May 31, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
No confidence!
Alexandria Mayor Beth Tripp is on the hot seat with the Board of Aldermen and during a rare Saturday special called meeting the town council, in the absence of Mayor Tripp, cast a “no confidence” vote in her leadership.
The vote was 4-0 with Aldermen Sherry Tubbs, Bobby Simpson, Luke Prichard, and Jeff Ford all voting together. Alderman Jonathan Tripp, Mayor Tripp’s husband was also absent.
After the meeting WJLE made an attempt to contact Mayor Tripp for a response but was unable to reach her.
The aldermen, with this vote, are hoping Mayor Tripp will get the message and offer her resignation.
“We have four aldermen out of five that has no confidence in our mayor,” said Alderman Sherry Tubbs. “We don’t feel she is doing the job that she was elected to do. She has failed every citizen in the city, and we need to remove her and get over that hurdle and even when we get over it we’ll still have a lot of problems but with time we will get to where we need to go,” she said.
According to Alderman Tubbs, Mayor Tripp does not lead city government with transparency regarding issues the aldermen need to be briefed on including financials and there are other concerns.
“Under her (Mayor Tripp) so much has happened. There has been no oversight of bills, bills paid. We’re talking $42,000 bills that we (city) have paid that we (aldermen) knew nothing about. We’re not saying its wrong there is just no transparency and three of us (aldermen) voted for and supported her,” Alderman Tubbs continued.
“We have a business district that would like to flourish better, and they are not being supported by the mayor. We have citizens that go to her, and she is rude and disrespectful. We have aldermen that she won’t pick up the phone and talk to. We want someone to be a fill in mayor until the end of her term and that’s one year and four months. But the first thing we need to do is get a city attorney and no attorney is going to come here until she (Mayor Tripp) is gone,” said Alderman Tubbs.
Alderman Jeff Ford explained that while the board is not unified on every issue, they are united against Mayor Tripp.
“This board does not always agree. We have some big differences, and we have had big differences since day one, but we are all together on this because we all see that the town needs to be governed and managed better,” he said
Members of the town council are not the only ones unhappy with Mayor Tripp. Many city residents have also lost confidence in the mayor’s ability to lead including some who supported her in the election last August. The small meeting room was filled with people Saturday and most voiced their displeasure with Mayor Tripp.
A symbolic “no confidence” petition is now being circulated to possibly force her removal from office through any proper legal channels that may be available should she not resign.
The petition states that “We, the undersigned residents and stakeholders of the Town of Alexandria, Tennessee, formally express our lack of confidence in Mayor Beth Tripp. We believe that Mayor Tripp’s actions and/or inactions are not in the best interest of the Town of Alexandria and that her continued leadership undermines the well-being, integrity, and proper governance of our community”
“We respectfully call for her immediate resignation or appropriate removal by lawful means and urge town leadership and authorities to take action in response to this petition”.
‘We are asking her (Mayor Tripp) to step down. If she does not, we are going to get an attorney, take signatures, and we are going to go in front of a judge and ask the state comptroller’s office to help us and have her removed,” said Alderman Tubbs.
Mayor Tripp was elected in August 2024 to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term. She received a total of 88 votes to win the seat. Tripp’s name was the only one on the ballot for mayor, but an active write-in campaign was staged by two others, Rodney Allen Lawson, who received 64 votes and Russell “Rusty” Allen Bradshaw who had 18 write-in votes.
Meanwhile, the aldermen voted Saturday to appoint former Alexandria Mayor and Alderman David Cripps to fill the alderman position left vacant after the recent resignation of Alderman Tiffany Robinson who herself was appointed last August to fill the unexpired two-year term.
A former appointed aldermen Margaret Stevens earlier in the meeting had asked that she be considered for the alderman appointment to succeed Robinson.
The aldermen also voted to hire Addison Crawford of Cookeville as a full time Alexandria police officer. With the addition of Crawford, Alexandria now has three full time and three part time officers
Shawn Richardson was also hired by the aldermen to assist with garbage pickup and mowing