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Mt. Pleasant Rejects Mayor & Alderman Government
Posted on December 04, 2012
A Mt. Pleasant vote on whether to implement a mayor and alderman form of government narrowly failed by a 66 vote margin, according to complete but unofficial election results.
Mt. Pleasant currently functions under a city manager form of government in which commissioners are elected and the town’s top executive is appointed. A mayor and alderman form of government would allow all the positions to be elected by popular vote.
Voting results revealed 53.79 percent, or 468 voters opposed the charter change. The data showed 46.21 percent, or 402 voters supported the measure. In total, 870 of Mt. Pleasant’s 2,454 registered voters cast ballots, representing a 35.45 percent voter turnout.
Mt. Pleasant Mayor Maury Colvett said the time that was “wasted” on charter change matters could have been directed toward other things, like getting the city’s high school children to read at grade level. A study released in October showed about two-thirds of Mt. Pleasant High School students were reading below grade level when compared to state peers.
“The citizens of Mt. Pleasant have spoke,” Colvett said. “It was a close race, and hopefully we can get this town back together again and move forward from this issue.”
Additional efforts to change forms of government have also failed to pass this year. In March, Maury County citizens voted against enacting a metropolitan form of government, and Giles County citizens voted down an initiative to create a home rule type of government in August.
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