Mayor Kelly wins reelection in landslide, celebrates passage of amendment

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly has won reelection to a second term as Chattanooga mayor.

It was a pretty short night for Mayor Kelly and his supporters as it was apparent very early on he would win his second term as Mayor.

Mayor Kelly and supporters celebrating his reelection.

The mayor told his supporters he plans to continue much of the work of his administration’s first term, while pushing for new priorities such as parking reforms.

He also focused during the campaign on supporting an amendment to lift the restriction on the city to hire employees from outside of Tennessee.

Up until tonight, the city charter stated that the city could hire someone who lived in a different part of Tennessee, but not someone from right across the state line in North Georgia.

Mayor Kelly says that the support for that amendment from the voters is going to make a massive difference for the city.

“It’s great. Police are now sitting on about a 20 percent vacancy rate, so it’s really important that we have the latitude to do that and it does look like it is well on its way to passing which is very gratifying. It will make a big difference putting us on a level playing field between the city and the county.”

The Chattanooga Fire Department also put out a statement this evening thanking voters for voting for that amendment.

Mayor Kelly is the third straight Chattanooga mayor to win re-election, following Ron Littlefield and Andy Berke.