Gooch elected mayor, Smith mayor pro tem

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9 a.m. Nov. 25.

New Oak Ridge City Council member Warren Gooch has been appointed mayor, and returning City Council member Ellen Smith has been elected mayor pro tem.

The two were appointed to serve two-year terms by the seven-member Oak Ridge City Council during a Monday night meeting, the first after the November 4 municipal election.

It’s the first elected office for Gooch, a lawyer, although he previously ran for Anderson County mayor in August 2012. Gooch was the top vote-getter in the November 4 municipal election, and he is the city’s 10th mayor, according to City Council member Chuck Hope, who also sought to be mayor.

“I do think our best days are ahead of us,” Gooch said after two members switched votes and cast ballots for him, breaking an impasse that had lasted through five rounds of voting. “Great things happen here every day, and they have for 70 years.”

Gooch pledged to work with all Council members, residents, the city staff, and Oak Ridge Schools. He also committed to focusing on the future and promoting Oak Ridge as a great place to live, work, and raise a family, and he said the city needs to be perceived as more business-friendly and transparent to citizens and businesses.

Day-to-day operations of the municipal government fall to the city manager. Under the City Charter, the mayor presides at Council meetings, can vote on Council business but does not have veto power, serves as ceremonial head of the city, and signs ordinances and resolutions after they have passed, among other duties. The mayor does not have any regular administrative tasks.

Smith has served on City Council before. She lost a re-election bid in November 2012, but was one of four new members elected to the Council this month.

It took six rounds of voting to pick from among the four candidates for mayor on Monday. Besides Gooch, the candidates were Smith, Hope, and new Council member Rick Chinn.

Hope has been a City Council member since winning a seat in a special election in August 2012 and then earning a four-year term in November 2012.

Four candidates for mayor is an unusually high number.

After Gooch was elected, it only took one round of voting to pick Smith as mayor pro tem. She was the only announced candidate. The mayor pro tem presides at meetings when the mayor is unavailable or absent.

The City Council elects a mayor and mayor pro tem from among its own members after each municipal election every two years. Former Mayor Tom Beehan and Mayor Pro Tem Jane Miller did not seek re-election to the Council this year.

City Council members serve staggered terms, meaning there were four members elected this year, and there will be three more elected in 2016. The new members elected this month were Gooch, Chinn, Smith, and Kelly Callison, who did not seek the mayor’s job.

Two incumbents—David Mosby and Anne Garcia Garland—were not re-elected.

All four outgoing City Council members were honored at the Monday meeting.

“I feel comfortable in passing this baton to the next generation of leadership,” Beehan said.

“The voters have spoken, and it’s time to move on,” Mosby said. “There’s no question that the city is in a better place than when I started.”

Here are the votes in the first five ballots for mayor on Monday:

• Callison voted for Hope.
• Charlie Hensley voted for Gooch.
• Chinn voted for Chinn.
• Gooch voted for Gooch.
• Hope voted for Hope.
• Trina Baughn voted for Smith.
• Smith voted for Smith.

In the sixth round, Chinn and Callison changed their ballots and voted for Gooch, joining Hensley and the candidate himself in voting for Gooch, providing the four votes needed to be elected.

Here is the sixth ballot:

• Callison voted for Gooch.
• Hensley voted for Gooch.
• Chinn voted for Gooch.
• Gooch voted for Gooch.
• Hope voted for Hope.
• Baughn voted for Smith.
• Smith voted for Smith.

Here is the one ballot for mayor pro tem:

• Callison voted for Callison.
• Hensley voted for Smith.
• Chinn voted for Chinn.
• Gooch voted for Chinn.
• Hope voted for Smith.
• Baughn voted for Smith.
• Smith voted for Smith.

More information will be added as it becomes available.