I keep scratching my head and trying to figure out why the mayor is so committed to his three candidates especially Mr. Henline who isn't currently on city council. Then something came to my memory.
From 1906 till 2016, the position of Lenoir City mayor was never considered a full time job with full time pay. Prior to 2016, the mayor received a small stipend. In 2016, that stipend was $600.00 per month. Then in October of 2016, at a city council meeting, an agenda item was added to the meeting schedule with no explanation of what the agenda item was. Mike Henline, who was on council at the time, made the motion to add the mysterious item to the agenda. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Henline also made the motion to approve the mysterious agenda item which passed unanimously. Ultimately, the mysterious agenda item was to increase Mayor Aiken's pay from $7,200.00 per year to $68,500.00 per year.
Maybe this is the reason Mayor Aikens is so supportive of Mr. Henline and the two incumbents? Council Eddie Simpson also voted for the raise. While councilwoman Jennifer Wampler hadn't yet been appointed to the council when the vote took place, Mayor Aikens stated in a previous story that Councilman Harry Wampler, who had recently passed away, had supported the big raise. By the way, the mayor's pay is now $78,400.00. In my last story, I suggested Aikens really supporting his three picks because they would do what ever he told them to do. Maybe there are other reasons too.
I want to be very clear, I'm not picking on the mayor or those candidates supported by the mayor. Just kind of puzzling why the mayor would work so hard and spend so much money, even tax payer money, supporting certain candidates and not others. The three other candidates, not supported by the mayor, would surely bring positive influence to the council too.
One last note, the only way to ever reduce the mayor's pay would be if four councilmen voted to reduce it.
Hummm??