The council’s action comes after two workshops and two council meetings during which a group of citizens pleaded for the council to wait until after a state investigation into the city’s operations is over before rewriting the city charter.

Four of the six council seats are up for election in November and some of the citizens also requested that the charter rewrite be delayed until after the next council is in place.

"Based on the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation), this is a bad time to totally rewrite the charter in my opinion," said Bridget Fitzgerald, who lives in the city’s voting precinct but whose house is outside the city limits. A portion of the Fitzgeralds’ farm, however, is in the city limits.

"The upcoming city election will be open for four seats on the council, possibly causing our city decisions to drastically change," Fitzgerald said. "Everybody agrees that an update on the charter is needed, but there is no compelling reason to do a complete rewrite of the charter in haste."

Eagleville business owner Sam Tune, who also lives in the Eagleville voting precinct but outside the city limits, also suggested the council give the rewrite process a while longer.

"So many people feel like it is just not right at the present time," Tune said. "The charter does need to be changed but does it need to be changed right now?"

Tune told councilmen to vote their conscience but suggested that if they "give people more time to absorb it" that citizens might be more receptive.

"I believe it will be perceived better and the council will be perceived better, and it will probably be good for the relationship of the community if you give it a little more time to digest before they have to swallow it," he said.

City resident Donna Jensen also asked that the charter revisions be postponed until after the state probe and the election are over.

By then, "there won’t be this big cloud hanging over the city," she said.

Jensen said that the state investigation is "reviewing this administration … that is currently handled by the mayor" and contended that the proposed charter gives more power to the mayor.

City resident David Turner, who read off a list of newspaper headlines related to the city, said he does not "feel comfortable for this city council to proceed with a new city charter for Eagleville at this time."

Resident Janice Morgan went even further by saying, "I don’t think this particular governing body should be voting on anything else for this city, not at all."

Councilman Matthew Smitty said he resented the fact that residents would ask the council to not vote on anything else or to stop conducting the business of the city.

"We are here to represent all 500 people," he said. "This is a big issue this city charter, and we have been going over it almost the whole time I have been on the city council. I apologize that it has not been well known."

Smitty said that only about nine people spoke during the citizens input session about the charter out of 500 plus Eagleville residents. He estimated that about half of the 500 would be adults.

He suggested that if about 40 or 50 people spoke out that it might have influenced his decision on the charter.

"While I value the comments of those people, you cannot make a swaying decision on nine peoples’ words," he said.

Councilman David Rigsby supported Smitty’s position.

"We have been looking at (the charter) for about two years and have had lawyers and people who do this on a regular basis that set this up and now we just have a few people who don’t like it," Rigsby said. "We were elected as officers and in a few months if you don’t like it, you can unelect us."

Mayor Nolan Barham also talked about how much the council has discussed revising the charter, but the minutes on the Internet that cover the past four years do not show any-in depth discussion of totally rewriting the charter.

The current charter discussions began at a workshop session on Feb. 19 when Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) consultant Don Darden reviewed with councilmen the proposed charter draft.

Barham said his discussions on rewriting the city charter began about five or six years ago with MTAS consultant Margaret Norris.

"She sat down with me for two hours and we went through it and she showed me all the things that are wrong with our charter," Barham said.

Darden became the MTAS consultant for Eagleville after Norris went to Knoxville. He said he started working on the charter revisions last summer and has done most of the work on the new charter proposal.

Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill suggested the issue behind the opposition to the charter change is the "mistrust of some people in town of us."

"There is a cloud over this town right now with the investigations and all," he said.

Hill said his reservations were not so much with the proposed document but with "this much opposition."

"No one here tonight has spoken up and said they wanted us to pass it," Hill said. "Granted the ones here tonight are the ones that are always here, but they care."

Vincion said that the "mistrust the citizens have for the council is something that really bothers me to no end."

"There is never a good word said to any of us about what we do or what we try to do, and people, it ain’t for the money, but for the love of the city … that we have dedicated many years of our lives to coming down here and trying to do what is right," he said.

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 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.

Resident Phil Williams hinted that there might be a political motive in changing the residency rules at this time.

"The timing seems a little strange in that suddenly we change the charter so that the qualifications for running for office will change this particular year," he said.

Tune also remarked about the residency requirements, noting that under the proposed charter rewrite someone could live in a rented apartment in the city of Eagleville and work and do all his shopping elsewhere but could run for a council seat.

"The other part of this is the gentlemen who do own property in the city that live in the voting precinct of Eagleville (but) cannot run for office," he said.

"I can argue it either way," he said. "If you live somewhere else and have business here (and are on the city council), you are telling the people of Eagleville how to run their business.

"But the gentleman, hypothetically, who could live in an apartment, he is telling a man who has millions invested here and employing people, paying taxes and insurance and contributing to society and toward the well-being and economic value of our country, … what to do."

Jensen questioned Barham’s current eligibility to serve as mayor, because he has been living mostly outside the city limits since his and his wife’s home burned.

"Since we are questioning the residency and if you are in the precinct or out of the precinct or own property, but I understand (the mayor) has no property in the city limits and hasn’t lived inside the city limits since his house fire which was about last June," she said.

"He has been out of the city limits for about 10 months, and according to the requirements for election he has to live in the city limits," Jensen said.

"That is just another question about what is going on and why so fast," Jensen said.

Barham said that the law governing his residency since his home burned has to do with intent.

"The intent of our residency is to move back, tear down our house and get back, rebuild it and live here," Barham said. "And unless you are blind and have been watching around here, there haven’t been too many days since July that we haven’t been here."

City attorney Adam Dodd said Barham’s comments were the opinion of a Municipal Technical Advisory (MTAS) attorney, which is the state group the city relies on.

Dodd said he has not independently researched the issue but it "makes sense in the light of the circumstances of a house fire."

Councilman made one basic correction to the last draft of the proposed revised charter Thursday night, which was to include a public hearing during the second and last reading of an ordinance.