What About Doing Nothing?

Our conversation with Knox County Chairman Scott Moore on Tennessee This Week, centers around how the appointment process would take shape in light of Chancellor Fansler's ruling against a special election.

Chairman Moore says there will be plenty of input. On that he is confident, but he wasn't sure exactly how the rest of the process would work.

Would the remaining 11 members of Commission appoint all 12 open seats, or would they be sworn into office individually as each appointment is made. There are lots of arguments on both sides of the issue.

But now a new thought is being floated.

What if Knox County Commission decided not to act at all? What if the remaining 11 simply went about business as usual and welcomed their new members next September after the August election?

At least one commissioner I've spoken with thinks it's a possibility. Commissioner Mike Hammond says there are two possible scenarios. 1 - wait until after the February primary then appoint the members based on the voting pattern, or 2 - do nothing at all and allow the electoral process to work.

Hammond admits there are problems with either scenario. In scenario 1 -it's a primary and the only clear choice would be which republican or democrat received the most votes. And there's always the possibility of an independent running too.

But at least a primary would cut the field down and give the 11 commissioners a sense of who the voters want.

Under scenario 2, it's a long time between now and September and that would leave a number of commission districts under-represented and the 4th district with no representation at all.

What if Commissioners decided to raise taxes next budget year? Wouldn't that be a case of "taxation without representation?" I'm pretty sure it would.

Still, there are lots of people unhappy at the thought of Commissioners appointing the open seats. Their first try, after all, was a disaster. There's no guarantee the next one won't be as well.

And let's face it, no matter how the appointment process is fashioned, there would be those who won't like it and will call it unfair.

Politically, it would be a lot easier to simply avoid the issue altogether. And legally, County Law Director John Owings says there's no deadline to act.

Perhaps, if I were a commissioner, doing nothing might seem a pretty good idea. What do you think?