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Hamilton County: Marti Rutherford plans another District 6 run

By: Lauren Gregory
(Contact)

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Marti Rutherford

Former City Councilwoman Marti Rutherford may have resigned after a debate over her residency status last fall, but she says she has lived in her appointed district for more than a year and is running for the council again in March.

“I have lived on South Sweetbriar (Avenue) since the first of September a year ago,” Ms. Rutherford said. “I pay my rent. I live there. There’s no question about where I live.”

Ms. Rutherford gave up her District 6 seat last October after City Attorney Randy Nelson filed an ouster suit against her in Hamilton County Chancery Court, saying she lived in District 5 and could not legally fill the District 6 position.

The Rev. Mike Feely took over Ms. Rutherford’s vacated seat until Councilwoman Carol Berz was elected in February.

Ms. Rutherford confirmed Wednesday that she has picked up qualifying papers for the council race in March, and she said she plans to return them after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Ms. Berz was out of town Wednesday and not immediately able to comment on Ms. Rutherford’s decision to run, according to an assistant at her office.

Though Ms. Rutherford still owns a house and a duplex on Hemphill Avenue — in District 5 — she said she rents out the duplex and simply is maintaining ownership of the house. She resigned from the council after facing allegations that she actually lived in the Hemphill Avenue house rather than in District 6, according to Times Free Press archives. She asserted at the time that her legal residence was on Alta Vista Drive in District 6, archives show.

She now says she may purchase a new home in District 6 after the election.

She says she maintains a broad base of support in District 6’s Brainerd, where she still attends neighborhood meetings on a regular basis.

“I have not missed a beat, other than I do not go to City Council on Tuesday nights,” Ms. Rutherford said. “The people out in Brainerd particularly, and certainly in Shepherd and Tyner, have really just been on me since the day that I resigned to run again ... Let’s face it, I was a great councilwoman.”

Julia Scott, former president of the Olde Towne Brainerd Neighborhood Association, said she had to agree. After working closely with Ms. Rutherford on a number of issues, she said she determined that the former councilwoman “was an excellent City Council person as far as being there for the citizens.

“There are still a lot of people who would vote for her,” Ms. Scott said. “They love her. She listens to them. I have never met another City Council person who devotes themselves to listening to the residents like that.”

However, Ms. Scott said she personally will not vote for the former councilwoman again. In addition to the fact that current councilwoman Carol Berz has been “terribly intelligent and energetic,” she said, Ms. Rutherford violated her trust.

Though Ms. Rutherford claims to live in District 6 now, Ms. Scott said, “she said that before. It just seems to me that if she cares so much about District 6, she could easily sell that (District 5) house and find another one in (District 6).”

Chattanooga attorney Stuart James, who filed motions on behalf of several residents joining in Mr. Nelson’s ouster suit, said he, too, is wary of Ms. Rutherford’s political ambition.

“If she’s a legal resident of the district, it’s her right to run,” Mr. James said. “But it’s sincerely my hope that the voters repudiate her candidacy, and that’s because she ran illegally the first time. I don’t think she deserves to be voted into office after her performance during the last election.”

District 2 Councilwoman Sally Robinson said she would be happy to work with Ms. Rutherford again if the voters chose to elect her.

“I think that all nine members of the City Council endeavor to work with whoever the electorate chooses,” Ms. Robinson said. “I think that’s something up to the people of her district, based on who they want to send to represent them, and I respect their decision.”

But State Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, said she might reintroduce a form of the legislation she floated last year to preclude those who had been disqualified from a political office from running for the same position again.

Though she ultimately withdrew the measure last year, Rep. Brown said Wednesday that the news of Ms. Rutherford’s impending candidacy renewed her interest in it.

“I would go back and take another look at it, simply because she is choosing to run again,” Rep. Brown said.

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