LOCAL NEWS — Eleven months is too long to go without proper fifth district representation. As such, the Metro Council on Monday began the sad but necessary process of filling a vacancy created by the death of Tommy Brown, the council member who died on January 9. Brown was a longstanding member of the local legislative body serving for over 35 years.

At Monday night’s Metro Council meeting, Mayor Bonnie Lewis discussed with the Council the procedure for filling Brown’s vacant seat. First, Mayor Lewis will post public notices seeking candidates to fill the vacancy. Then, the Metro Council will appoint someone from those candidates who step forward at the next regular session meeting, which would take place on Monday, February 21.

To be eligible to fill the vacancy, a citizen would need to have resided in Moore County for at least a year prior and in the fifth district for at least six months “prior to the deadline for qualifying a candidates.” Even if appointed to the vacancy, the office would be open to all qualifying candidates at the next general election, which will take place in August in Moore County.

Interested parties should contact Mayor Bonnie Lewis either via USPS (P.O. Box 206, Lynchburg, TN 37352) or email ([email protected]) prior to the February meeting. Each candidate must be nominated by a sitting Metro Council member and then all nominated persons will be voted on publicly during a roll call vote at the February meeting. A candidate needs to receive a simple majority “of the existing Metro Council member seats” – not just a majority of the quorum present at the February meeting to earn the seat.

“If there are multiple candidates, at the end of each vote, the candidate with the lowest number of votes would be dropped. If there is a tie for the candidate with the lowest number of votes and dropping them would result in only one remaining candidate, all of those candidates will remain on the next ballot and council will revote until a candidate receives eight (8) votes,” a memo from Mayor Lewis to the Council stated. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only locally-owned newspaper in Lynchburg and also the only woman-owned newspaper in Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}