Recently a long simmering, local political pot finally boiled over when the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee counties with a charter form of government could indeed legally vote to limit the number of terms an office holder could serve.
In 1994 Knox County voters voted overwhelmingly to limit the number of terms an office holder could serve to not more than 2. The next year the Tennessee Attorney General issued an opinion that vote was invalid. No one bothered to challenge it because, after all, it was the state attorney general and surely his opinion was a good one.
In March of 2006 the Tennessee Supreme Court upholds term limits in Shelby County, which, like Knox County, operates under a charter with a term-limits provision. This set the stage for a similar ruling in Knox County which, not surprisingly, was handed down this past Friday, January 12th.
Now Knox County is faced with almost immediately replacing 12 local office holders including 8 county commissioners and the sheriff; a big scramble is on.
In 1978 I got my real estate license and since that time I've had the pleasure and privilege of helping lots of the same clients, customers, and friends (they're sorta all one and the same) buy and sell several houses and pieces of real estate each; multiple "terms of office" as their real estate broker of choice if you will.
The same people continued to elect me over and over, one great couple for as many as 6 consecutive terms.
We've always had term limits in real estate but it's voluntary on the part of the people that make the decision to continue to "vote" for us with their wallets and their confidence in us.
If we do a good job our 'voters' will continue to return us to office as their real estate broker; if not we don't need formal term limits, we just don't get elected again.
Vote for me. ;-)
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