To Be (or not to be) a Republic

This Opinion Piece was submitted to the Daily Post Athenian Newspaper in May 2026, in reference to recent events in Athens, TN.

Dear Editor,

                I recently learned that the Athens City Council had moved to eliminate some employee perks to help balance the upcoming budget without raising taxes. This is, I understand, just one part of a bigger set of cuts. While I suspect this particular cut won’t save the budget on its own, it’s quite interesting for other reasons.

               

The perk in question is a monthly vehicle allowance that a few department heads receive. During my time working at The City of Athens, it averaged about $500 per month. Most of the operational department heads (such as the police chief, fire chief and public works director) were issued city cars so that they could be on call. They didn’t receive the allowance. The employees who received the “allowance” were heads of non-operational departments (such as human resources or finance). In addition to receiving the monthly allowance, these department heads were also reimbursed for mileage when they went on any trip far away from town. In other words, the allowance wasn’t really work related, so much as a perk.  The heads that received the allowance were in “executive” type positions, usually earning about twice what the average city employee might earn. In all fairness, it’s not uncommon for executives in the private market to receive these types of perks.

             Given that the perk had been in place for so long, I would have never expected The City Council to be so bold as to cut this perk from the handful of department heads that received it. Moreover, I would expect those recipients to fight ferociously to keep it.  What happens next may provide valuable insight into the true state of our local government.

                In our system of government, an elected council serves as the trustees of the people. It’s their job to make laws, create policies, levy taxes and make all the important decisions that affect our daily lives. Because those decisions are so important, we get to decide whether to keep these councilmembers every four years. The other component of our system is, obviously, appointed officials (hired employees). These are the city employees who are, theoretically, experts in their respective fields. They carry out the policies that our elected officials create. It’s this primacy of elected officials that makes us a republic. Even if citizens aren’t directly voting on every little decision the government makes, we’re able to influence those decisions at the ballot box. The people are, theoretically, in charge of the government.

                This academic understanding of the system has been around for roughly a century. The people elect officials to represent them.  Those elected officials make the decisions, while appointed officials carry them out. The reality, though, is quite different.

One of the biggest shocks I experienced as a new police chief was the overall attitude of upper-level appointed officials toward their council. There was a general disdain toward the elected officials, a sense that we (the city employees) were experts and that the elected council was just an obstacle that we had to overcome. In all fairness, this experience wasn’t limited to Athens. Having served as a police chief in three different cities, I feel safe in saying that this is fairly universal issue. That doesn’t make it any less concerning. It’s what pundits like to call “The Deep State”, the idea that governments are actually run by unelected employees, not the elected representatives of the people.

               

All too often, department head meetings I attended revolved around criticizing the decisions of the elected council. Sometimes, they involved outright plotting to undermine the decisions the elected officials had made. Sadly, the conversations often exhibited a general attitude of disdain toward the citizens who were footing the bill for our jobs. In the course of my career, I even encountered some upper-level employees who bragged that they didn’t live in the city, and thus didn’t have to care about what citizens thought about their actions.  They could do whatever they wanted, and then go home without consequence.

                 It’s fair to debate whether the city taxpayers should pay the note on a high-ranking employee’s personal car, but the decision may actually be profound for another reason. It might serve as a sort of litmus test for the state of our local government. The City Council has decided, on behalf of the taxpayers, to stop paying for a handful of department heads’ personal vehicles.  This very small minority of employees will either accept the decision of the elected officials, or attempt to overturn it. They may lobby the council members directly to undo their decision. They may try to stir up political pressure to have the decision overturned. If the City Manager chooses to support the Council’s decision, they may even come after him.

               

The Council, for its part, will either stick to their proverbial guns or buckle. They’ll either keep the cut, directly reverse their decision, or find some quiet way to undo the decision (such as cutting the car allowance but increasing the employee’s salary to compensate). What happens next will tell a great deal about the true state of our local government. Is it truly a republic (run by and for the benefit of its citizens) or is it run by and for the benefit of high-ranking employees?

                Full-time employees, who are experts in their respective fields, are an essential part of any government. It’s equally important, however, that the government still be “for the people” and “by the people.”  This means that the actual decisions need to be made by elected officials who legitimately seek what’s best for the citizens who elected them, not by non-elected employees who are supposed to carry out the will of the people. If this ceases to be the case, the problem is far worse than a simple case of a tail wagging the dog. Rather, it means that we are no longer operating as a republic.