Duke Franklin's arrest brings out a lot of the same sentiments, from the Mayor's office to fellow council members, it's a feeling of shock and sadness.
Councilman Jack Benson says, "I just couldn't believe that he would do anything such as he was being accused of." Benson says the news of Duke Franklin's arrest comes at a bad time. He points to the recent arrest of Hamilton County Sheriff Billy Long and past arrests of other state, county and city officials. Benson adds, "Here we are trying to attract business and industry at Enterprise South and then we're going to end up having headlines with what seems like a lot of our public officials facing criminal charges." Duke Franklin has held the District 5 seat on the Chattanooga City Council since 1998 and re-elected in 2001 and again in 2005. During that time he's served on several boards including Partners for Academic Excellence, Chamber of Commerce and Zoning Board of Appeals. Councilman Manny Rico says, "I was just disappointed. At a time like this with the Billy Long thing. Of course nothing shocks me after that. It's just a disappointment." Rico and Benson and other city officials hope this incident won't tarnish the public perception of elected officials. Rico says, "We should be above board. We should be accountable for what we do. People think we're crooked anyway. They think we're in it for the money so it really gives us a black eye. Every elected official." Richard Beeland with the Mayor's office adds, "This again is a very unfortunate turn of events here but it's not reflective of all elected city officials."
Council members say they'll look to Franklin to be proactive in his next step as a council person. If he resigns, they have two options. Keep the seat vacant until the next general election in August or appoint an interim council person for district 5.
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