White County moving to adopt the official title of County Mayor, replacing the current County Executive designation.
County Executive Kyle Goff said the County Commission approved sending a private act to the General Assembly. Goff said the transition will not alter the day-to-day responsibilities of the office or create new positions such as a vice mayor.
“The General Assembly can approve this private act and then it will come back to the County Commission for a two-thirds vote, so the County Commission will have to vote on this again,” Goff said. “Probably the earliest this will make it back to us would be in the springtime if and when it’s been carried by the state.”
Goff said the change is part of a larger trend toward matching other Tennessee counties. The state locked in titles in 2006, but White County passed a private act at that time to remain under the executive name while most other counties transitioned to mayor.
State Senator Paul Bailey and State Representative Paul Sherrell will carry the act before legislators when they return to session in January.
“I think just uniformity across the state with there being 80 of the 95 counties operating under mayor,” Goff said. “And a lot of the language that’s used across the state doesn’t acknowledge the title executive, everything is referred to as mayor conferences, mayor associations, mayor trainings, things like that.”
The state views the two titles as identical, meaning the shift is primarily an administrative update for paperwork and filings.
“I think for the public, they’re going to have an easier time understanding what mayor means versus executive,” Goff said. “Kind of a novel thing, but more of a cleanup to something that happened all the way back in 2006.”
Goff said Roane County recently completed the same process to change its title. If the General Assembly approves the act between January and May, the proposal will return to the local level for final confirmation.
“In the eyes of the state, executive and mayor are the exact same thing,” Goff said. “So this will simply be more of an administrative change on paperwork and filings and things like that, but absolutely nothing in the day-to-day responsibilities would change.”