OPINION: Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger has advice for his fellow politicians
Oct. 23—In 2014, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger was seeking re-election for his first full term after being appointed to the seat in 2011 and winning an abbreviated term of office in a 2012 special election. At the time, the paper's editorial board asked him why he didn't force a more public discussion of what new and expanded school facilities would be funded. His answer was he was "staying in his lane." But he also said he had "grown" in the job.
He had, and has continued that growth since. Now, at 66 and 11 years later, Coppinger announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election in 2022. The Chattanooga Times page asked him for a recap of his tenure. This Q&A has been edited for brevity.
Q: I recall some years back when you were running for re-election, you told us you had 'grown'. How has that growth unfolded?
A: The position itself obviously is important, and I went in thinking I was prepared. I would consider I'd had a better-than-average success as a fire chief and running an organization of 500 people with a $30 million or $35 million budget. And it did prepare me for a lot of the things, because a lot of being a firefighter is about being a problem solver. But the most important thing I found out early on was that you have to surround yourself with some really good help.
People always think people are going to go in and just redo the staff or whatever. I took the exact opposite approach. You need to know what they know, and let them build confidence in you, and you in them. A lot [of the staff] were people who had worked for [former county Mayor] Claude [Ramsey].
One of my favorite things to say is that I would never invite you into a meeting that you didn't know more about the subject than I do, because it'd be a waste of your time and my time. People don't believe that you want to hear good and bad. When you get that right, you know you've really arrived.
Q: You mentioned in your announcement that compromise and working together has kind of gone out the window now — nationally and in many places. Is that part of why you're deciding not to run again?
A: No. [My family] has been after me to take better care of myself. If I ran again, I'd be 72 years old almost when I retire. The easy thing would have been [to stay.] If you had asked me even two weeks ago, I'd have told you I was going to run again. But my wife has literally been cheated out of vacations and all these other things. We've had a lot of good things going on, up until the pandemic and even after that, but it was always just a little too busy to leave. She never, ever complained, but I need to be thinking about something other than me.
I like the job so much — getting an opportunity to help people and get things done. You just get lost in it sometimes because it is so exciting. Even with the criticism. Even going through the pandemic or tornadoes or the Woodmore bus crash. You go to six funerals and you cry with the families. And we had the shooting of the military, the terrorism thing. People would say, 'Is that what wears on you most?' No. There's nothing that ever wore on me. I didn't get tired or burned out. But there is always a lot to do. It's been a great ride.
Q: What's the hardest thing you've had to do in dealing with commissioners who don't always want to play nice?
A: They're always an interesting group. For the most part, the overwhelming majority are pretty easy to get along with. Everybody has their own opinions, and I respect that. But when you've got a budget and you get something approved [like siting and building a new wastewater treatment plant in the north end of the county], and then you find a place to do it, and then they vote against it, you're like — [what?]. This was important, and you approved $40 million to do it. I get it. We had a community that was loud [in opposition].
But the thing about politicians today — I've been saying it a lot so I'm sure politicians are mad at me — you run for election and you get elected, but after you get elected you've got to govern. And what you see too often today is they run for office, they get elected, and the day after they're running for re-election. That's got to stop. We need to hold all of them more accountable to move things forward. Not just say 'I'm gonna do what's popular because I want to see how long I can stay here.'
Q: What was the hardest thing you had to deal with as county mayor?
A: "Oh god. When we had that sales tax [agreement with Chattanooga come to an end in May of 2011 after 45 years in place. It meant an annual $10.5 million loss for county coffers.] I've said before that if I'd been the mayor of the city, I'd have done away with [it] too. But the hardest thing I ever did was stand in a room when we did away with 50-some-odd positions and there were about 30-some-odd people in those positions. I wasn't going to do it by sending them a letter through HR, so I brought them all together in a meeting place and said look, you know, I'm sorry, we're going to have to do a reduction in our workforce, and you all happen to be the ones. I mean that was hard to say. You never want to see anybody have to lose their job, but we were $11 million short. You can't make it up without cutting your workforce.
Q: How tough is governing with a COVID-19 pandemic going on?
A: We ran into that [doing what's popular vs. governing] even about mask mandates. We actually ran a few little polls [when] people were really loud, and found out it wasn't going to hurt as bad as what people would make it out to be. [Politicians] have to make hard decisions. [Some here] are vocal about everything else but when [the Chattanooga Times Free Press] asked the simple question of commissioners if they'd been vaccinated, [some] didn't want to answer the question. I mean, you are the leaders, and we're trying to get people [to mask and be vaccinated.] It's all about public health. If you're not [vaccinated], that's fine, but say it.
I respect disagreement; I don't have a problem with that. As I said, I just don't know where we are. We [politicians and people] used to get in some of the most god-awful arguments and still go to lunch and be OK. But now, you have to agree 100% of the time on 100% of the issues or you're against me. You're either with me or against me. That rules out any compromise.
We have a task force for COVID, and when you sit there with some of the best doctors in this town on infectious disease who are saying, 'We don't have any way to mitigate it. The only thing we can do is mask, and people are not going to do it unless you make them.' People say, man, that one's tough. No, it's not. You do the right thing. And you worry about your elections later. You've got to govern first, based on what you know, not on what's on social media.
Q: What's on your bucket list for the rest of your term?
A: Several things. The McDonald Farm [property sale] will close next week, and that will give the county something to work on for decades. Another thing is the construction school. It's going to help kids find good jobs who otherwise wouldn't go to college. And Erlanger. Its success is obviously something that we need to be sustainable. [We need to] go back and look at the Hospital Authorization Act and [fix it] where they can be more competitive.
Q: What's on your bucket list once you're out of office?
A: A new set of golf clubs, maybe? Everybody always says, 'Well I want to take some time off and travel and be with family.' And there's truth to that, but it's not the only thing. There have been many close friends who've helped me numerous times. I want to spend time with them and let them know that I truly appreciate them. This community has given so much to me, and [I'd like] to give some things back.
Q: What's important I haven't asked?
A: [I] can't explain election nights. It's so humbling [when people] put you in office, and I'm so grateful. I know it's a cliche, but I never, ever take it for granted.
And I do long for the day that we can get back to where people are not so divisive and we can find common ground. It's always there. Most of us have been doing it all our lives. We know what it looks like and know what it feels like. But right now, it's just not happening and a lot of people are being hurt by it. I'd like to see people take a different approach in respect to one another, and be able to work with one another. Coexist.
