A resident of Chattanooga since 1968, Mayor Ron Littlefield has devoted the lion’s share of his professional life to public service. As mayor and previously the first economic director for Chattanooga and Hamilton County, director of Chattanooga Venture during the 1980s, public works commissioner, and chairman of the City Council, he has both witnessed and played a significant role in the collective life of the city and county.

When Mayor Littlefield delivered his second inauguration speech in April, he had just returned from a visit to Germany. The focus of the trip was to expand relationships with suppliers and other companies seeking to work with Volkswagen in Chattanooga, the site of its new North American manufacturing facility.

With Volkswagen, Alstom Power, and other companies choosing to expand in Chattanooga, the Chattanooga area is at the threshold of potentially unprecedented economic and social change. For the next four years, Mayor Littlefield, along with county and city officials, will be challenged to seize the opportunity and, through a coordination of efforts, lead Chattanooga to higher levels of economic and social growth.

“I have a high level of interest in structural changes given the economic development prizes we have won recently with Volkswagen, Alstom, and others,” the mayor says. “Something that is really helping to focus our attention on these things is the recession. We do some of our best thinking during times like these. When we went through Chattanooga Venture, we were in a recession, so this is a good time to rethink our possibilities.

“In the briefest terms,” the mayor comments, “the agenda is looking toward unity in the community, unifying some of our public services, and not closing the door on unifying the government. We last considered metro government 25 years ago, but rather than engage in that kind of political battle, I would like to see us unify some of the functions of the city and county. We have to address the issue of joint funding, which goes back to an old sales tax agreement between the city and county that was concluded in the 1960s under Mayor Ralph Kelley. It is outdated, and we need to renegotiate that agreement.”

Further, Mayor Littlefield asserts that political restructuring - some of which is mandated by law - is inevitable. Cooperation between city and county officials has been instrumental in recent achievements and must continue, he says. Change is coming, gathering momentum, and during the next decade its pace is likely to quicken.

“County Mayor Claude Ramsey and I have both achieved senior status – whatever that means – and neither of us is seeking higher office,” remarks Littlefield. “We have a good group of young people here, and we are interested in seeing them step up and shape the community during the next two or three decades. A census is coming up soon that will require us to redraw political boundaries. So, this will be an interesting term with the confluence of initiatives and forces coming together.”

Among other priorities for Chattanooga during the next four years, Littlefield has cited the future of the local library system as evidence of the area’s commitment to learning and culture. He has also identified shortcomings within the local infrastructure, particularly with adequate water and sewer services, as well as the extension of urban services, such as fire and police, sanitation, neighborhood codes, and stormwater management, as development continues.

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, Chattanooga will surpass Knoxville as the third-largest city in Tennessee. At least, that is a goal for Mayor Littlefield. In a good-natured challenge, he recently ribbed Knoxville’s mayor: “We’re coming for you, Bill Haslam.” Along with anticipated growth, he warns that the mistakes made in other nearby metropolitan areas should not be repeated here.

“We want to learn from the mistakes of Atlanta,” he says, “where they have lost control of their resources, and their air quality and traffic have become hindering factors. We only have to look 120 miles to the south for some lessons that we should take to heart. And up the road is Knoxville; I have a goal to pass Knoxville in population, and we are doing very well.”

Mayor Littlefield readily admits that his administration has a “full plate” during the next four years. However, when his term of public service ends, he and his wife, Lanis, may well embark on a new adventure in Christian missionary work.

“Wilson Goode, a former mayor of Philadelphia, came by to see me. He has been involved in a program of mentoring young men, and he said there is life after [the mayor’s office], and you may even find that people like you better,” Littlefield laughs.

Meanwhile, the priority is the business at hand: working diligently every day toward achieving what the mayor clearly sees as goals that transcend the passage of days and years, or even a lifetime.

Littlefield’s goals are simply to make Chattanooga “a city worthy of the magnificent setting that God gave us; a city of achievement and promise; a green and clean city; a compassionate and relatively crime-free city; a diverse and interesting city; an efficient and economical city for business and government; a city that jealously holds onto its talented youth and holds out unique attraction to the ambitious, artistic, inventive, and creative.”

In short, the hope and passion of Mayor Ron Littlefield is still to make
Chattanooga the best midsize city in America - and, just maybe, the best city of any size in America.