Turnover for the Chattanooga City Council

It's a whole new Chattanooga City Council...

Tuesday's run-off election brought three new faces to a council that has already seen change.

Tonight we look into what that means for the city

Just a slight margin of voters made what could be the biggest change in Chattanooga government in 20 years...

District 4 Councilman Jack Benson says, "I hated to lose the team we had before but things do move on and I think we can profit by the new blood."

Debra Scott, Andraé McGary, and Peter Murphy join Pam Ladd, who was elected in November, as the newest members of the city council.

District 9 Councilman Elect Peter Murphy says, "All of us have our own strengths and our own weaknesses so there's going to be a lot of change in the next year."

Johnny Holloway, Vice President and Moderator for the Rainbow Push Coalition, was part of the lawsuit that allowed voters to elect district representatives.

He's not sure what electing its first white councilman means for predominantly black District 9, "It's how he's going to represent District 9 that's important to me."

For the first time since Chattanooga adopted the council form of government Leamon Pierce will not hold the District 8 seat.

Pierce says, "I'm sort of perturbed at the number of people that's registered to vote in the district and only 1200 turned out to vote."

Holloway says, "I didn't know who was going to win. I just thought it would be closer."

For Pierce's successor, it's a matter of learning the ropes.

District 8 Councilman Elect Andraé McGary says, "It goes both ways. I'm learning them, they're learning me. But I think ultimately we can put personality aside and say here are the issues and how can we work together to address them."

It's a lot of change for a council that's already had its shake-ups...

Councilwoman Carol Berz was elected to the District 6 seat after Marti Rutherford resigned in 2007.

And Russell Gilbert was elected to District 5 when Duke Franklin was arrested in a federal sting last spring.

Council members say they look forward to what the new members will bring...but there will be growing pains.

District 7 Councilman Manny Rico says, "We're kinda used to each other and kinda know how the other one thinks, what they support. Now you just have to learn new people all over and that's gonna be tough."

The new council takes office April 20th.