Municipal elections in Centerville may no longer operate on a five-ward system, if the Centerville Board of Mayor and Aldermen approves a revision one more time.

On December 10, Aldermen voted 6-3 in favor of Ordinance 899 which dissolves the five-ward system. The legislation was passed on first reading at Tuesday’s meeting and must pass again at the January 14 meeting to take effect.

“The current manner in which the town conducts its municipal elections has been found by the state of Tennessee to be out of compliance with state law,” said Mayor Gary Jacobs. That law is Tennessee Code 6-53-110 which was approved by the Tennessee General Assembly and alters municipal election procedures by prohibiting candidates from being nominated from districts and elected at-large. “We’ve been dealing with this matter for a good year,” Jacobs said. “It started with a lawsuit in Knox County and it has spread across the state, and there are many, many communities affected by this.”

Aldermen had two choices of a course of action to take to bring its election law within compliance. “One is to pass a resolution asking our state representatives to go before the legislature with a private act to change our charter to allow city elections by ward,” Jacobs said, “which would mean you’d have five ballots for aldermen. If you were in Ward 1 you’d get a ballot for Ward 1, that’s all you’d get. “The other way to do it would be to do away with the wards and do an ordinance to change our existing ordinance, and basically set the city up as a one at-large city with 10 aldermen representing it.”

Aldermen Wayne Prince and Terry Barber raised the possibility of citizens not knowing which ward they’re in if they were to stick with the ward system. “It will be a nightmare,” Prince said. “Where the dividing line is can get a little confusing,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs also mentioned that should the five-ward system stay in place, the state would likely require the redrawing of district lines, which would also cost the town more. “One thing that we do know though,” Jacobs said, “if we go to a five-ballot system, a ballot for each ward, it will increase the cost of our city elections.” There was no specific information presented about the cost of a switch.

Several aldermen spoke in favor of the ward system. “It makes sense to me to mirror what the county already does,” Alderman Becki Bates said. Bates also was concerned that an at-large system would put more emphasis on candidate popularity than actual representation. “I think though then it becomes the top five most popular names and not those that represent where they live,” Bates said.

Alderman Derek Newsom echoed this concern. “You run the risk of having all representatives coming from one area. I think part of being a representative to your ward is being able to see what those people are experiencing in your neighborhood. I’d rather be around the people that are instilling their trust in me and not someone on the other end of town that doesn’t see my bad roads or issues that I might have,” Newsom said.

Alderman Dagan Bates disagreed. “If they have a problem they call at least three or four aldermen at one time,” Bates said. “I just think they’re going to come to us either way. We’re a representation of the city so you might as well just have it for the whole city.”

Barber had a similar view. If we were a larger city, I can see where a ward situation would be more important,” Barber said. “Do we not know mostly about what’s going on in this town everywhere?”

Jacobs addressed the concern that an at-large system would create a lack of representation in certain areas. “If you go to the at-large vote for everybody,” Jacobs said, “which is what you are now, basically you’re just making it official, and you’re just eliminating the pretense that you only represent Ward 3, for example. When actually you represent the entire town, this would officially confirm that fact. “It wouldn’t change the way (citizens) vote, it would change the way they look at the vote. “All it would do is confirm and make legal what we’ve been doing all along.”

Prince made the motion to adopt the ordinance eliminating the ward system. Ordinance 899, which repeals Ordinance 478 that established boundary lines for the five wards, passed 6-3, dissolving the five wards. Aldermen Bates, Mandy King and Newsom voted no. Alderman Tom Meador was absent.

“It can be looked into anytime after the next election if it appears to be a problem,” Jacobs said. “Biggest thing is we want to make it easy for people to vote, not to confuse them and certainly not to be a hindrance to people to come down and vote. “And I have enough faith in the people sitting around this table that if someone from Fairfield comes to see (Alderman King), she’s going to take them just as serious as she would someone from Shipps Bend.”

In other business, four resolutions earned unanimous approval from the board.

Resolution 2024-36 awarded a bid to Ladd’s Turf of Memphis for the purchase of a mower for the Centerville Municipal Golf Course for $13,111. Ladd’s was the only bidder.

Resolution 2024-37 awarded a bid to Blocker Masonry of Lyles for an improvement project at 200 East Public Square as part of the Downtown Improvement grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. The bid totaled $9,600 for improvements.

Resolution 2024-39 accepted a donation from the Continuing the Good Foundation for the purchase of bulletproof vests for the police department for $21,280.

Resolution 2024-40 purchased two 2017 Ford Taurus vehicles for the police department for $10,236.

The meeting lasted 36 minutes.