Boyd will not seek re-election to Hamilton County Commission
Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd will not run for re-election next year.
Boyd, R-East Brainerd, made the announcement during the Hamilton County Commission’s Wednesday morning meeting. It came a day after Commissioner Randy Fairbanks, R-Soddy-Daisy, told the Times Free Press he would be seeking a third term.
“I think 12 years is enough of my life to give to serve the public,” Boyd said in a follow-up interview Wednesday afternoon. “I’m an elected official and a very bad politician. I call things the way they are. I like transparency. I say the issues, and a lot of people don’t like that.”
Boyd first took office in 2010. He serves on the committees of building and economic development, legal and legislative and security and corrections.
In addition, Boyd said, he wants to focus on supporting his daughter’s fashion career and his business, All Natural Manufacturing, which is based in Dunlap, Tennessee.
Boyd said one of his biggest accomplishments during his tenure was pushing through legislation to require a 21-day period of discussion before any vote on property tax increases can be made.
Previously, he said, the commission could vote on such increases with little-to-no prior notice to the public.
“My family feels like it’s time for somebody else to carry it and go with it,” Boyd said. “It’s just time for me to hand it off to somebody.”
There were no candidates who had filed to run for the district as of Wednesday, according to the Hamilton County Elections Commission.
But any candidate who does so will now have a different voter bloc due to redistricting that’s required after every U.S. Census.
County commissioners last month approved an 11-district map to replace the county’s nine-district map. Boyd’s District 8 currently includes all of East Ridge and a southern portion of Chattanooga.
The district will no longer include a portion of East Brainerd, specifically the area surrounding East Brainerd Elementary School and the school itself. Those areas will move to District 7.