By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–The city of Paris now has its first female Mayor and for the first time, a female majority on its City Commission.
At Thursday night’s busy session, Kathy Ray was elected the first female mayor of the city of Paris. After her nomination by Commissioner Sam Tharpe, Ray was elected. Vickey Roberts was elected Vice Mayor following nomination by Tharpe. Commissioner John Etheridge abstained on both votes.
Ray said, “I am honored and humbled to be the first woman Mayor of the City of Paris in almost 200 years. Thank you to my fellow Commissioners for your support and confidence. I am also thankful for those who encouraged me during the campaign. As a Commission, I hope we all work together for what is best for Paris.”
Earlier in the meeting, the oath of office was administered to Ray, Roberts and Tharpe. Ray and Roberts were elected to the Commission at the November general election and Tharpe was re-elected.
Tharpe congratulated Ray on her election “as the first lady mayor of Paris” and acknowledged the female majority—Jackie Jones, Ray and Roberts—that now sits on the commission. “Jackie was the first female to be elected to the Commission several years ago and she started something.”
Jones told RadioNWTN earlier this week she was not seeking the Mayor’s position.
In other business, the Commission approved a plan that will change the work week and business hours for city employees.
Effective January 3, which will be the first business day of the New Year, the business hours of City Hall will be: 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and City Hall will be closed on Fridays.
City Manager Kim Foster proposed the change, noting that employees have approached her over the years with the possibility of working flexible hours. She said she had not been able to figure a way it could be done with the lean staff but after a recent trip to a meeting at White House, Tenn., she thought of the proposal, which she said also will improve availability to the public.
“We often hear complaints from citizens that they have a hard time doing necessary business with the city because we are only open during their working hours,” she said. “This change would result in extended hours to the public and a 10-hour work day, four days a week for City Hall staff who offer business hours.” This would include finance/business office, administration, building inspection, codes enforcement, planning and zoning and police records.”
Foster said departments which do not have business hours which involve meeting with the public are Parks and Recreation and Public Works. Each of those departments have submitted flexible plans that they feel would work well for their departments.
Foster said she has stressed with employees that this will only work if the city’s service level is as good as or better than the current level of service and that it does not generate additional overtime.
The Public Works department likes its current hours, which are from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and they want to keep them.
Commissioner John Etheridge said, “Some will not like it but I believe the vast majority of people would.”
Foster said, “Of course, if the public needs us, we will be available on Friday. Several of us already are available to the public all the time and that would continue. As long as the job is being done, when we do it is not as important as how we do it.”
Other actions:
–On second reading, the Commission approved a change in the zoning ordinance for residential occupancy in commercial districts. A public hearing was held at which no one attended and it has been discussed at length at planning commission meetings.
The change will allow residential occupancy in commercial districts by Special Permit Use.
–Foster said the city has received two videos from Commercial Bank showing recent incidents of bank employees almost being hit by cars at the Poplar/Wood Street intersection. There also was an incident at the Brewer/Wood intersection for which there is no video.
Foster said the ongoing projects for signalization and safety upgrades at three intersections downtown and a multimodal access grant for four downtown intersections continue. Both projects are in the preliminary stages, under review at TDOT.
–In answer to questions and concerns from the public, Foster said the city is replacing the skatepark at Ogburn Park, not eliminating it.
–City Finance Director Traci Shannon said the city continues to show strong increases in retail sales tax revenue. Sales from the month of September reflected at 10.62 percent increase compared to last September.
Photo: Kathy Ray is sworn in as first female Mayor of the city of Paris by Finance Director Traci Shannon as newly-elected Commissioner Vickey Roberts and Administrative Assistant Jessica Crouch look on. (Shannon McFarlin photo).