Mayor Purcell Ends Speculation About Third Term

This weekend, Mayor Purcell announced that he will not seek a third term. Of course, no one was sure if Purcell would have been allowed to serve for another four years even if he had wanted to. Actually, according to The Tennessean, Purcell wants to change the Metro Charter to make clear that a mayor may only hold that office for two four-year terms. He also wants to tinker with the charter to reduce the size of the Metro Council.

Purcell said he would seek to end any ambiguity about the number of terms a Nashville mayor can serve by proposing a charter amendment to limit the office to two terms. He also said he would seek an amendment to cut the Metro Council size in half to 20 members.

Cutting the Council from 40 to 20 would be a good move; many observers have noted that the current system—40 part-time councilpersons—is rarely productive and never efficient. As I understand it, the rather large local governing body resulted from a compromise between the City of Nashville and Davidson County when the Metro Charter was written in the sixties.

Anyway, likely contenders for Purcell's seat include former U.S. Representative Bob Clement, Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, and local businessman Lucius Carroll II. I'm not crazy about any of these candidates, though each has valuable experience that he could bring to the office.

Personally, I think the larger question is, What are the big issues that Nashville's mayor will have to face in the next decade? I'm not convinced that the mayor has any real control over the state of Metro schools; and in recent years (thanks in part to Mayors Purcell and Bredesen) Nashville has become very attractive to outside businesses. So what's next? What can our next mayor do to further improve our city? What can he or she not do?