Hamilton County Mayor Explains Why County Attorney Was Fired

Oct 19, 2022 | Political News

County Attorney Rheubin Taylor has been fired and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp explained that decision on Monday, stating that Taylor was the only department head mentioned by his legal advisors when changes were being recommended as Wamp prepared to take office.

“As is the tradition in every county in Tennessee it seems except ours, everybody looks to the county mayor to see who the county attorney is going to be,” Wamp said Monday in a phone call with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “and in this county we have an entrenched county attorney who wields an enormous amount of influence over the commissioners, which is a highly unusual situation.” 

It was announced by the mayor’s office last week that Taylor would be removed from the position immediately. Taylor has been the county attorney for almost three decades. 

According to a news release, Wamp made the decision because of private legal work that was being conducted during business hours, client privilege within the mayor’s office and admissions that documents related to open record requests had been destroyed in Taylor’s office.