Called Meeting for City Attorney Interviews

The East Ridge City Council will have a special called meeting Monday to interview candidates for the City Attorney’s position.

The called meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall on Tombras Avenue.

The council will interview two people for the position that was left vacant when former City Attorney Hal North resigned effective Jan. 1.

The two candidates for the job are Mark Litchford, the Interim City Attorney, and Alexander McVeagh.

Litchford is a member of the Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison law firm, the same firm of which former City Attorney John Anderson is a partner. Mayor Brent Lambert stated in a City Council meeting last month that he wanted to “reconnect in some way” with the GKH firm that he said was largely responsible for helping East Ridge gain Border Region Act status.

McVeagh is a member of the Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel law firm, the firm of which Hal North is a partner. During North’s tenure as City Attorney, McVeagh would fill in for North during his absence.

Gerald Tidwell and Estes Cocke also applied for the position but the council chose not to interview the candidates.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.