The proposed Eagleville city charter revision was still being reviewed by the state legislative legal services on Friday.

Rep. Curt Cobb said he asked for a legal review of the proposed document after he received it from the city. Mayor Nolan Barham said he sent the charter change proposal to the state soon after the councilmen approved it at their March 27 meeting.

The legislative legal service attorneys draft bills and review proposed legislation, particularly in the instance of a total charter rewrite, Cobb said.

"When there is just a section of a charter changed, it is pretty simple," he said. "But when it is a whole charter change, they have to look at the old charter and the new charter and go through item by item and that takes a long time."

Legal services personnel read through the charter to make sure all provisions are constitutional and there are no conflicts with state laws, Cobb said.

"I haven’t gotten that back yet," he said.

Cobb said he will visit with Sen. Bill Ketron about the proposed charter changes after the legal review is completed and before the bill is filed.

"We will talk about it, and whatever we decide we will decide together because (the proposal) has to pass in both the House and Senate," he said.

Ketron could not be reached by late Friday for comment.

About 60 city residents have signed petitions asking Ketron and Cobb to not sponsor the legislation concerning the city charter rewrite. Some of the petitions have been forwarded to the legislators already and the rest were to be delivered by Monday, Eagleville resident Donna Jensen said. For reference, about 165 people voted in the last city election.

The petition says that the 1977 charter needs to be revised but that the action should not be done until the current Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe concerning city finances is over and until after the November election.

Cobb said he had also received some calls and emails from people "who were just generally opposed" to the charter revision.

Cobb said he will try to find out all the issues and listen to everyone but cannot be taking sides.

"Legislators have to be careful and need to let cities work out problems themselves," he said. "We don’t want to micromanage them."

One major sticking point for those who want the council to wait on rewriting the charter is the residency requirement for city council candidates. Under the current charter, those who live in the city limits are eligible to run as well as those who live outside the city limits but in the Eagleville voting precinct and who own property in the city.

The new charter would require all candidates to live in the city limits but would still allow those who live in the voting precinct to vote if they own property in the city limits.