Johnson City commission selects Wise as mayor, Fowler as vice mayor

Johnson City officially has a new mayor and vice mayor.During their final meeting of 2020 on Thursday, city commissioners selected Joe Wise, the owner of Wise Property Solutions, to serve a two-year term as mayor and Todd Fowler, a sports medicine physician at Watauga Orthopedics, to serve as vice mayor.After the vote, Wise acknowledged the contributions of Commissioner Jenny Brock, who stepped down Thursday from the position of mayor.Wise said the example set by Brock over the past two years demonstrates what genuine care for the community looks like."A city would always be well-served with a mayor whose heart is in a place Mayor Brock's heart has always been," he said.Brock said her best advice to the next mayor is "buckle up.""It's going to be a very challenging year," Brock said, "but with the commission that's sitting here tonight, we're all on the same page and want to work together to make this a successful time."She also ruminated on the challenges posed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which has dominated national discourse and government policy in 2020."We've seen businesses close, we've seen people lose their jobs, we've seen people suffer from the virus and we've seen friends who have passed away," she said. "It was a call to action for us, for our citizens."But, as 2021 approaches, she cautioned that the next few months could be the worst so far. The region is currently experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations."As we look at the challenge before us, we need to look at how we build that wall — with our masks and with a vaccine — so that this virus cannot find a host," she said."This next year, we have to continue to focus on business development and growing our city and returning to a healthy state of a robust economy, and I know this commission is going to spend a lot of time on that," she continued.Brock's colleagues on the board commended her for her service to the city. Brock, who was reelected to the body in 2018, will remain on the board for the remainder of her four-year term as a commissioner.Fowler said Brock was the right person for the job."I've told her before, but I haven't made it as public as I should have," he said, pointing to her efforts to help organize the city's sesquicentennial celebration and her stable leadership during the pandemic.Wise was elevated to the role of mayor after serving as vice mayor for the past two years. Commissioners are elected to staggered four-year terms and select a new mayor and vice mayor from their body after every election.The mayor is the ceremonial head of the city, presiding over commission meetings and representing the city at community and public functions.Both Wise and Fowler were re-elected to the board in November after each serving a four-year term on the body. Thursday also marked Commissioner Aaron Murphy's first official meeting on the board.Other businessCommissioners approved a multi-million dollar purchase of new financial software on Thursday.Staff estimate that the total five-year cost for all software and implementation is $4,661,762. They project the year-one cost will be $3,313,946.The implementation process is scheduled to begin in January and wrap up in January 2022.Additionally, commissioners approved the 2021 joint legislative priorities for the Tri-Cities on Thursday, but they omitted a section that endorses incentives for the development of single-family homes.State legislation that would have authorized industrial development boards in cash-strapped counties to issue incentives failed to pass the General Assembly last year.Noting that there isn't currently an active bill, City Manager Pete Peterson said there aren't currently enough concrete details to make a clear determination about the merits of these incentives.Staff said the city already has a long-standing program of providing water and sewer pipe for developers, which offers an incentive for development while also maintaining quality control over the types of materials used in the city system."Quite frankly jobs create markets, and we're still not sure how this would work and if it would be beneficial," said Assistant City Manager Bob Wilson.