officers not enumerated and their duties.

But even if you wanted to argue that the charter is invalid because the county clerk and tax assessor's offices are not clearly defined, Article VIII states:

Sec. 8.16. Severability.

If any article, section or provision of this Charter shall be held unconstitutional, invalid or inapplicable to any persons or circumstances, then it is intended and declared by the people of the County that all other articles, sections or provisions of this Charter and their application to all other persons and circumstances shall be severable and shall not be affected by any such decision.

This stuff isn't rocket science. It's pretty much right there in black and white. The people shouldn't need lawyers or courts (or blogs or newspapers, for that matter, and especially not newspapers that are members of the entrenched local politburo) to interpret what the laws the people and their elected officials are expected to abide by mean. If it's that complicated, it needs to be amended. The only people who don't seem to get it are those using weaselly arguments to try to keep their jobs, and local courts who seem to be protecting them for whatever reason.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about term limits. But the people of Knox County voted overwhelmingly to enact term limits for all elected officials except judges. Yet elected officials have been thumbing their noses at the people in an unprecedented display of arrogance and lust for power for more than a decade. If anyone still needs further evidence there is a "good old boy" political power structure at work, this should be all the proof they need.

It's so bad that the opposition party has been out of power for a generation and doesn't even bother any more, until something like the term limit controversy opens up the tiniest chink of opportunity in the armor of exclusion and absolute power surrounding local government. But this isn't a Republicans v. Democrats issue. It's a good government issue.

What Knox County needs is new blood that will establish open government by the people, for the people. Those in office now, most of them illegally except for Mike Ragsdale (who by all accounts has done a decent job), who defy the law and the will of the people, need to be shown the door by voters who should send a message that they are no longer going to tolerate such abuse of power by elected officials.

Yes, it will take a little effort. You have to go to the polls (be sure to take your voter registration card or official/photo ID). When you check in, you must ask for a paper write-in ballot for the primary, Democratic or Republican, you are voting in. You need to know who on the ballot is term limited, and who you are going to write-in in their stead (their names will not appear on the ballot). You might have to do a little homework(1) and, you know, participate in the local government that you allow to govern you.

OK, then.

(1)References:

Knox County Charter

Democratic Primary Paper Ballot

Republican Primary Paper Ballot

The list of "official" candidates (including those term-limited)

Official list of certified write-in candidates

Comprehensive list of candidates, all races, term-limited and write-ins*

Analysis of County Commission races with term-limited candidates noted

(*If you only have time to study one resource, this is the one you should study and use to mark up your sample write-in ballot ahead of time.)

NOTE: As it stands today, there is no official, definitive court ruling regarding Knox County candidates who are "theoretically" term-limited. The Tennessee Coordinator of Elections issued an opinion that a recent Tennessee Supreme Court decision upholding simiilar Shelby County term limits as they apply to county commission also applies to Knox County. This has not been settled in court. Nor has the issue of whether term limits specified in the charter apply to the Knox County Sheriff, Law Director, County Clerk, or other elected officials. Read the charter, decide for yourself, and vote accordingly.

NOTE: Even if term limits are determined to apply to the county mayor, Mike Ragsdale is still on his first term, so he is not subject to term limits.